Culture Matters
Don’t Torch the Arts!
You may have seen Touchstone’s Artistic Director Katrina Dunn on the cover of the Province and in one of many television clips speaking out against the provincial government’s refusal to follow through with multi-year commitments to charitable organizations through the BC Gaming Commission. Thank you to everyone who expressed their support for Touchstone through that difficult time. Enormous public outcry forced the BC government to change their minds and honour these commitments, but this is only one of the many threats we are facing.
Right now arts and culture organizations and artists working in British Columbia are under attack, as are other social profit sectors such as education and amateur sports. All across the world governments continue to invest in ALL sectors in an effort to generate economic recovery. NOT IN BC.
MASSIVE cuts are underway to a sector which generates $5.2 billion annually, reaps returns to the provincial treasury through tax revenues of $1.05 to $1.36 to each dollar invested, and ensures 80,000 jobs in BC.
How MASSIVE are the massive cuts? The situation is unprecedented in the history of arts funding in Canada. In the September 2009 update to the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture’s Service Plan a cut of 85 % for 2010/11 and 92% for 2011/12 has been revealed. And with the arts and culture no longer considered a priority for the receipt of Gaming revenues, these funds may disappear completely. No other province has proposed cutting the arts as a remedy for economic woes – this is only happening in BC.
If the numbers provided in the Service Plan is combined with the information available regarding the BC Gaming Commission’s commitments, the following picture emerges (courtesy of the Alliance for Arts and Culture):
BC Provincial Arts And Culture Funding 2008-2012 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funding Source |
2008/2009
|
2009/2010 Sept
|
2010/2011
|
2011/2012
|
| Arts and Culture |
19.545
|
3.675
|
2.249
|
2.175
|
| BC Arts and Culture Endowment |
8.33
|
1.5
|
1.5
|
1.5
|
| BC Gaming Commission |
19.8
|
8.9
|
|
|
| Gaming Transfer to BC Arts Council |
|
10.9
|
|
|
| Supplementary Estimates |
|
7
|
|
|
| Multiyear Commitments |
|
3.2
|
3.2
|
|
| TOTAL |
47.675
|
35.175
|
6.949
|
3.675
|
Note 1: For Arts and Culture & BC Arts and Culture Endowment Funds - these include support for the BC Arts Council AS WELL as groups such as Music BC, book publishers, etc. who are not funded through the BC Arts Council
Note 2: 09/10 Total funding amount may increase slightly due to gaming funds granted prior to freeze in Mar/Apr 09 - the total of this amount has not been released by BC Gov
Note 3: Multi-year funding commitment amounts will also change when the total release to arts groups is made public by the BC Gov - estimated at $2-3M
This grey square is the image chosen by the artistic community to visualize the bottom line of this table – a life with way less art. What does it mean to you the audience? The disappearance or disabling of many of your favorite arts organizations and the impoverishment of many of your favorite artists, higher priced tickets, less art in schools, less access to arts activities and less choices overall, decreases in revenues from tourism, and finally a negative impact on your quality of life.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. We need you to ACT. We need to show the BC government that the citizens of BC think CULTURE MATTERS. Here’s what you can do:
Email and write personalized letters to your MLA, letting them know that you disapprove of these cuts. Be civil and passionate. Talk about how the arts are essential to your quality of life in BC. Help us remind elected officials of what is important and why we elect them.
Here are a couple of talking points which Touchstone is supporting:
- The government should go back to first principles and fund the BC Arts Council through legislative appropriation, and gaming through gaming.
- Any reduction in BC Arts Council investment from 08/09 levels should be kept in line with the 7% discretionary grant reduction outlined by the Ministry of Finance in the February 2009 budget. We as a sector are willing to do our part, but do not believe we should be asked to tolerate devastation.
- The government should comply with the memorandum of understanding about gaming investments, and its implied social contract with all British Columbians, and commit to reaching the 33% investment level mandated by the memorandum.
- The government should make a clear and unambiguous public commitment to the Arts and Culture sector of BC.
Get a list of MLA’s and their contact info at http://www.leg.bc.ca/MLA/3-1-7.htm
Email and write personalized letters also to Premier Campbell, Minister Krueger and Minister Coleman:
Hon. Gordon Campbell (Premier) gordon.compbell.mla@leg.bc.ca
Hon. Kevin Krueger (Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts) kevin.krueger.mla@leg.bc.ca
Hon. Rich Coleman (Minister of Housing and Social Development ~ in charge of Gaming Funds – Direct Access Program) rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca
TALK about all this to your friends, family and co-workers. Help raise the profile of this protest.
If you want to discuss this situation or your response with Touchstone’s Artistic Director Katrina Dunn, please email her at katrina@touchstonetheatre.com or call her at the office 604-709-9973 x 2.
Thanks!
Touchstone Theatre
In moments of crisis, only imagination is more important than knowledge.
- Albert Einstein
A few good resources
The Alliance for Arts and Culture
Facebook page: “Organizing against Campbell’s cuts to the arts”
Article in the Georgia Straight by Susan Marsden, president of the British Columbia Association for Charitable Gaming