The Arts Community Makes The Case
Momentum has been gathering inOntario’s arts and culture community to ensure that the arts receive their fair share of public funds. In June, representatives of the arts community came together for two different meetings with the Honourable Caroline Di Cocco, Minister of Culture, to support the Ontario Arts Council’s business case request for more funding.
At both meetings, facilitated by OAC chair Martha Durdin and executive director, John Brotman, the Minister heard very persuasive arguments about the need for additional resources for Ontario ’s arts community.
The first meeting involved the province’s large anchor organizations, the Canadian Opera Company, the Canadian Stage Company, Harbourfront Centre, the National Ballet of Canada, the Shaw Festival, the StratfordFestival and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Representatives spoke very convincingly about the specific needs in their sectors and about the challenges that come with running large arts organizations. For most of them, public funding not only supports operating costs but funds work that involves artistic risk-taking.
The Canadian Opera Company’s new opera house and the expenses incurred with the move to a new performance venue for both the COC and the National Ballet have presented significant extra costs.
For Stratford and Shaw, still bouncing back from the effects of SARS on the tourism industry, the experience underlined their need to diversify revenue sources and rely less on box office.
To keep ticket prices accessible, all of these organizations are constantly searching for new sources of revenue, from corporate sponsors to other more surprising sources (in the case of Harbourfront, from boat mooring fees).
The TSO instituted its innovative TSoundcheck program to reach out to new audiences in the under 30 age bracket. All of these organizations provide important arts education programs. However vital, these programs do not generate revenue.
The anchor organizations are complex economic engines that not only employ artists, but carpenters, stage hands, box office staff, administrators, and many others who contribute to their communities. Their need for stable operating funding is imperative.
The second meeting involved a diverse group of individual artists and representatives from small to mid-sized arts organizations. Several themes emerged.
Touring, Aboriginal Arts and Partnerships
Both Danis Goulet, filmmaker and executive director of the Aboriginal media arts festival, ImagineNative, and Joël Beddows, artistic director of the Théâtre La Catapulte in Ottawa, talked about the importance of touring to northern communities, even if the strain on resources, both financial and human, made it seem unfeasible.
Joël recounted that he had recently passed up on an invitation to take the company to Paris , but was determined to find ways to perform in northern Ontario next fall.
Danis spoke about managing growth of activity at ImagineNative, the largest festival of its kind in the world, with no additional dollars to hire staff.
Ballet Jörgen Canada is a company that is also committed to extensive touring and has taken on an important partnership with George Brown College.
As the company’s artistic director and CEO of George Brown Dance, Bengt Jörgen addressed the challenge of balancing production and creation with touring demands.
He also talked about his work with George Brown College and the impact of the dance program on the students. These students become advocates and arts consumers whether or not they pursue a career in professional dance.
Barry Ace, a visual artist and member of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, explained its historical significance. The collective provides the first government supported opportunity for Aboriginals to produce curatorial and academic work about the Aboriginal visual artists.
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Arts Education and Arts in Communities
Jane Howard Baker, executive director of Inner City Angels, told the assembled group that arts education “builds resilience through self-esteem, confidence and knowledge of community” for vulnerable kids.
She talked about the variety of challenges faced by artists who work with children at risk. Sometimes those challenges may appear mundane but are in fact significant.
For instance, artists living in the core of the city may not have access to a car, while the children from low-resourced communities may live in outlying areas of the Greater Toronto Area where there is limited public transportation.
Asma Mahmood a visual artist and founding board member of the South Asian Visual Arts Collective (SAVAC), spoke passionately about the importance of reaching artists in all communities, and that organizations such as SAVAC provide a network and support to new Canadians from South Asian communities.
The value of arts education and community arts in helping new immigrants as they transition to life in Canada was echoed by Jahan Zeb, visual artist and program consultant for Hamilton’s Immigrant Culture and Art Association.
COBA or the Collective of Black Artists is another organization that serves a specific art form in a specific community. Co-artistic director and choreographer BaKari Lindsay, reinforced COBA’s role in supporting the unique artistic voice and the potential in the black community.
Lisa Fitzgibbons, a francophone filmmaker and visual artist, talked about the need for more access to visual arts training for francophones as well as access to production faciltities for francophone filmmakers.
Andrew Craig, musician and CBC radio host, talked about the rich cross-pollination that is happening now between the various art forms and emphasized how uniquely placed Ontario is to support this through its multicultural society.
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Publishing
Brick Literary Journal features the work of Canada ’s foremost authors but distribution challenges make it difficult for taxpayers to know about the availability of Brick.
Michael Redhill, author and publisher, was concerned that Brick’s flatline budget context makes it difficult for them to grow and provide more space for writers.
Patrick Crean, publisher for Thomas Allen Publishing, pointed to the successful nurturing of Canadian writers who over the past 20 years have established themselves internationally. Yet over this timeframe, Canadian-owned publishers have witnessed the large multinational publishers encroach on their markets.
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The value of the R & D work of artists was made by David Liss, director and curator of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), Peter Hatch, composer and artistic director of the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener-Waterloo and Wayne Strongman, artistic director of both Tapestry New Opera Works and the Algoma Arts Festival. Last year, MOCCA, an OAC-funded public art gallery, moved to Toronto’s Queen Street West district to build audiences.
David compared the work of visual artists to that of the science and technology sectors where the bulk of the work is in the research and development phase.
MOCCA co-presents exhibitions with institutions outside of Canada and partners with businesses and other government agencies to show work that is later taken on by commercial galleries.
Peter talked about the relationship between a large music organization and a composer’s development. He pointed out that most established artists must find ways to supplement their incomes and even then many live just above poverty levels.
Wayne used the example of Tapestry New Opera’s mandate to produce new work, to reinforce that for some organizations, the artistic risk-taking means no box office guarantee.
Kim Tomczak, filmmaker, University of Toronto educator and executive director of Vtape, praised the Ontario Arts Council’s peer review process for allocating public money.
He addressed the fact that training institutions are producing highly qualified artists who are seeking to build careers in a very competitive environment. For example, it is easier now to get into U of T’s law school than it is to get into U of T’s masters program in fine arts!
Tim Jones, whose organization Artscape was hosting a workshop that day on creative community building, emphasized the need to be strategic in aligning the arts agenda with those of education, economic development and urban planning sectors.
Tim advocated for the integration of creative life in our communities as a counterweight to market forces. He said we need to be more sophisticated in the 21st century in our approach to the creative sector.
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Throughout the presentation, Minister Di Cocco asked searching questions and expressed interest in the diverse activities of Ontario ’s artists. She spoke eloquently about the role the arts play in the cultural life of our society. Minister Di Cocco also reaffirmed her commitment to improving the socio-economic status of artists.
For more information, contact Kirsten Gunter, OAC Communications Manager, kgunter@arts.on.ca.