BC Alliance for Arts and Culture announces Rainbow Robert as its new executive director

Jazz fest’s artistic programmer takes helm as alliance embarks on new strategic plan with diversity focus

Rainbow Robert takes the helm of the Alliance at a time of change. Photo by Massimiliano Lachini

THE BC ALLIANCE for Arts and Culture has announced Rainbow Robert as its new executive director starting February 22.

Last week, the Coastal Jazz Society that runs the Vancouver International Jazz Festival had announced that Robert was “stepping away” from her position there as managing director of artistic programming.

Robert’s hiring comes amid a time of organizational review and transformation at the Alliance, which is about to embark on a new strategic plan centred on Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion, and facilitated by Arrive Consulting.

Last summer, the Alliance’s board announced that former BCAAC executive director Brenda Leadlay had left the organization as of July 16. Howard Jang then stepped in as interim executive director while the Alliance hired the company BIPOC Executive Search to conduct a national search for a candidate.

“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,” board chair Sean Bickerton said in an official release at the time. “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.”

Robert has also served as executive director of Jazz Festivals Canada and has served on the board of directors for the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts and the Vancouver Independent Music Centre.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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