Executive Summary
Harbourfront Centre is one of the most widely attended arts and culture centres in Canada, attracting more than 12 ½ million visits annually to its events and activities. The non-profit recognizes that culture is a powerful way to connect its diverse stakeholders: audiences, users, artists, employees, volunteers, board and committee members. Its volunteer board is a mix of elected members and municipal, provincial and federal government representatives.
To ensure diversity in the recruiting of volunteers and hiring of staff, Harbourfront adopted an Access Strategic Plan in 2003. It uses a grid to measure and track diversity, identify gaps and set targets for the nominating committee. Ethno-cultural background, skills, experience, gender, educational or arts involvement, business connections and political affiliation are all considered when looking for candidates, as is the ability to attract financial support, since Harbourfront relies heavily on donations.
According to Zanana Akande, nominating committee chair, the organization’s determination to diversify and the deliberate recruiting of diverse board candidates and senior staff is as important as its plan.
Harbourfront partners with hundreds of community cultural and arts organizations every year, giving it access to networks of potential board members interested or involved in the arts, and also uses the Maytree onBoard roster to find qualified candidates.
History of Harbourfront Centre
After the great success of Expo 67 in Montreal, governments recognized that revitalizing Toronto’s derelict industrial harbour lands would increase access to the lake and attract tourism to the city. The Ontario government opened Ontario Place in 1971, and in 1972 the federal government bought 40 hectares south of Queens Quay West and established Harbourfront Centre as a crown corporation. A non-profit since 1991, it is supported by its ticket sales and program fees, as well as by individual donors, government grants, and corporate sponsors. In 2010, it has an operating budget of about $22 million.
As Harbourfront developed, care was taken to use existing buildings and features where possible. Today the original Terminal warehouse, 1920s powerhouse, and York Quay buildings are home to galleries, theatres, craft studios, offices, cafés and shops as well as private and commercial tenants. There are marina slips for rent and docking space for tall ships and tour boats. Depending on the season, visitors can stroll the waterside boardwalks, rent equipment for a skate beside the lake, attend free outdoor concerts and art exhibits, and browse international markets. For kids 3-17, Harbourfront Centre offers dozens of March break and summer camp programs – from sailing and kayaking to “Global Hip Hop” to “Emerging Chef Challenge.”
From its inception Harbourfront Centre has exposed Torontonians and its visitors to the best of what Canada and the world has to offer in contemporary dance, theatre, music, literature, crafts, the visual arts, and children’s and family recreation and entertainment. Attracting more than 12 ½ million visits every year, Harbourfront may be the most widely attended arts and culture centre in Canada – and has been recognized as having some of the most innovative and inclusive cultural programming on Earth.
The Full Story
A model for cultural centres around the world
“Reflecting and celebrating Canada’s diverse population has been central to Harbourfront Centre’s mission since its inception,” says its executive director, William Boyle. Throughout its 35-year history Harbourfront has recognized that culture is a powerful way to build bridges of understanding, collaboration and cooperation among people of diverse backgrounds and traditions – through its creative programming in entertainment, the arts, and recreation, and by engaging the broadest possible range of people as artists, audiences, users, employees, volunteers and board and committee members. Harbourfront is now a model for cultural centres around the world working to foster diversity and equity within their organizations and to develop innovative and multicultural programs for wide and diverse publics.
Targeted recruitment, targeted hiring
Harbourfront Centre is governed by a 26-person community-based volunteer board of directors responsible for overseeing the Centre’s policies and strategy. Nineteen of the directors are elected and seven are ex officio (three from the City of Toronto, two from Ontario’s Ministry of Culture, and two from the Government of Canada). The board, executive director and senior management all work together to achieve inclusive governance practices. In 2003 they adopted an Access Strategic Plan, based in part on an earlier Strategic Plan for Linguistic, Cultural and Racial Diversity. The more recent plan set out specific actions to ensure the continued diversity among volunteers, board, advisory and programming committees through targeted recruitment, and a hiring strategy designed to make its workforce truly reflective of Toronto’s – and Canada’s – increasingly diverse population.
