Community Arts Programming in Southern Ontario

Abstract

This report was prepared for Visual Arts Brampton (VAB), located in Brampton, Ontario, and presents a review of how community art organizations in Southern Ontario structure their adult memberships in terms of costs and benefits. In part, this paper aims to offer information relevant to VAB as the organization seeks to identify and fill programming gaps. Research Associates from the McMaster Research Shop collected data through online searches and telephone interviews about various community organization’s adult memberships, programming, funding sources, costs and benefits. The report presents all findings in a series of three tables grouped by organization characteristics, membership characteristics, and programming (See Appendix C). Findings are also summarized, and key issues discussed briefly in the body of the report. Overall, most organizations did not make distinctions between adult and senior oriented programming, and many lacked adult-specific programming. Typically, memberships were annual, though these were categorized differently by each organization. Membership costs ranged from free ($0) to $9,999 for sustaining members, though most memberships cost $100 or less