BC Arts Council Strategy & Action Plan Engagement

Categories: Collaboration Communications News Priorities Strategic Plan

Dancers

​​Overview​ 

​​Dates:​ June 8 to fall 2026

​​Who:​ BC Arts Council 

​​What:​ Development of the BC Arts Council’s (BCAC’s) Strategy and Action Plan. 

​​Where:​ Province-wide 

​​Why:​ To ensure BCAC’s future priorities, programs, and investments reflect the current needs, realities, and opportunities of B.C.’s arts and culture sector. 

​​How:​ Online

Engagement summary  

The BC Arts Council is engaging with artists, arts organizations, service organizations, and sector partners to inform the development of its Strategy and Action Plan.

The provincial agency is responsible for supporting and investing in and supporting arts and culture activities throughout B.C. It is seeking input to ensure its priorities, programs, and funding approaches align with the changing needs, opportunities, and realities of the arts and culture sector.

The council is seeking feedback on the following priority areas:

  • Reconciliation and Indigenous Leadership: Taking the lead from Indigenous peoples and self-determination in arts funding to further decolonization and reconciliation practices in BC Arts Council programs
  • Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility: Improving access to BC Arts Council programs and supporting genuine forms of diversity by removing systemic barriers to arts funding
  • Regional and Community Arts Engagement: Recognizing and supporting the diversity of practice shaped by place, community, and region, representing a spectrum of community-led, grassroots, and professional arts practices and experiences
  • Sustainability, Resilience, and Strategic Innovation: Strengthening the long-term health of a vibrant and diverse arts sector that can develop, adapt, and innovate into the future
  • Collaboration, Partnerships, and Sector Capacity: Amplifying impacts of arts funding through strategic partnerships, community convenings, and expanded networks that build capacity in the arts sector   

Specifically, participants are asked to provide feedback on:

  • How much these priorities reflect current realities B.C.’s arts and culture sector
  • Areas that need more clarity or attention
  • Realistic actions and approaches to advance each priority
  • New opportunities, challenges, and ideas that should inform the council’s future direction

Who should participate? 

BCAC welcomes perspectives from across British Columbia’s B.C.’s arts and culture sector, including: 

  • Indigenous artists and Indigenous-led organizations
  • Artists, cultural workers, and arts organizations across all disciplines, including community-based organizations and their staff and leaders
  • Arts service organizations
  • Funders and donors supporting arts and culture initiatives
  • Arts and culture‑related sectors, including education, tourism, municipalities, local governments, and creative industries
  • Arts and culture media, including critics and journalists
  • Equity-deserving communities, including Indigenous, Black, racialized, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 2SLGBTQ+, and Francophone communities, as well as people with disabilities and people living in rural and remote areas
  • Youth, arts students, and emerging artists
  • Leaders, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and individuals with lived and professional experience in arts and culture

 How to participate:

Online survey

June 8 to July 31

Share your feedback through the online survey. 

Written submissions

June 8 to July 31

Participants who want to provide more detailed feedback and comments are are invited to email written submissions following the guidelines below. Submissions will not be made public. However, please indicate any portion of your submission that contains sensitive or confidential information.

How your contribution makes a difference 

Feedback gathered through this engagement will directly inform the development of the BC Arts Council’s future Strategy and Action Plan. Feedback will help ensure BCAC’s priorities, programs, and investments reflect the current needs, opportunities, and realities of British Columbia’s arts and culture sector. 

Guidelines

Send submissions to: BCACengagement2026@gov.bc.ca. Submissions must be received by July 31 at 4 pm PT.

Submissions should provide feedback on BC Arts Council’s priority areas. Submissions will not be made public. However, please clearly indicate if any part of your submission contains sensitive or confidential information. All submissions will be carefully reviewed and considered as part of the BC Arts Council Strategy and Action Plan engagement process.

Below are guiding questions that may be helpful in drafting your submission. Submissions must not be more than 2,500 words (approximately 5 pages) and must meet the following criteria:

  • Does not contain profanity or content that is defamatory, threatening, hateful, personally disparaging, harassing, indecent, vulgar, obscene, illegal, immoral or sexually explicit (partially masking profanity or other unacceptable language by substituting asterisks or other symbols into a word is not acceptable if the word remains recognizable)
  • Does not appear to, or actually, infringe the copyright, trademark, right of privacy, right of publicity or any other intellectual property or other proprietary right of any third party
  • Does not contain information about, or images (e.g., photographs, videos or illustrations) of, any person other than the person submitting the content
  • Does not advertise any product, person or organization, or direct attention to another website for personal gain
  • Does not provide links to, or information about, other sites that contain unlawful, objectionable or inappropriate content
  • Does not make unproven or unsupported accusations against individuals, groups or organizations
  • Does not appear to be spam-like messaging, a repeat posting or a template letter writing campaign
  • Is not far off topic

Participants are invited to respond to the questions below.

Guiding questions

  • Relevance of strategic priorities: After reviewing the strategic priorities, please share your thoughts on how relevant and important they are to the arts and culture sector
  • Alignment with sector Issues: How well do the priority areas align with and respond to the key issues currently facing the arts and culture sector?
  • Clarity and improvements to priorities: What changes, if any, to the priority areas would improve their impact on advancing the council’s strategic vision?
  • Strategic insights and actions: Looking ahead, what key insights, approaches, or actions should the council consider to advance the priorities?
  • Trends impacting the sector: Looking ahead, what new needs, challenges, or opportunities should the council consider in its plan?

Collection notice: Your personal information will be collected for the purposes of informing the BC Arts Council Strategy and Action Plan engagement. If you have any questions about the collection of this personal information, please contact: Director, Citizen Engagement, citizenengagement@gov.bc.ca. This information is being collected by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport under the authority of section 26(c) and 26(e) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“FOIPPA”).

Virtual sessions

Fall 2026

The BC Arts Council will host up to four virtual engagement sessions with artists, arts organizations, arts service organizations, and sector partners throughout B.C. These sessions will explore the proposed priorities and gather input on practical actions and approaches to support their implementation.

Participants may register for one session only. Sessions will be limited to 100 attendees each on a first come, first serve basis.

Sign up to be notified when registration opens.

How your contribution makes a difference

Your feedback will directly inform the development of the BC Arts Council’s future Strategy and Action Plan. Feedback will help ensure the council’s priorities, programs, and investments reflect the current needs, opportunities, and realities of British Columbia’s arts and culture sector.

Learn more

Learn more about the future vision, priorities, and past efforts of the council’s strategy: