HomeInitiatives Creative Champions Network Get on Board: Leadership Sessions & Speaker Series

Board Resources

Jini Stolk, Creative Trust Fellow at Toronto Arts Foundation compiled a number of board resources on best practices, engaging your board, recruitment, effective meetings, succession planning and more.

Get on Board: Workshop & Speaker Series

‘Get on Board’ with the arts sector with our series of sessions and networking events.

Our Get on Board Leadership Sessions & Speaker Series provides opportunities for volunteer arts board leaders, and those who wish to join arts boards, to enhance their knowledge of the sector and the art of good governance. Arts board members are among our community’s most important volunteers: ensuring through their guidance and support that Toronto maintains an unsurpassed variety of creative organizations and opportunities, available to all.

Arts professional Michelle Yeung leads Creative Champions Network and programs and facilitates its sessions and events. She has extensive experience in the non-profit sector and served on many arts boards. Creative Champions Network was previously led by Jini Stolk. 

New!
We're offering a new format for the 2023-2024 season: case-based learning. The case-based method will provide an opportunity for you to build your skills through an in-depth look into Toronto arts organizations and their specific governance questions. It will allow members to apply knowledge as a collective group and develop analytical and critical thinking skills, so we are better prepared to navigate challenges at our organizations. In-person, case-based sessions will be paired with our speaker series which will be presented via webinar.

 

Save the date! We look forward to seeing you at our next event(s):


September 21, 2023 - All About Ontario's Not-for-Profit Corporations Act 
REGISTER HERE

Ontario’s Not-for-profit Corporations Act (ONCA) was proclaimed on October 19th, 2021. Nonprofits have until October 18th, 2024 to update their bylaws and letters patent to comply with ONCA. This webinar, hosted by Benjamin Miller, will walk through what is new in the ONCA, steps nonprofits need to take to transition to the ONCA, and how Community Legal Education Ontario's (CLEO’s) free resources can help you create ONCA compliant bylaws from scratch or adapt your current bylaws. To learn more about the ONCA visit nonprofitlaw.cleo.on.ca.
 
This session is for:

  • Senior leaders, board members, and anyone involved in the corporate governance of organizations already incorporated under Ontario’s Corporations Act or a special Act.

This session is not for: 

  • Organizations that are not themselves incorporated but part of a larger organization or government,
  • Organizations incorporated under Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act,
  • Organizations incorporated under Co-operative Corporations Act, or
  • Other statutes outside of Ontario

November 22, 2023 - A Case Study: Against the Grain Theatre


Against the Grain Theatre, an experimental opera company, has identified that they are stuck in traditional governance structures and organizational practices, and this is clashing with the company’s artistic spirit of creating boundary-breaking, genre-defying art. There is misalignment in its culture. What are the implications? And, what can be done at AtG to build a healthy and vibrant company?
 

January 30, 2024 - A Case Study: CanAsian Dance


CanAsian Dance supports and presents dance from diverse Asian practices, ideas and diasporic experiences, as well as dance artists creating original works. After 25 years of inspired leadership, the founding artistic director is set to retire and leadership change is upon them. What does it mean for the organization to exit an evolving mandate of a single leader? How will the board and staff effectively navigate this major change and build an organization for the future?
 

March 13, 2024 - Justice, Access, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity


Explore an integrated approach to justice, access, inclusion, diversity and equity (JAIDE) and identify the inherent value and importance these areas hold in informing the arts. Investing in these values is not only the right thing to do, but imperative, and reflects the importance of removing barriers and addressing social justice issues that will enrich arts organizations to be better in every way. How do we ensure that all our governance and decision making is centered around JAIDE and towards better spaces for art-making?
 

May 15, 2024 - Advocacy in the Arts


Strategic government relations is a way to secure additional funding and to build your organization’s brand. Board members can add significant value just by participating in local advocacy. Too many arts leaders are juggling advocacy “off the side of their desks” while they are delivering core arts programming to the community. Let’s learn how to make real change in our sector, together.

 

Sign up to receive information about upcoming Creative Champions Network events.

Please visit the SIGN UP page or contact: Alexandra Loewen, Marketing & Events Coordinator, at alexandra@torontoarts.org or 416.392.6800 x215

Thank you very much to our many partners and supporters.