Silver Ticket Award Mentor
Jane Marsland
arts manager, activist, consultant
Program areas: developing effective Boards, new governance concepts/models
The recipient of the 2017 Silver Ticket Award is highly regarded arts manager, community activist and activator Jane Marsland. The Silver Ticket was presented to Ms Marsland at the 38th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards, held Monday evening, June 26, in the Elgin Theatre of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre.
Jane Marsland has been an articulate and passionate advocate for the arts for close to 50 years and her contribution to Toronto’s performing arts scene has been incalculable. She is passionately devoted to both the artists and artistic vision of companies she works with as well as audiences and the public, thereby facilitating the delivery of great art. She has worked with and for numerous arts organizations across the province as well as nationally and internationally; and served on a wide range of boards, advisory groups and committees.
Ms Marsland has managed arts organizations since 1970 and was General Manager of the Danny Grossman Dance Company from 1982 to 1999. Since 1999, Jane has been working as a freelance arts consultant and community builder. Her advice, guidance and tough love have brought enormous benefit to both the organizations she has worked with as well as the arts-loving public.
As a consultant, her clients include The Canada Council for the Arts, Leadership for Change serving 39 theatre and dance organizations across Canada, and, through Ontario Arts Council’s Compass Program, working with more than 50 theatre, dance, music and visual arts organizations. She has consulted as well to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada Council for the Arts’ Equity Office, and Harbourfront Centre Community & Education Programs, a mo n g o t he r s. Since 2007, Jane has been working with Ontario Presents (a province-wide network of performing arts touring and presenting organizations) on the Healthy Arts Leader Program, a six-year program to strengthen leadership capabilities and organizational capacities. In 2016, she initiated Ontario Presents’ Pilot Coach Training Project for mid-career managers.
Jane Marsland’s list of community ventures is just as extensive. She is a tireless advocate for the arts, from the early years of Toronto ArtsVote, to her involvement in a number of cross-country ventures with the former Canadian Conference for the Arts during the 80s, 90s and 00s. She was a co-founder and director of ARTS 4 CHANGE, a three-year program designed to create positive change for and by arts professionals in Toronto; and co-founder of the Creative Trust: Working Capital for the Arts.
Her community service roles range from President of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts ( T AP A) from 2003-2006, Vice-President and Chair of Programming Committee for Harbourfront Centre (1991-2000), to Treasurer of Necessary Angel Theatre Company (1994-2000), President of the Canadian Association of Professional Dance Organizations (1983-99), President of the 12 Alexander Street Theatre Transition Board (1993-95), and more. From 2013 to 2015, Jane worked with TAPA and ARTS Action Research on Theatres Leading Change Toronto, a project that involved 18 small and mid-sized theatre and dance organizations. She also co-founded For Dance and Opera, a strategic collaboration to book and tour four arts companies.
She is the recipient of two arts community awards: a “Harold” in 2001 and the Sandra Tulloch Award for Innovation in the Arts in 2002. In 1995, she received the first Joan Chalmers Award for Arts Administration for outstanding leadership in the arts. In 2011, she was the winner of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Rita Davies and Margo Bindhardt Cultural Leadership Award. In 2012, Jane was awarded the first Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellowship in the Arts.
Jane Marsland has had an impact municipally, provincially and nationally and her work has resulted in performing arts communities that are more robust, adventurous and vibrant. Her creative a nd courageous leadership and mentorship continues to help lead the way for the future of the arts.