arts advocacy
Sandy Garossino: Arts cost little but could have big political impact in B.C.
The following is an unedited response by Sandy Garossino, Alliance for Arts and Culture board member and advocacy task force chair, to a Georgia Straight news item, “Liberals clarify B.C. Spirit Festivals plan to arts groups”. This comment was originally posted on the Alliance’s Facebook page. Having these grants administered by independent peer review and based on population is [...]
Arts and culture community hears call to work together on government lobbying
Arts and culture groups must balance their individual needs with those of the entire sector to better lobby for B.C. government support, says the manager of a Vancouver drama company. “We need to act and speak together,” said Ivan Habel of Green Thumb Theatre. Habel called for a more co-ordinated approach to advocacy in an address [...]
Sunshine Coast: Gov’t arts funding arbitrary (letter)
In recent weeks, it has become clear that the B.C. government has been pursuing an erratic and dangerous course with regard to funding of the arts and culture through the Gaming Direct Access program. I am writing as a voter, a citizen, a taxpayer and an artist to urge you to reverse this course of [...]
Alliance for Arts and Culture fights back with statement on gaming funding changes
The Alliance for Arts and Culture is lashing back at Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman, who is set to cut arts festivals and others out of gaming funding. Last week, the minister was quoted saying the arts technically should be able make a profit through ticket sales and don’t qualify as true charities. [...]
Vancouver: Band and strings program granted temporary reprieve
Vancouver Technical’s concert band played composer John Philip Sousa’s The Liberty Bell march outside the Vancouver Art Gallery earlier this week during Music Monday–a Canada-wide event promoting music education in public schools. An estimated 700,000 students from across the country participated, but the local performance underscored the Vancouver School Board’s struggle to maintain the district’s [...]
Arts groups converge for Culture Days
Organizers of Culture Days, a new national celebration of arts and culture, are hoping it becomes the country’s biggest public participation program undertaken by the arts and cultural community. The idea is for groups to present free activities for the public from Sept. 24-26. Culture Days was inspired by Quebec’s annual Journees de la culture [...]
Amid cutbacks, schools uniting to celebrate arts
A countrywide sing-song that involves 180 B.C. schools is being organized to celebrate the arts as education officials make cuts to address budget shortfalls. Norman Mould, president of the Coalition for Music Education in B.C., is helping organize Music Monday on May 3. School board trustees are likely to “(cut) programs that they see as [...]
Culture Days to be Canada-wide
Culture Days, an event that invites the public to see behind the scenes in the creation of arts and culture in their own community, is going Canada-wide this year. Plans for Culture Days in all 10 provinces and three territories were announced Tuesday across the country. Janice Price, Luminato CEO and chair of the Ontario [...]
Mainstream media mum on broad coalition’s planned protest
The Coalition for a Better B.C. rally scheduled for noon this Saturday outside the Vancouver Art Gallery may be the biggest political event you never heard of, if you rely on the province’s mainstream media. Over thirty arts, labour, feminist, ecological and community groups have endorsed the gathering and it will be hosted by legendary [...]
Twenty reasons to back arts alliance
Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts? That Gabrielle Roy quote is on every $20 bill. It’s small, but it’s there — on the same side as the drawing of the Bill Reid sculpture that graces the Vancouver airport terminal. Sounds like “art” is important to this country, doesn’t it? [...]
Stuff’s in store for wordsmith Shane Koyczan
Shane Koyczan is actually enjoying some relative quiet when the Straight reaches him at his Penticton home. This is his only interview for the entire day. In 24 hours, he’ll head to Toronto and back into the hot glare of the international media blitz sparked by his stirring, gold-medal performance of the spoken-word piece “We [...]
Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance Celebrates World Theatre Day, 3/27
2010 will mark the seventh year that The Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance has organized local World Theatre Day celebrations. While World Theatre Day was established by the InterNational Theatre Institute on March 27th, 1961, many theatre artists are still unfamiliar with this one day a year when we commemorate Theatre. This year’s WTD celebrations [...]
Enderby council supports the arts
Enderby politicians are hitting the road to support the arts. Council members have agreed to put Enderby Arts Council bumper stickers on city vehicles. “They promote the arts council and we want to pique the public’s interest,” said Mayor Dee Wejr. “All of council is also putting them on their personal vehicles.” One bumper sticker features [...]
Made in Vancouver hits the street: Festival flourishes in face of arts cuts
When the provincial government announced bone-deep cuts to B.C.’s arts and culture scene in September, Vancouver artists Dianna David and Charity Zapanta decided to fight back. The longtime collaborators–Zapanta a behind-the-scenes producer of David’s roving, clowning, dancing one-woman school show Take a Closer Look–formed I Heart Van Art, an organization dedicated to celebrating the rich [...]
Teachers rally to protect school music programs
With looming cuts of up to $3 million as the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district prepares its budget for 2010-11, efforts are being made to protect what’s left of a once-mighty music program that spawned such local legends as Diana Krall and Allison Crowe. Norman Mould, president of the Coalition for Music Education in B.C., said that [...]
