Arts community’s struggles continue
While his industry has been crippled by provincial-government cuts to arts funding, Keith Higgins isn’t short of work these days, even though he’s not getting paid for all the hours he does work. The Vancouver-based visual artist and activist, known for organizing his community to speak out against arts-funding cuts, was hired last month to resurrect the Helen Pitt Gallery from dire financial straits. That’s no easy feat, considering the 35-year-old artist-run gallery lost its Railtown space in October 2009 because staff could no longer afford the lease. The Helen Pitt was among a number of arts organizations to be notified in August 2009 that its gaming grants (diverted from provincial gambling revenues) were facing deep cuts.
“The largest budget item they had was the lease; space is expensive in Vancouver,” says Higgins. “We couldn’t get a lease, couldn’t pay salaries to staff. You need to take drastic steps to find money from somewhere else. What makes that more difficult is that everybody is doing the same thing.”
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