Jane Danzo’s resignation last week from her position as chair of the B.C. Arts Council and her ensuing criticism of provincial cuts to the arts have prompted a wave of other individuals and groups to go public with their calls for reform.
“We need champions and advocates in our community,” said Kevin McKeown, spokesperson for the Alliance for Arts and Culture. “There is an element of fear in the community about speaking out, and that in itself is very disturbing—fear there will be further reprisals—and Mrs. Danzo’s leadership has encouraged some to speak out who might not have before.”
The Community Arts Council of Vancouver is the latest to add its voice, releasing an open letter to Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger on August 24, demanding that he give the B.C. Arts Council the arm’s-length independence Danzo last week told the Straight it lacked. “We request a full review of the BC Arts Council that would strengthen its capacity to support related organizations and efforts that make up the arts in this province,” the letter from CACV president Michael Clague states.
Clarifying that the community arts council runs on a small budget and counts on the B.C. Arts Council’s support, he adds: “Recent budget cuts, political turmoil and consternation in our sector make it difficult to focus our time and energies on projects we believe are important to society. We are constantly uncertain whether we can positively contribute to the city over the long term in the current provincial funding environment.”
Meanwhile, former Alliance for Arts and Culture chair John McLachlan let loose with a blog post on August 23 that said: “Somebody’s got to say it. The arts community has been stuck with the most idiotic and stupid arts-grant program I’ve seen in the close to 30 years I’ve been involved in the arts in British Columbia.”
McLachlan focused most of his ire on the B.C. Liberals’ decision to earmark $10 million per year for the next three years for new Spirit Festivals to happen around the province in February, even while it’s cutting core funding to the arts. “It’s creating artificial excitement that is completely inauthentic. (The excitement during the Olympics in Vancouver was authentic, but that’s because the Olympics were actually happening then),” McLachlan wrote. “We have arts organizations with slashed funding and many collapsing but we will have ”˜festivals’ in February. Woo hoo.”¦Now, we have millions being wasted on what will most likely be harebrained funding proposals that do little to help anyone.”
In an open letter to the Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils dated the same day, former B.C. Arts Council board member Tom Durrie urged the assembly not to participate in dispersing funding for the Spirit Festivals. “In my opinion, the BC Spirit Festivals program is a blatant political project designed to make artists and arts groups throughout British Columbia promote and support the government’s agenda,” he writes. “In light of the fact that artists and arts organizations throughout the province are reeling from severe cuts to their funding, it seems ironic—I’m tempted to say offensive—that the Ministry would now come up with an idea of a celebratory festival. What is there to celebrate? With this in mind, I urge you to take a strong but polite stance and simply say ”˜No thank you, Mr. Krueger.’ ”
Furthermore, in a letter dated August 20, Kathleen Sharpe of the Canadian Conference of the Arts stated that it’s a “strategic error” and “ill-advised” for the B.C. government to “drastically and unfairly” cut investments in arts and culture to help balance the books.
“I have observed Mrs. Danzo, and her action and her comments, have achieved two things,” said the alliance’s McKeown. “It’s brought the media spotlight back onto the crises in arts funding in this province, and it has galvanized a lot of other voices to join in the conversation.”
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Comments
The argument we have to make and keep making is the economic one. We in the arts industry generate tax revenue and economic activity far in excess of the investment made by government, and this is based on research generated by (and ignored by) the BC LIBERALS. Gordon Campbell and his cronies talk about fiscal restraint and economic good sense, but they are SIGNIFICANTLY UNDERMINING BC's economy by gutting BC's arts sector. This is going to have ramifications for everyone in BC, not just a bunch of effete, elitist artists, as we seem to be perceived by many.
Let's be honest, the arts are a luxury we cannot presently continue to fund at the levels the arts advocacy types would desire.
An excerpt: "I know that there are some people in the arts and culture community that are actually quite vicious, and they have been grinding on her really hard and on me and on the government and on their MLAs.... she finally reached the point where she is saying if what the arts community really expects from me is full-on advocacy, she’d never attack people like that group did, but she had had enough of that, so she stepped aside to say what she said."
We desperately need artists to support two of our largest industries; tourism and film and television.
Every great tourism mecca in the world owes a great deal of its success to its artists. New Orleans, Moscow, Beijing, London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, all have thriving arts scenes, with centuries behind them. We have other things to attract the tourist buck, sure. But can we afford to neglect what has been such a lucrative draw, what rounds us out as a world class city? What brings in more than just the ski bunnies and the sailboats?
Vancouver is famous for its film and television industry. The Americans come up here not just for the versatility of the BC environments, or the cheaper dollar. They come up here because we are known for having highly skilled and talented people. And a great many of them are artists. Musicians, photographers, sculptors, painters, props, costume and set designers and builders are all artists. Without them, the big dollar film companies could not invest here.
So, you may dismiss the arts as being frivolous and a waste of tax payers dollars, but it's provably true that the existence of the arts has a tangible economic benefit, which the artists themselves rarely feel, but which serves the public at large.
You may dismiss the need for artists to make a living, assuming that artists will always continue to create art, no matter what obstacles are put in our way, because we love what we do. Well, it's true. Artists will always exist, with or without funding. The question is, will we exist _here_?