The area’s business community is looking to further forge its relationship with the arts through its upcoming Creative Collingwood Symposium.
The symposium, set to resume annually following a disruption, will focus on the business of art, with the heading: Unlock the Secrets to Turning Creativity into a Thriving Business.
Muralist Heather Lynne Travis will be the keynote speaker during the early evening event on Nov. 13 presented by the South Georgian Bay Small Business Enterprise Centre (SBEC), Town of Collingwood and the Collingwood Business Improvement Area.
The event was born out of a collaboration to bring creative people from the area together, explains Tim Newton, manager of the Small Business Centre.
“It just seemed like a great recipe for the creative community to come together,” he says, adding this had been an annual event that went virtual during COVID. It came together again this year through funding from the town and the federal government. “All the stars aligned to allow us to bring it together again.”
The idea is to encourage local creatives by demonstrating how to navigate the business landscape and develop entrepreneurial skills such as branding, marketing and the creation of a business strategy. It embeds theory, tips and tricks to empower creatives and results in an increase in consultations with the Small Business Centre, says Newton.
There are still spaces available but all 100 spots have been sold out in all the previous events.
The event acknowledges the area’s rich artistic culture, which is evident in the downtown core, adds Susan Nicholson, Collingwood Downtown BIA general manager.
“The downtown itself is really a centre for creative industry in the community,” she says.
Its galleries, studios, theatres as well as the restaurants and their focus on culinary arts demonstrate its strength in arts and culture and is celebrated with its many events including Art in the Street, the annual art crawl as well as murals along with the Downtown Passageway Public Art Project resulting in an installation called Saga by Pierre Poussin, which is a nod to town’s shipbuilding past.
“We try to support the arts as much as possible and we know people can make a living,” she says. “We thought this would be a perfect opportunity for the BIA to give back.”
As someone who has devoted her career to the arts, Lory MacDonald has been trying to attend the symposium whenever it is presented, and says she always leaves with some little nugget of information.
MacDonald lives on 1.5 acres in Nottawa where she’s formed a collaborative effort she calls The Artists’ House which hosts workshops and retreats.
“I’ve always been involved in championing other artists,” says the acrylic mixed-media painter and entrepreneur. “I’ve had many art events here, art, craft shows, music and a big children’s program.”
The symposium, she says, brings together the creative people in all the arts in the area including painters, wirters, actors and art administrators.
“It helps what we have here in Collingwood … it’s really grown as a cultural destination and a hub compared to when I moved here 34 years ago… it’s really evolved.”
MacDonald is part of one of many clusters of artistic people dotted across Southern Georgian Bay, says Newton who sees the value of pulling them altogether with the opportunity of addressing the business side of what they do and helping to start and grow businesses.
“The concept of the artist… doesn’t always align with the philosophy and even the business of being a small business owner,” says Newton, seeing the potential to open conversations about viably operating the artistic pursuits as a business.
The symposium, he adds, is for creatives of any sector thinking about looking at what they do through a different lens. Through it they are able to see the opportunities to help them move forward, he says.
