Port Moody’s only arts centre has big plans for its next four years in the City of the Arts.
Last month, the board of PoMoArts dropped its strategic plan to guide the nonprofit as it transitions out of the COVID-19 pandemic and into the community, providing more artistic experiences in new spaces and more revenue streams.
The society’s last strategic plan was a 10-year document penned in 2012.
For its new direction — a vision created by the board, staff, advisory council, city representatives and stakeholders, as well as an external consultant who worked on the last blueprint, and the survey respondents — PoMoArts created four strategic pillars to move forward, each having three main goals:
Pillar 1: Operational excellence
- Goal 1: Have high-functioning internal systems that perpetuate stability and growth
- Goal 2: Have a brand that establishes PoMoArts as a respected leader in the arts community
- Goal 3: Have a planned fund development strategy with sustainable diversification and revenue streams
Pillar 2: Community Engagement and Access
- Goal 1: Provide art programs and experiences that are inclusive
- Goal 2: Provide art programs and experiences that are designed with the cultural communities of Port Moody and the Tri-Cities
- Goal 3: Be responsive to the interests and needs of the community
Pillar 3: Art Discovery and Learning
- Goal 1: Provide a diversity of artistic mediums and approaches, traditional and non-traditional
- Goal 2: Access new locations to provide art discovery and learning experiences
- Goal 3: Provide high-quality art discovery and learning experiences
Pillar 4: Art Exhibitions and Experiences
- Goal 1: Provide thought-provoking art experiences that are outside of the arts centre in the community
- Goal 2: Provide multi-disciplinary art exhibitions and experiences that balance the traditional and non-traditional
- Goal 3: Better utilize existing art centre spaces and access new locations to provide art exhibitions and experiences
Deanna Kayne, PoMoArts’ executive director, told the Tri-City News today, July 4, the new strategic plan is a way to build more capacity in the arts following three years of the COVID-19 pause.
“We need the strategic plan to help us with our future,” she said. “It’s an important process and it’s a working document to guide us. We will keep finding ways to provide value and measurement for what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
“We want to support the community,” she said.
Kayne said a number of changes have already taken place like more partnerships with arts, cultural and heritage organizations, and more outreach at events.
Still, more work needs to be done with schools, tracking the number of visitors to PoMoArts’ gallery spaces and securing sponsorship.
Kayne said she’s implemented a multi-year approach with businesses to secure corporate funding, and with individual donors.
The arts, she stressed, provide a social benefit to the community that’s often overlooked and undervalued “and we need the finances to do it.”
“Every artist is a small business. Our hope is that as we move forward, we will show that the value they bring to the quality of our lives is intangible and tangible."
"If COVID taught us anything, it showed how intensely the arts is needed in our lives,” Kayne added.
"From singing on the balconies to creating things at home, to be connected was a lesson the I refuse to lose from the pandemic, so we need to keep valuing the work that goes on behind the scenes, too, because it’s a life-long journey to create and tell stories and be brave. We need that in our society in a deep and powerful way.”
PoMoArts board president Robert Simons said he looks forward to PoMo's expanded outreach in the City of the Arts.
"With many new families and a growing seniors population, we need to be more accessible than ever before," he said. "Our new strategic plan will expand our work in community engagement, access, education and art experiences. PoMoArts has always been a collaborator and will continue to partner with artists and organizations to build positive connection and awareness in our diverse community.”
