In honor of ACA’s 35th Anniversary, we are sharing 35 stories from field leaders. We asked Tamara Ross, who served on ACA’s Board from 2015–2024, to share a short memory, artifact, or reflection that captures what ACA has meant to her—or how she imagines the future of artist support. Tamara is Associate Director, Administration + Academic Operations at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture (SALA), where she supports a new generation of creative practitioners. Previously, she spent 13 years supporting artists as Director of Operations for Arts Programming at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her career has also included roles as a high school teacher and Manager of Artistic Operations with Ballet British Columbia. A graduate of UBC and HEC Montréal, Tamara brings a longstanding commitment to supporting artists, creative communities, and the institutions that sustain them.
"I came to the ACA Board completely by fluke, and am so grateful that fate was on my side in placing me with an amazing group of individuals who helped me learn, grow, laugh, and navigate the complex world of artist support. We were all there in support of the artist and their communities, trying to ensure all are welcome and safe in spaces where they could learn and grow and reach their potential in whatever artform they chose to discover in that moment. In this world of self, meeting a group of self-less, humble, caring individuals to whom service was not a bad word, but a mantra to live and work by, was so refreshing, and I felt like I had found my people.
I was an arts administrator tucked away up in a sleepy Canadian town in the Rocky Mountains who was suddenly given an artist residency to manage. I noticed this annual fee we had been paying to the Alliance of Artist Communities (aka ACA), and wondered what was this organization and what were we getting from this membership. When I scratched at the surface, I realized that it was the Banff Centre that was losing out on an amazing opportunity that membership brought by not engaging fully with this organization. With one call to Caitlyn, I was suddenly considering joining the Board as the ‘international’ member. So began a 9-year journey that really was all about the journey, as there was never to be a destination when you are constantly evolving and changing to meet the needs of those you serve. Full of challenging, life-altering, mind-bending conversations, whether it was at board meetings and retreats, or convenings with the larger membership, I cherished every moment.
I began as a Board Member, joining the Finance Committee, then becoming Treasurer with great support and tutelage. For many years working solely with Caitlyn, Flan and Deb, then Lisa joined at the helm and we doubled in size (financially and manpower) and the organization has never looked back. The organization responded quickly to societal impacts such as the murder of George Floyd and the BLM movement, the #MeToo movement, COVID, the first Trump presidency. And now I can only sit up here in Canada and imagine how difficult it is to work through this second Trump administration, moving backwards financially, and vilifying the sector and those within it. I do know though, that whatever curve balls are thrown at this group, they will respond with steadfast morality, kindness, grace and will continue to change to meet the needs of the day and the community they serve.
I am so proud to have been but a small part of this 35-year legacy that ACA has, and am forever grateful for what I learned, the amazing people I met and now call friends, and the laughs along the way (along with the serious work undertaken). In that time, the organization not only went through a name change, but fundamentally what ACA stood for, who and what it was fighting for, and who it was in service of. I apologize as ever for driving everyone, every-time, bananas with my waxing poetic of Canadian virtues – free health care, our dreamy prime minister, our public funding support of the arts... Sorry eh!"
Tam. |
Tamara Ross is the Associate Director, Administration + Academic Operations at the School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia. Tamara is excited to return to Vancouver, BC, Canada to support a different group of creatives as Associate Director, Administration and Academic Operations at UBC’s School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture (SALA). She joins the University of British Columbia (UBC) after 13 years of supporting artists as Director of Operations for Arts Programming at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Things come full circle for Tamara as she returns to her alma mater having garnered both a Commerce and Education degree from the UBC. Previously in Vancouver, she was a high school teacher and Manager of Artistic Operations with Ballet British Columbia before heading east to complete her MBA at HEC Montreal.
We’d love to hear from you. Send your questions or reflections to ebasada@artistcommunities.org for a chance to be featured in an upcoming issue of our newsletter, Waypoints.