The New Canadian Street Team

For those of you who don't know I'm something of a supporter of Canadian Arts and Culture. Along with publicbroadcasting.ca I run Facebook group for CBC Radio 3 TV (R3TV), the CBC Radio 3 Sessions (also a page for that one), a group for the new CBC Radio 2, a group for upcoming Events in Toronto (there's a page for that one too) - then there's Friends of the CBC, the somewhat related Save CBC News and the (hopefully temporary) Against the City of Ottawa's Arts Cuts I also run a number of social and political groups but I won't go into that now.

Awhile ago, to address the lack of exposure that many Canadian artists get I started thinking about small things that people could do that would have an impact - things that didn't take alot of time or effort. I created the groups Boost: Canadian Film and Television where once a week (ish) I send out a trailer or clip that people watch and rate (driving up it's popularity on YouTube and making it more visible. Boost: Canadian Music is essentially the same (except I send out music videos).

The latest in this line is Street Team Canada - on this group I'll send out tour dates and people are asked to (when an artist is coming to their city) print and put up a poster or two or three in places they go anyway - work, school, their local pub or coffee house, their bus stop etc., If enough people do that and we can bring a few extra people to each of their shows we can help make touring a little closer to profitable for Canadian talent.

So far the response has been good and there are people who aren't in Canada offering to put up some posters for Canadian artists touring abroad. If you have a few extra minutes a week and a printer - sign up here.