Will Vancity candidates support the Sacco arts recommendations?

The Georgia Straight has a story on the site today (March 18) about the current election campaign at Vancity. A dozen candidates are vying for three positions on the board.

Members of the credit union can vote by mail or they can vote in most branches between March 27 and April 4.

This is an election that should be of interest to anyone with a connection to the arts in Vancouver. One director, former NDP cabinet minister Bob Williams, has alleged that the Action Slate-controlled board has put the brakes on recommendations in a major report on the arts.

Professor Pier Luigi Sacco's 2007 report included 14 recommendations between pages 52 to 58  to the Vancity board. They included:

* establishing an arts advocate on staff to coordinate development in this important sector

* make funding available for sponsorship of original art projects reflecting life in Vancouver

* consider an honourary role of "Artist in Residence", on a rotating two-year appointment, with an honourarium of $50,000 per year

* commence a process that would result in 20 percent of annual grants to community and nonprofit organizations going to the arts and cultural community

* consider specific funding approaches for the arts that support cooperative approaches

* become an advocate and partner in the development of an arts hub at 301 East Hastings Street

* support the creation of a "book bank" to facilitate access to cultural opportunities by the socially marginalized as well as the broader community

* encourage local ownership and management of Granville Island through the creation of a community Arts & Culture Trust

I'm wondering how the candidates for the Vancity board of directors feel about these recommendations. If elected, would they support these initiatives at Vancity board meetings?

There's a comment space below. I welcome their responses.

Comments

6 Comments

wendyholm

Mar 18, 2009 at 3:52pm

As a Vancity Director, remain deeply committed to supporting the Sacco Report, which is about embedding creativity as a crosscutting theme throughout our community. Canada regularly ranks 4th or 5th in terms of the creativity of our young people but our cities regularly rank amongst the lowest in the world. This has economic as well as cultural and social consequences. To achieve our potential as a livable region, the paradigm needs to shift from the post-industrial "I am what I possess" to the far more creative "I am what I experience". The Sacco Report lays out the pivotal role Vancity can play in helping the arts community to achieve this vision, and as a Vancity Director I am committed to supporting that. Wendy Holm, Director, Vancity

trent1280

Mar 18, 2009 at 4:03pm

The Sacco Report is a thoughtful and wide-ranging assessment of the power of the arts to create and animate community. It examines in remarkable detail a 'Fertile Crescent' of artists now living and working from South False Creek through Strathcona to the DTES. It suggests ways we might become a world capital of the arts.

It offers examples from the work of other cities and institutions in building on present strength. It proposes ways that Vancity, Canada's largest credit union, might take the lead in italicizing, financing and leveraging these great opportunities.

Vancity, which showed one way with its $1 million grant to the arts, now has an opportunity to show another. Wealth means a good deal more than money in the bank. It also means creativity, innovation and genius at every level. A credit union can help bring these forces together. The Sacco Report shows a powerful means of doing so.

hannah-pls

Mar 18, 2009 at 7:16pm

It looks to me like a BCGEU takeover of Vancity is in the works. Charlie Smith's excellent article could have added two more facts.

1. Current Action Slate Chair Patrice Pratt comes from the BCGEU, and has endorsed the three Action Slate Candidates.

2. New Action Slate candidate Jan O'Brien, married to City Councillor Geoff Meggs, works full-time for the BCGEU, but never mentions this anywhere.

Voters need to know where their loyalties lie. It was disappointing to learn that Ms O'Brien had never even "heard of" the Sacco Arts Report.

The arts are a low priority with the Action Slate.

Kim Griffith

Mar 18, 2009 at 8:30pm

Canada, and the greater Vancouver area, are on the brink of becoming another world leader in arts and culture much like has been demonstrated in Italy and elsewhere.

North American culture has left gaping holes in its support of a cultural supporting network and it is grappling to adopt a new/old strategy for constructing a meaningful, sustainable, rewarding identity.

The Easterlin Curve demonstrates that happiness and income have a strong correlation up to $16,000 because the basic human needs must be satisfied first. But as income exceeds this, mankind begins to see income and happiness as two gradually diverging entities. People begin to search for happiness in different ways and societies become richer for this.

Vancity can fill the role of system activator in a renaissance of new support to groups and individuals that can generate a richer fulfillment and this will give a value added benefit for our members and our communities.

I am committed to finding that new future and believe that Vancity can play a pivotal role.

Kim Griffith, director, Vancity

Lisa Barrett

Mar 19, 2009 at 5:14pm

The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in.

Northrop Fry—?'The Educated Imagination'

A community is not defined so much by its geographical boundaries as by its shared cultural identities. The communities that Vancity serves in Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Squamish areas are rich in talent and diversity and already bubble with artistic activity. And make no mistake: artistic activity IS economic activity. I believe Vancity is well-positioned to help the arts flourish just as we have supported environmental and social justice activity that has proven to deepen community roots and create bonds and networks between people and places.

As a former contemporary art gallery owner and occasional stage actor, I know full well the sweat equity that goes into these labours of love but I also know the community benefits that flow from creating opportunities to share the true wealth around in deeply meaningful ways.

To answer your question directly, Charlie: I DID support the Sacco Report when it came to the Vancity Board and I WILL support initiatives that flow from this report and encourage our staff include the arts in our "Redefining Wealth" strategic planning.
lisa.barrett.forvancity@gmail.com www.re-electyourboard.ca

EVan

Mar 21, 2009 at 6:26pm

As a Vancity member, I have to say my priority is that my money brings in a high return. The people who I'd want to be directors would need to understand how to shelter investments from the economic downturn. It would also soothe my conscience if the money is invested in socially and environmentally responsible ways. If Vancity would like to donate some money for local community development, that is fine, but please remember my priority is to see high returns on my investments. If that's not your priority too as a director, then you shouldn't be running.