BC Artscape’s Cultural Space Development Mentorship and Coaching Program supports non-profit arts and cultural organizations in the Lower Mainland to advance their own cultural space development projects. Delivered jointly by BC Artscape and Artscape between 2015 to 2017, the program paired Artscape’s 30 years of cultural space development expertise with local community knowledge and experience to address the challenge of secure, affordable space for creative pursuits.
Offered at no cost thanks to generous funding from the BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver and the Vancity Community Foundation, participants received targeted consultation sessions over the course of one year with Genevieve Bucher , BC Artscape’s President, and Pru Robey , Senior Fellow at Artscape. Over 40 organizations were supported by the program between 2015-2017.
The objective of the Program is to advance participant’s project preparedness with strategic advice on a range of areas including:
- Project vision development
- Community and stakeholder engagement and project governance
- Cross-sector partnership activation, collaboration, and management
- Business planning, market testing, and feasibility analysis
- Funding, finance, planning, and fiscal tools
- Capital project management
- Organizational development and strategic planning
- Operational development and management
- Property management and leasing
- Tenant engagement and programming
As the particular needs of each organization and project are unique, there was no “typical” program of activities. Ranging from short-term interventions to long-term projects, BC Artscape worked with each participant organization to build a custom program from a menu of components that suited their particular needs and priorities.