Still without its $60,000 seed money in hand, the training committee arm of the Cultural Industries Council of Ontario is soldiering on with a first project.

Committee members Steven DeNure, president of Alliance Productions, and Wayne Clarkson, executive director of the Canadian Film Development Centre, are in the midst of preparing a proposal for an interactive writing project for funding by the Ontario Training and Adjustment Board, while the committee as a whole struggles to birth a mandate with a comprehensive training plan for the culture sector, from film and television to commercial theater, book and magazine publishing, and sound recording.

Although the mandate is a work in progress, essentially what is being scripted is a blueprint for providing all cultural disciplines with access to training facilities they can’t otherwise afford or find, says Margarette Pyron, chair of the training committee by night, computer-aided designer at tvontario by day.

The ‘fluid’ perimeters for the kinds of training facilities the industry needs stretches from access to new-media technical skills and business and marketing workshops, to giving dancers the means of applying for roles internationally through video conferencing, says Pyron.

‘There isn’t one location where people can tap new media and training projects in this province. When you’re an independent, you often lack the business skills and marketing sense that would sell your talent, as well as the ability to finance this kind of information.’

In one capacity, the group will act as a ‘broker’ between funding opportunities and individual projects, although it hasn’t been established yet if the committee will be in a jury position on the merits of a project, says Pyron. Artists will continue to apply for funding to the traditional initiative agencies, but the center will be another source of linking new-media projects with corporate and individual financiers.

cico is still expecting the $60,000 seed financing allocated by the ndp government, despite the change in government, says Pyron. The group plans to be self-sustaining within a year. The business plan is in progress, and will perhaps encompass a dues structure, one-time funding from groups or individuals, and hopefully, a measure of support from the Tories in the next budget.