Arts BC is Grassroots.

Our job is to give individuals and organizations the tools and support to excel at arts and cultural leadership, of all types and forms.

Our members are the Community Arts and Culture Leaders of BC, the living, breathing force behind BC’s creative ecology.  Our members are the people working to generate vibrant communities and artistic activity throughout our province - the people POWERING the arts in BC!  We have over 400 Arts councils, entrepreneurs, festivals, artists, professional companies and community societies as our members.

As a provincial arts service organization (since 1979!) we have directors in every region in the province including directors residing, working and creating in Fort Liard, Revelstoke, Haida Gwaii, and, of course, all the major centres including Vancouver. Our Indigenous Outreach Director lives, creates and volunteers out of Ucluelet, BC.

Our programming, backed by the Arts BC's Insight Team (an expert group of seasoned veterans and leading new voices in our industry), includes professional development workshops, regional cultural forums, in-depth consulting and mentoring all aimed at nurturing authentic community cultural development in communities large and small.  

From one-on-one troubleshooting through our 1-844-Arts 911 Hotline service to our annual provincial conference featuring panels, workshops, presenters and peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing sessions, we offer a wide-range of opportunities for BC's arts and culture leaders to add to their resource toolkits.

Arts BC's Drivers:

Our drivers fuel the work we do everyday. Our values are who we are as an organization.

Insight:

We’ve walked in our members' shoes.

We know the challenges that community arts and culture leaders face on a daily basis. More importantly, we help solve problems. Our organization is equally backed by people who have been powering the arts for decades, and by emerging leading lights in our industry.

 Community Impact:

We know that artistic vibrancy reflects community identity. What works for arts programming in one city or town might not work next door. While the impact of our members' work is measured locally, we showcase their achievements to help cultivate community cultural development province-wide.

 Commitment:

We are dedicated to creative empowerment in communities across BC by fostering the development of community arts and culture leaders. We have a deep understanding of the diverse geographic impact of our province and are committed to maintaining our provincial reach through our regional representatives.

 Our Values:

• Sharing knowledge in an open and transparent way with respect and integrity.
• Fresh thinking by being creative in our own work, encouraging new ideas and welcoming unique perspectives.
• Making a difference by equipping our provincial network with the tools they need.
• Inclusiveness from emerging to professional, from urban to rural.
• Higher standards in the delivery of our work with the aim for improving community arts and culture practice in BC
• Diversity in artistic talent, in identity, in community, and in perspective.
• Stewardship in upholding and safeguarding open and inclusive province-wide conversation in community arts and culture matters.