“What attracted me to Harbourfront was that they made sure that they represented cultural diversity, even in ’98,” a time when many other Toronto organizations did not, says board member Zanana Akande. A former Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services, she has served on Harbourfront Centre’s board in many capacities since 1998, including as president from 2003 to 2006. She is now the convenor of the board’s nominations committee, which identifies and recruits qualified candidates.
“Determination is just as important as any plan – ‘This is what we need to do!’”
She observes that although strategic plans can be roadmaps, they “can sometimes be hurdles unless they’re managed well.” Akande says that having the determination to focus on diversity and inclusivity – in leadership and management roles, too, not just the board – is just as important as any plan or formal committee structure, if not more so. By developing a plan, you imply that one is necessary, she says. “I don’t always think so – sometimes it’s necessary to act directly and with expedience. You have to be [able] to say ‘This is what we need to do!’”
Harbourfront Centre uses a grid – a visual summary of the current board’s ethno-cultural, diversity, and skills makeup – to measure and track diversity targets and to ensure that board recruitment is reflective of the community. Annual goals are set for the nominating committee based on the gaps that have been identified this way. The grid system also lets the board see at a glance when each member’s term will end, and therefore what attributes the committee will need to be thinking about when it looks for future candidates. The board also needs to be “thinking about ‘line of succession’ and about who may eventually have those kinds of skills,” says Akande.
“What have we not got?”
Although representation based on ethno-cultural diversity is one of the most important qualifications for membership on the board, recruitment is not just focused on that. “It’s focused on the development of Harbourfront and how we must go about it,” says Akande. “Written or unwritten criteria of inclusion help to focus your attention on ‘what have we not got?’” There must be representation across the political spectrum, and a candidate’s skills, experience, gender, involvement in the educational system or arts community, and business or corporate connections a member may have are all considered.
A large part of the responsibility for board members is their ability to attract corporate or private support, because even with government help Harbourfront can’t exist without that support.
Since Harbourfront partners with 450 volunteer community-based organizations to present more than 4,000 events and activities each year, “it gives us great access to committed volunteers who can be recruited for the board,” says executive director Boyle. “We have learned to network within diverse communities, using each and every contact to elicit suggestions for potential board members.”
Board members aren’t expected to represent a particular culture or background, but to see things through an arts perspective. Says Akande, they may be “people who are interested and experienced in the arts in other countries – even if the experience hasn’t been in Canada. Their way of doing things might be somewhat different, but they’re not unfamiliar” with the arts and with cultural programming. Diverse community leaders currently on the board let their own communities know what’s available at Harbourfront for them, and look to their own networks for qualified people with the connections and skills – business acumen or fundraising expertise, for example – that the board needs. As well, Harbourfront uses Maytree’s DiverseCity onBoard roster to find qualified candidates.
“It’s the only way you can do it”
“The determination of the people who are affecting the change,” and the deliberate effort to “really cast the net widely” are the critical first steps towards diversifying any board, says Akande. This has led to Harbourfront’s success. “The search has to be thorough and keep all things in mind – which doesn’t necessarily make it easier. But they’re all important considerations. And it’s the only way you can do it.”
Making it work for you
- Written criteria of inclusion help to focus your attention on “what have we not got?”
- If you “cast the net widely” when considering potential board members, you may find qualified candidates whose experience hasn’t been Canadian – but whose knowledge of other ways of doing things can benefit your organization.
- Throughout the year collect names and recommendations from your network of contacts for your “inventory” of possible board candidates. Keep in mind your committed volunteers – they may be potential board members.
- A grid summarizing the strengths, skills, corporate connections, and other attributes of board members and their term lengths will let you see at a glance what gaps need filling now and help to anticipate future needs.
- Diverse board members are often happy to function as ambassadors for your organization to their own communities, informing them about how to get involved and how the organization can benefit them.