Arts
Habitat Association of Edmonton (AHA) was formed in 1995 as an
initiative through the Edmonton
Arts Council to provide safe, affordable and appropriate living and
working space for artists. Its
pilot project, ArtsHab
One,
opened in 1999 as Edmonton's first live/work space and has become home
and studio to contemporary visual artists, filmmakers, writers, actors
and others. , in downtown Edmonton.
In 2008 the
Edmonton Arts Council published a ten-year plan, called the Art
of Living 2008 - 2018, for securing the future of the arts and heritage
in the city of Edmonton. "Recommendation #1" in the plan
is to fund and reinvigorate the Arts Habitat Association of Edmonton.
Read
more here
In its reinvigorated
incarnation the AHA will continue to engage the power of the arts to catalyze
neighbourhood and community identity and activity, and will become an
active and effective partner in city revitalization and development projects.
Current activities include:
- Finding,
developing and managing space for the arts. Opportunities include
"recycling" the former Alberta Cycle Building on 118th Avenue as a place
that engages community, culture and commerce. Click here to see our
new and current projects.
- Building
and maintaining a database of available inventory of space on the city
- including production space, rehearsal space and studio space. AHA
is working with the EAC and city of Edmonton Community Services to make
space information freely available on an user-friendly electronic database.
If you are looking for or have space, please click here for … (EAC)
and … (Clearinghouse Database).
- Acting
as a resource. AHA will become the clearinghouse on all such
issues of space for artists, so that any question or concern an artist
may have can be answered by calling the AHA. This includes achieving
and maintaining expertise on space issues having to do with artistic
practice, city bylaws and zoning, grants available for space-related
issues, and the practicalities of physical space maintenance and construction.
(link here to info about Bylaws and regulations, grants etc)
- Advocating.
AHA encourages businesses with property and community organizations
such as churches and community leagues to make space available by educating
those to understand the value and complexities of having artists use
and share their space. AHA also shares expertise with other city agencies
whose purpose involves housing for people or activities.
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