On what happened
Pulling back the curtain on my time at ECMA
in 2024, i was brought in to lead the East Coast Music Association.
i was 32. i had a university degree and a decade of experience in arts management. i had personally raised $10 million in public funds for independent artists and small arts organizations. and i had the halo effect of my artistic collaborations, notably with one of the east coast’s biggest exporting artists. so it made sense that they hired me, though i was as surprised as anybody.
by 2025, i was shown the door.
my termination was technically without cause (i was still on probation), but representatives of the organization have since said that they felt i moved too quickly and aggressively with my proposed changes, jeopardizing the annual event.
i didn’t break the lamp, i loved the lamp
my feelings toward the organization when i first signed on were positive and optimistic. i was really enthusiastic about its potential. i did not want to fuck up the opportunity, and i did not set out to dismantle the organization as we knew it.
but i was clear, as early as my first job interview, that i did not think the existing model was the best way to serve artists, or the best way to survive as an organization. and that it needed to change if we were going to rebuild members’ confidence in us, and keep serving the community for another 36 years.
the idea that things needed to change was neither novel nor controversial. there was general agreement among the board, staff, and community. the structural hurdles were significant, and had been increasingly causing cracks in the organization for years.
i was not given a roadmap; my task, as i understood it, was to navigate on the community’s behalf.
an event isn’t ideal…
in any case, it is fundamentally true that an annual 5-day event on a 5-year geographically rotating cycle:
is really damn expensive, and usually loses money
requires a lot of personnel and equipment and travel, leaving very few resources to support artists and jurors
requires artists and delegates to travel a significant distance most years, mostly at their own expense, and at a cost that mostly eclipses any potential revenue potential from showcases and events
misses out on significant economy of scale, because it requires reinventing the wheel every year (in a given five-year period, venues close, there is venue/sponsor/government staff turnover, and you need to re-introduce yourself and make your case all over again)
risks breaking down relationships with artists, venues, sponsors, and non-federal public funders, because you only touch base with them once every 5 years
is, of late, losing its appeal among federal funders like FACTOR and ACOA, who used to support it on merits alone but now want to see economic impact and tourism revenue
leaves 4 of the 5 regions unserved in any given year
does not maximize public funding and sponsorship potential, because only one province/municipality contributes at a time
leaves the community largely unserved 360 days a year
… but it’s a hard thing to replace
structuring an organization around an event does have certain undeniable benefits:
large events are generally sexy. funders and sponsors want to participate, they are a tangible thing that people can get behind conceptually, and put their money behind
awards are even sexier. even if pointless. they attract media, companies like to buy a VIP table for their clients, sponsors like to put their logo on them
it pins the different cities against each other, and generates a certain competitiveness and peer pressure between jurisdictions. i.e. no one wants to be the loser province that doesn’t pitch in so they keep doing it
especially for the smaller markets (NL, PEI) it is a huge deal and connects artists with new, enthusiastic potential fan communities
it connects artists to a nearly four-decade history of awards, some of which was genuinely legit and impressive.
it is a tangible time and place around which to build a conference that international, national and regional buyers can attend, allowing artists and/or their managers to shoot their shot (which does work very well for some people)
and of course it creates a setting where the scene can get together in person, which is increasingly rare nowadays.
so there were pros and cons, and it was important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. but there was no staying the same. no one wanted things to stay the same. (well, maybe not no one lol.) so i set out on the sisyphean task of defining and implementing the needed changes.
where i started
i talked, one-on-one or in groups, with hundreds of people.
