What do we do?
Our Staff
Our Patron and Board of Directors
Our Vision & Values
Our History
Partnerships
Employment
Our History
CAN WA was started in the 1980s as an informal network of community-based arts organisations. Since its incorporation more than twenty years ago, CAN WA has evolved beyond being a collaborative forum to take on more structured advocacy, training and funding roles. Although the organisation continues to respond to contemporary influences, CAN WA will always remain true to its foundational principle: empowering communities through arts and cultural development.
CAN WA’s management is governed by a board of 12 Directors who are drawn from local government, community planning, arts, business and legal backgrounds. A full-time Managing Director and a team of eleven staff oversee the organisation’s daily operations.
CAN WA is an incorporated non-profit company, limited by guarantee to a membership base. Basically this means that we are a connecting entity – we match cultural development projects to funding opportunities and other resources. CAN WA’s values and priorities are determined by the values and priorities of our members.
CAN WA has been working as a Quality Endorsed Training Organisation since 1999. We established the first accredited cultural development training program in Western Australia and are now funded through the Department of Cultural and the Arts (WA) at a state level, and the Australia Council for the Arts federally, to provide such training.
In 2006 CAN WA established a regional Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development Unit in the Wheatbelt town of Kellerberrin. The Kellerberrin unit is currently staffed by two Indigenous employees whose role it is to foster self-determination through artistic practice in local Indigenous communities.
| Our LogoThe CAN WA logo symbolises people coming together around a campfire and sharing their culture free from discrimination, bias or hierarchy. The logo was created in 2000 and emerged from brainstorms about how to capture the spirit of the organisation. For us the warm orange heart of the logo has come to be emblematic of our commitment to being a receptive, open organisation.
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