PARM JOHAL (she/her)
Practice Name: Parm Johal (Freelance/Independent)
Role: Arts Strategist
Bio: Parm Johal is an Arts & Culture Strategist and Arts Marketing and Communications professional in Metro Vancouver with 18 years of experience working within cultural services departments in municipal government (City of Burnaby, City of Port Coquitlam) and with non-profit arts organizations (Diwali Fest, Vancouver Mural Festival).
Parm is currently working as a freelance consultant with municipalities and organizations across Canada on arts and culture strategic projects that sit at the intersection of community development, tourism and economic development.
Her professional skills include cultural planning, public art, project management, artist curation, strategic planning, creative placemaking for under-utilized public spaces, arts programming, events and festival development and digital marketing and communications campaign development--working directly with art galleries, museums, art centres and festivals.
Passionate about contemporary art from both a local and global perspective, Parm advocates for community development, creative city planning, cultural tourism, arts inclusivity and representation in the arts.
Areas of Interest:
Cultural Policy Innovation
Strategic Planning
Arts Management
Public Art
Creative Placemaking and City Building Strategy
Decolonization, Anti-Racism, EDIA and Artist Advocacy
Multidisciplinary Collaborations (arts integration with tech, health, science, urban design, tourism, education, architecture, engineering)
Arts Marketing and Communications / Storytelling
Contemporary Arts Research
Things you want to learn: By being a part of this cohort, I am looking forward to learning more about best practices in cultural policy and planning, being inspired amongst a group of like-minded professionals and hoping to move the needle in advocating for equitable cultural leadership and systemic change in the arts and culture sector.
Things you want to see changed in our sector: Public art processes (including funding, space allotment, artist recruitment); Non-profit funding models; need for more investment in artists, cultural workers and arts infrastructure; colonial heritage planning.
