In conversation with Edmonton Arts Council’s new head Renée Williams

As the brand-new executive director of Edmonton Arts Council, Renée Williams brings her business acumen and passion for the arts to our nationally-admired cultural institution, stewarding and supporting the city’s local arts ecosystem.

Replacing passionate arts advocate and film buff Sanjay Shahani after his spring departure to Canada Council, 45-year-old Williams imports experience in top roles at both Fort Edmonton and Edmonton Economic Development Corporation during an era of growing austerity.

By the numbers, of the City’s $3.98-billion budget, the Arts Council is in charge of $17.97 million — 0.45% of all municipal expenditures.

Despite population growth and generally rising costs, this figure has been the same since 2022 — including in next year’s budget.

The word being deployed is “stagnant,” but Williams seems well fit for the challenge as the council adapts and adjusts its funding strategies.

To get to know her, EAC’s new head is doing a meet and greet at Edmonton Arts Council Shop & Services to meet members of the art community at the southwest corner of Churchill Square 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

In the meantime, Williams talks about her own musical history, local arts favourites and the creative community’s challenges moving forward.

Q: Can you describe the new gig in your own words?

A: Absolutely. I see myself as someone who supports the overarching goals of the organization and helps drive the direction. But also as a support in terms of how we navigate the city, how we navigate and collaborate with administration, with other organizations that are out there — like Explore Edmonton.

And, for the artists, how do we help tell their story?

I see myself as a listener, as someone who really wants to understand what are the challenges that the arts organizations and creative individuals are going through.

Q: Where were you born and raised, and what was your relationship to the arts growing up?

A: I was born in Montreal, but I like to say born and raised in Edmonton, because we moved here when I was at the ripe age of nine months old.

I grew up in a musical family — my sister and I are both music vocalists — playing a myriad of instruments. I like to say I’m a master of many, but I’ve not mastered any one of them, which I’m devastated about. (Laughs)

I was in high school serving on the jazz choir and the jazz band, part of a consortia of jazz-performing students in the Edmonton area that represented a variety of high schools, and got to do a couple of really unique international competitions.

We’re also a big festival family. We love to get out there and experience all that Edmonton has to offer, and arts and culture has been a big part of that for not only my childhood, but right up to today.

Q: Can we talk about what art does for a community, in general, but also in Edmonton?

A: I like to tell it like this. I moved to Calgary in the early 2000s and I’ll never forget when I got there, the job I was working at at the time — it was in retail — and I said to a bunch of my colleagues at the end of the day, so what are we doing tonight? What festivals are on? Where is there a park that we can go to, maybe catch a play? Like, is there something happening that we can go check out? And I got blank stares.

Because the destination that I grew up in had that: every night of the week there was something going on in the theatre culture, performing arts, visual arts space.

There’s something in Edmonton that is unique, a thriving and healthy arts and cultural and heritage community.

Folk Fest, for example, the reason I’ll talk about it is it’s become a family affair. The very first time we took our son to Folk Fest was when he was 15 months old, and he’s 10 now. We make a game plan around it, and we start listening to all the artists in advance. I think about what that’s done in terms of anchoring a core memory for our family. One of our absolute favourites is  Silver Skate, to get out there and just experience the big sculpture burn at the end.

Q: What are some of the major priorities for the EAC right now?

A: Probably the biggest of the priorities is making sure we’ve got sustainable funding and support from the city going forward as it relates to all of our programs. I would say more specifically, in areas like the public art program, making sure that people understand the importance of it, the value of it.

I would also suggest making sure that we’ve got long-term sustainability around our granting programs. It’s these programs that help the artists get recognized and remunerated for having contributing so substantially to our community, and for the public to enjoy.

Q: In October EAC put out a statement talking about stagnant funding which included a hold on multi-year finding. Can you explain EAC’s worries?

A: With escalating cost pressure it’s no shock to anyone that there are a number of organizations that are concerned about the status of their funding.

We’re grateful for what we have from the city of Edmonton and what they’ve provided to us, but we definitely know that staying with what we’ve got right now, and being locked into the budget we have right now, is not sustainable for the future of the Arts Council and what we need to deliver.

There’s a gravity attached to our funding circumstance, and so working in lockstep with administration is going to be a key continuing to collaborate with not only administration, but with other agencies that are funded. Like, how are we working with some of the other agencies in Edmonton to ensure that we’re elevating the voices of the community?

Q: What would you say to organizations worried about their funding?

A: The first thing I’d say is I want to extend empathy, that’s incredibly important to me. But then I would say there is an opportunity for a number of organizations to really think about things collaboratively, find ways to approach things and maybe new solutions to some problems that maybe we’ve been staring at for a bit of time, bring some other voices into the table.

Q: Let’s bring it back to art. What’s your favourite public art in the city?

A: Tawatinâ Bridge! David Garneau is such a remarkable artist.

I feel like there’s just something that happens when I’m standing on that bridge, something about the connection to the land, recognizing I’m a settler on this land, on this Treaty 6 territory, and just understanding my role and reconciliation to learn and unlearn things.

There’s something about that art that really just anchors that for me.

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