Login / Register2012 cultural operating and project grants to go before Vancouver council
The City of Vancouver’s 2012 cultural operating and project grant allocations go before council on Tuesday (April 17). Staff are recommending $6,840,500 operating grants for 100 organizations; $521,800 in project grants for 64 organizations; and $106,800 in additional one-time grants for 13 groups.
Among the 100 recommended recipients of operating grants are the Arts Club of Vancouver Theatre Society ($155,000, the same as in 2011); Bard on the Beach Theatre Society ($27,500, up from $22,000 in 2011); Full Circle: First Nations Performance Society ($10,000, down from $10,000 in 2011); the Museum of Vancouver ($758,000); Public Dreams Society ($17,500, same as in 2011); the Vancouver Art Gallery ($2.18 million, same as 2011); and the Vancouver Symphony Society ($44,000, down from $50,000 in 2011).
Among the 64 recipients of project grants are the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres ($25,000, up from $9,000 in 2011); 605 Collective Dance Society ($10,550, up from $8,000 in 2011); and Blackbird Theatre ($8,000, up from $7,000 in 2011). New societies being recommended for project grants for the first time include City Opera Vancouver ($2,500); Craning Neck Theatre ($7,000); Indian Summer Arts Society ($5,000); and Tigermilk Collective Society ($5,000).
Thirteen organizations are also being recommended for special one-time grants, including Redshift Music Society ($2,500, in addition to a $12,500 project grant); the Canadian Music Centre ($6,950, in addition to a $23,000 operating grant); Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society ($10,000, in addition to a $36,000 operating grant); and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Society ($10,000, in addition to a $76,000 operating grant).
The staff report recommending the grants notes that the economic downturn of recent years and reductions in public and private-sector funding have impacted many organizations. In future, according to the report, cultural grants “will be part of a corporate-wide granting strategy that will include, among other things, strategies to leverage other grants and types of support, where possible.”
The report also noted that “while the city is recognized as a stable funding source for a sector that has been seriously destabilized over the past four years, the lack of any increase in the grants budget over last year prevented the assessment committee’s ability to make new strategic investments in core organizations that are performing well, and to recommend new organizations into the operating and project grant pool.”
The full list of recipients can be found in the staff report.
