Consider attending the Eastern Canada edition of ArtsPond’s upcoming 90-minute DigitalASO co-creation workshop on digital futures in Canadian arts and culture. It will be held online using Zoom and Miro on April 26, 2022 beginning at 1 pm Atlantic.

This workshop is supported by the Digital Strategy Fund and Business and Arts Newfoundland and Labrador. $250

What might a national ecosystem nurturing digital innovation and care look like to you? A co-creation workshop with Eastern Canada.

Nurturing Ecosystems: Maritimes and Atlantic Canada is a 90-minute participatory online workshop facilitated by DigitalASO co-founders, Jessa Agilo and Margaret Lam, on April 26, 2022 from 1 to 2:30 pm Atlantic (1:30 to 3 pm Newfoundland).

In a fun, engaging, and thought-provoking environment, 8 to 10 participants from Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick will receive an honorarium of $250 each to co-design positive steps toward a more equitable and inclusive digital future in arts and culture on the East Coast and across Canada. While Indigenous, racialized people of colour, people with disabilities, and rural-remote communities will be given priority, all residents of Canada’s East Coast are welcome to attend. Express interest in the workshop by filling out the form below.  Selected participants will be notified by April 22, 2022.

This workshop is structured into two parts, including time for introductions and bio breaks:

1. What does a positive digital future in arts and culture look like to you? (45 minutes)

In this segment, participants will explore and provide feedback on the relevance of the emergent DigitalASO Knowledge Framework to help understand and express digital challenges and opportunities in arts and culture in Eastern Canada.  This Framework seeks to apply the practices and lenses of human-centered design to help summarize steps to a positive digital future as expressed by equity-seeking arts workers during prior DigitalASO roundtables in Northern, Western, and Central Canada in 2020 and 2021. Through group discussion, participants will learn more about how to apply these resources to help identify and express complex social-technical-ecological issues in their communities.

2. What might a regional or national ecosystem nurturing digital innovation and care in arts and culture look like to you? (45 minutes)

In this segment, participants in two groups will brainstorm and co-design shared visions for a proposed local/regional or national digital “alliance” (network, hub, collective, or other). The mandate of this “alliance” will be to support the evolution of a more carinng, inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible digital ecosystem in arts and culture. What kind of governance structure might this “alliance” take? What might its objectives be? Who would it serve, support, and care for? What issues and concerns should it prioritize in its first year, second year, third year and beyond? How might it fund and support itself to be sustainable? What would the benefits and requirements of membership be? Will it be a small, volunteer-run “mutual aid” type of network? Will the community be better served by a more formal entity with a larger staff and budget? The suggestions and wisdom shared will inform the design of DigitalASO’s Phase 3 national ecosystem and alliance-building activities in 2023 and beyond.

The language for this workshop is English with auto-caption services provided. Honoraria is provided for a 3-hour commitment, including participation in the 1.5 hour workshop, plus 1.5 hours of reviewing and providing feedback on the Knowledge Framework before and/or after the workshop.

Expression of Interest

Please share your expression of interest to participate in this workshop by sending the following information to hello@digitalaso.ca:

• Name
• Email
• Company, if appropriate
• Province
• Industry (artistic, creative, cultural, or other industry)
• One or two sentences about what interests you in developing a national ecosystem for digital transformation

This workshop is produced by ArtsPond in association with Business and Arts Newfoundland and Labrador with generous funding from Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Strategy Fund.

Briefly, participants will co-design in this workshop positive steps toward a more equitable and inclusive digital future in arts and culture on the East Coast and across Canada. This workshop builds upon storytelling roundtables held in Northern, Western, and Central Canada in 2020 and 2021.

Two key questions in this workshop include: 1) What does a positive digital future in arts and culture look like to you? 2) What might a regional or national ecosystem nurturing digital innovation and care in arts and culture look like to you? The knowledge and wisdom received will inform the design of DigitalASO’s Phase 3 national ecosystem and alliance-building activities in 2023 and beyond.