As I write this note, the first snow is layering the outside world with what looks, from here, quite a bit like magic. I’m struck by how something so familiar - I have seen many decades’ worth of first snows! - can also bring a jolt of surprise and of transformation, every time. So it is with the work of Art Not Shame. While we are honing and solidifying our approaches to the work, every time we convene a workshop, or hold space for community creativity, it can feel at once intimately familiar and utterly new. Shifts in participants, collaborators, cultural moments and political realities mean that every collaboration is distinct, every journey surprising, even as we become more clear on our shared goals, commitments, and emerging practices.

The team at Art Not Shame, from facilitators to administrators to community mentors and collaborators, is beautiful. Weaving strengths, navigating disagreements, and centreing justice and care, we work together toward our shared vision of a world where creative practices are honoured and taken up as sources of insight and forces of change.

We know that creativity can be change; we know that different worlds are possible, and we work to create space and opportunity for people to come together in ways that nourish this joyful, difficult, crucial work.

The past year has seen intentional growth of the ANS core team, work to create more stable employment conditions for team members, deliberate collaboration with equity-deserving people and communities, and hard, strategic work to increase our resourcing so that we can pay artists and facilitators well and ensure that programming remains barrier-free. It has brought fond, grateful goodbyes to two outgoing Board members and delighted, grateful welcomes to three incoming ones. We have made continued effort to hone and articulate the ways in which our work is informed by and intentionally aligned with struggles for social justice. This has meant showing up in support of others working for change. It has meant ongoing learning, unlearning, and deep listening on all our parts to remain alert and responsive to our implications in and responsibility toward ongoing oppression and harm. The year has brought incredible beauty and crucial growth at the individual and organizational levels, and has intensified my, and our Board’s, deep belief in the power of art-based community-making.

As I close, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to each of you who has supported Art Not Shame, in whatever ways you have done so. Our funders and donors are so important and appreciated, as are our staff team and artist collaborators, and of course our incredible community collaborators. I also want to extend the deepest appreciation and respect to each of you who has joined our programming as a participant. Your presence, insights, and creative contributions form the heart of Art Not Shame, enable our vision, and, like the first snow, continually show us new ways to see our shared world, and the futures to which we aspire.

With sincere gratitude,

Liz Jackson