The University of Regina is a comprehensive university with a mission to provide “high quality, accessible education that prepares learners for productive and creative lives.” Home to the province’s only Faculty of Fine Arts it offers BA, BFA, BMus, MA, MFA and MMus programs in Film, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts. Its Faculty of Education in partnership with Fine Arts departments offers a combined BA/BEd in Arts Education with specializations in all areas of the arts including Dance. The English Department offers a BA with an undergraduate concentration in Creative Writing as well as an MA in Creative Writing. A partnership with the First Nations University of Canada also provides BA and BFA degrees in Indian Fine Arts. As home to many faculty members who are also professional artists, as well as students who are the future of arts in the province, the university clearly has a stake in better understanding the overall arts ecology of the province and policies that will emerge from it.

As the host and home base for SPAR, the university is contributing to a partnership that is helping it fulfill its mission of producing “innovative research and scholarship,” responding “to the needs of Saskatchewan peoples,” and engaging with and servicing “communities, local, provincial, and beyond.” The University is looking forward to the evolution of this partnership and the related Community of Understanding which together have the potential to translate research results into policies and funding programs that will make it possible for artists to fully contribute to the burgeoning provincial economy and population in such a way that Saskatchewan can enjoy a sustainable creative ecology.

The University of Regina motto is “As One Who Serves.” It embraces the spirit of the Cree word mâmawohkamâtowin meaning “co-operation; working together towards common goals.”