Restoring the arts after Alberta flooding

An effort is underway to help the arts community recover from historic flooding in June in Calgary, Alberta. An intranet site has been launched in conjunction with Calgary Arts Development to bring together 37 organizations in a virtual space to determine the impact of the flood, facilitate networking, distribute relief funds and coordinate restoration across southern Alberta. The pro bono project involves a solution from cloud intranet provider Igloo Software.

Within two weeks after the first surge, Calgary Arts Development received 108 reports from organizations and individual artists who had suffered losses. Early estimates cited $3 million in losses, including damaged and destroyed venues, offices and homes; loss of equipment and supplies; and loss of revenue because of canceled contracts and events.

Terry Rock, president and CEO of Calgary Arts Development, says, “Arts organizations in southern Alberta are experiencing both short- and long-term impact from the devastating 2013 floods. Over 30 agencies are attempting to collaborate across the province to find solutions, and we needed an online platform to help facilitate this work."

Dan Latendre, CEO of Igloo Software, says, “More and more, organizations are moving away from legacy systems and turning toward software that's built for a fast-moving, post-PC world. When Terry reached out to explain their collaboration challenges, we jumped at the opportunity to participate because we're ideally suited for those facing compressed timelines, silos of information, tight budgets and dispersed teams.”

(Image courtesy of ShutterStock.com)