Community Dialogue
A Citizen Reference Panel for the Arts in Calgary
A thriving arts ecosystem is inseparable from belonging and civic identity, and this panel created a structured way for everyday Calgarians, not only sector insiders, to shape the future of arts and culture in the city.
A citizen-led learning and dialogue journey to co-create practical recommendations for Calgary’s arts future.
Calgary Arts Development engaged us to recruit, design, and deliver a Citizen Reference Panel to explore a guiding question about empowering every Calgarian to live a creative life and contribute to a city where everyone belongs. A rigorous recruitment process was used to bring together a diverse, demographically balanced group of citizens that reflected the breadth of Calgary’s communities and lived experiences. The process combined orientation, a summer learning journey, and facilitated workshops that distilled priorities and developed recommendations through structured deliberation and peer refinement.
Profile
Client: Calgary Arts Development Authority (CADA)
Practice Area: Community Dialogue
Impact Domain: Arts & Culture
Partner: Framework
Work
Led the design and delivery of the panel process, including the learning journey and synthesis of the panel’s work.
Designed a pathway that built capability as it went, moving participants from learning, to reflection, to issue identification, to recommendation development.
Facilitated workshops that helped panelists prioritize issues, explore barriers and opportunities, and build stronger recommendations through critique and iteration.
Captured outcomes and impact, including strong signals of trust and civic confidence, with 96.8% of participants reporting they felt heard, respected, and valued.
