'Women in view': The evolution of local women's arts organisations in Canada.

摘要

This thesis examines the evolution of local women's arts organisations in the context of the changing orientation of Canadian cultural policy. The thesis focuses on the creation of women-only spaces within cultural industries as a means of encouraging and supporting women in the arts. Within these forums, I examine the potential for promoting and recognising women's cultural production given the significant shift in the role of the state in Canadian cultural policy in the last decade from a citizenship model to a market-oriented or consumer model. Using documentary, interview and case study research, I explore the effects of cultural policy on women's arts groups in Vancouver during the years 1999 through 2000. By way of illustration, I examine one women's arts organisation in Vancouver---Women in View---as a case study to explore how Canadian cultural policies affect women both as cultural producers and as audiences. In order to compare and further develop the findings from the case study, I conduct qualitative, semi-structured interviews with women involved in the three other Vancouver-based women's arts organisations, La Luna Productions, Women in Film and Video Vancouver and Women in Music. In these interviews issues that affect women's arts organisations such as funding, representation, audience/community support and the necessity of women-only spaces were identified. These findings suggest that women's arts organisations in Vancouver while challenged by decreasing financial support from both public and private sources continue to offer opportunities to a diversity of women artists representing a variety of art forms through networking, mentoring and creating cross-cultural opportunities. The results of this study have implications for policy development, women's arts organisations and the arts community in general.