Day one of the Creative Spacemaking workshop in Vancouver, hosted by the City of Vancouver through the Office of Cultural Affairs. In a program led by Artscape's CEO Tim Jones, with able - and entertaining - team members Billie Bridgeman, Janis Barlow, the morning covered an overview of the field of development and a short intense course on preparation and planning for feasibility.

After a networking lunch there was more to learn about fundraising and financing, and then the opportunity for more focussed discussion time with the six panelists in rotation.

90 participants, representing a broad range of interested artists, arts groups, public sector and private sector folks, absorbed what they could and will have taken home some new ideas and challenging language to sleep on.

And the netweaving session that ended the day will have allowed for more questions answered and conversations started, that will help make tomorrow another full and fruitful day.

An emerging theme has been the need for a focal point of leadership, an entity to take the lead to gather, arrange, convene, and mediate the incredible amount of resource material and flexible, responsive services that artists need to help shorten the time it takes to gain traction and make effective choices in this process of creating space. This could be a role that we can offer, through the website and as a communications link immediately, with little additional support. Beyond that, a BC-based form of development support and consulting could be incubated here. More tomorrow.