Only cowboys and country fairs can hope for festival gaming funds
New eligibility criteria for gaming grants should dash any hopes local arts festivals had for funding.
The B.C. Liberals have halted the distribution of all gaming money going to arts groups that don't focus directly on youth. But there was a small window of optimism about a remaining category called Fairs, Festivals and Museums.
No more. New eligibility criteria from the Ministry of Housing and Social Development says the only "festivals" allowed to access the gaming funding are "regional or local community heritage celebrations, fall fairs, rural fairs and cowboy days".
Disallowed? "Performing arts festivals, storytelling festivals, media and visual arts festivals".
Festivals are already receiving notice they're being turned down for funding. They better grab their stetson and saddle up: it's going to be a long ride.
Comments
4 Comments
Sandy Garossino
Sep 3, 2010 at 1:04pm
I have long supported and advocated for support for events like the Kamloops Cowboy Poetry Festival--the more that our arts can reflect the lives of our communities, the better.
So I celebrate their inclusion, at last, in eligibility for funding. It is the EXCLUSION of festivals with more urban focus that suggests there is an effort here to divide the province between urban and rural.
And BC's major cowboy festival is in Minister Krueger's riding.
Coincidence?
Ursa Minor
Sep 3, 2010 at 1:46pm
This move is nothing more than a sop to rural and remote ridings where Liberals MLAs are most endangered by the upcoming recall bids.
Also, if I really wanted to live in Alberta, I wouldn't have moved to Vancouver from Calgary 10 years ago.
Lindsay Brown
Sep 4, 2010 at 10:19am
Both points above are correct: this is a classic divide and rule move, and blatant electioneering in ridings where the BC Liberals are vulnerable.
I too am a fan of cowboy poetry but I'm not a fan of slush funds or political interference in the arts. The BC Liberals are the wrong kind of cowboy, attempting a kind of arrogant, lawless wild west brand of government that British Columbians are increasingly fed up with.
This is no different than promises to pave your driveway in return for your vote. Minister Coleman and his Gaming ministry need to be curbed and Gaming funds need to be distributed at arms-length from government! Enough is enough.
Bill Horne
Sep 7, 2010 at 9:31am
Sandy is right: INclusion, not EXclusion. Yes.
I don't think this is essentially a rural vs urban issue. The ArtsWells festival organized by Island Mountain Arts here in Wells in the north Cariboo is probably not going to qualify for the retrofitted gaming $$ rules.
I agree with Lindsay: the funds need to be arms-length. ALL the gaming money must be returned, and the Spirit Festival idea must be scrapped and those funds handed over to the BC Arts Council.
btw we are in NDP MLA Bob Simpson's riding.