Howard Jang steps in as interim executive director of BC Alliance for Arts + Culture
The board announces Jang’s temporary role while launching organizational overhaul
Howard Jang. Photo via the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
PROMINENT ARTS LEADER Howard Jang is stepping into the role of interim executive director of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture while it seeks a new leader, according to a July 30 news release.
On July 20, the board announced via its newsletter, Alliance Mail, that former BCAAC executive director, Brenda Leadlay, had left the organization as of July 16. The board has not released any information on the reason or reasons for Leadlay’s departure.
BCAAC board chair Sean Bickerton said in the July 30 release that the alliance is in the midst of a larger organizational review.
“The Board of Directors of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture have spent a great deal of time in recent months reflecting on issues of social justice that we recognize are long overdue to be addressed within the arts sector,” Bickerton said. “While the Alliance has traditionally been a champion in this area, we recognize we have also struggled to live up to our own values, and it is our aspiration to engender a complete transformation of the Alliance and ensure this organization and our board table are the safest space humanly possible for everyone in the diverse communities we serve.”
Jang is former vice president of arts and leadership at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where he centred Indigenous knowledge and beliefs within the Cultural Leadership Program. He has agreed to fill the role for the next three to six months.
Also a former member of the BCAAC board, Jang has held leadership positions with some of the alliance’s member organizations such as the Arts Club Theatre, Ballet BC, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. He has served as professor of professional practice at the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts and as director of the SFU Woodward’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
According to the release, the BCAAC board is working with BIPOC Executive Search to help find the next executive director.
Warren Dean Flandez will also be working with the board “to place Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the heart of this transformation of the Alliance”. A member of the faculty at Capilano University, Flandez has experience in EDI and, as a founder of THIS (The Harmony Initiative Society) has worked extensively with city governments, law enforcement agencies, and school boards on EDI training, policy frameworks, and community-based initiatives.
The board announced it will begin work later this year with Arrive Consulting, which partners with Indigenous elders and leaders to help develop organizational renewal and transformation.
“The Alliance is working with Arrive and First Nations partners to create a completely new, Indigenous-led values and strategic planning process that will result in a living plan for the Alliance centred around EDI, Decolonization, Indigenization, and Anti-Racism,” Bickerton said in the statement.
The BCAAC board stated it is welcoming questions or suggestions via board@allianceforarts.com.
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