But in the midst of that big-time belt-tightening, the B.C. Arts Council cut the conservatory’s grant to $55,000 this year from $110,000 last year. Then it restored $27,500, leaving a total shortfall of $27,500 Moreover, its gaming grant from the province was halved to $20,000.

The coincidence is “incredibly ironic” and “actually very sad,” says conservatory executive director Jane Butler McGregor.

The unpredictability of provincial support has meant that arts groups increasingly must grapple with grants taken away or reduced, then restored — partially or in stages. It’s confusing for the public to keep track of old money versus new, and the final tally after cuts versus reinstatements. It’s even tougher for most arts organizations on already stretched budgets to achieve stability in everything from rent to hiring performers for the coming year.

“I respect that they [the B.C. Arts Council] have a role that’s arm’s-length from the government,” Cadieux said by phone. “Government shouldn’t be in the business of determining artists’ merit.”

Cadieux, whose predecessor, Kevin Krueger, never agreed to interview requests submitted by the Straight, said she had spoken with arts-council chair Stanley Hamilton and would be meeting with him in person soon. “I like that there’s the peer-review process at the arts council that has that ability, with experts in the field and so on, to be distributing funding in a way that’s fair and accountable. I think that we want to make sure that they have the ability to do that job,” she said.

Recently appointed to the B.C. Arts Council board, Marchand was asked to comment on the departure of MLA Kevin Krueger after a controversial 18 months heading the ministry.

Krueger was appointed to the arts and culture post just as the provincial government reacted to the recession with hardnosed fiscal measures. Gaming funds were diverted to general revenue, meaning a loss of arts grants, and critical arts funding funnelled through the BCAC was slashed, amounting to a double whammy.

“He was certainly the face for very many unpopular announcements,” Marchand said.

The Victoria Symphony will receive $155,000 back and Pacific Opera Victoria and the Belfry Theatre are among Victoria performing and literary arts groups that will also benefit, B.C. Arts Council executive Gillian Wood told the Times Colonist.

About $2 million is being allocated to performing and literary arts applications that were made by March 15, with millions more due for distribution in January in response to this fall’s round of applications.

The money to be distributed comes from the $7 million in Legacy funds the province handed to the council in September, amid protests over previous funding cuts of about 50 percent.

Stanley Hamilton has been appointed as the council’s permanent chair by Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Kevin Krueger. Hamilton has been serving as acting chair of the B.C. Arts Council since Jane Danzo publicly resigned in August in protest over funding cuts and increasing control of the board by the arts ministry.

A professor emeritus at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, Hamilton sits on the Arts Club Theatre board and is former vice-chair of the B.C. Arts Council. Vancouver actor Jackson Davies, who was reappointed to the arts council board in 2009, has been appointed vice-chair. Davies is probably best known for his 16-year role as Constable John Constable on The Beachcombers.

Earlier this year, the arts community was in turmoil when the government announced deep cuts to funding, reducing the amount available in grants to about $9.1 million.

This led to the resignation of former chair Jane Danzo.

However, faced with protests from arts groups, Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Kevin Krueger later announced this amount would be topped up by a further $7 million in grants, bringing the total for 2010 to $16.1 million.

Lori Marchand said she’s hoping she will be that other voice when she begins her term with the B.C. Arts Council this month.

Marchand, general manager of Western Canada Theatre, said she’s known “as a bit of a mediator” and she is hoping that skill will also help her in her goal to “help the government undertand our position” in the arts community — that funding needs to be a priority.

“That doesn’t need to take away from other priorities like health or education,” Marchand said, “but the arts can be revenue-positive, too. Investing in the arts is good and the payback is there.”

It’s an initiative that’s being welcomed by queer arts groups who’ve felt the touch of the recent cuts to arts funding.

In the last budget, the BC Liberal-led government reduced the BC Arts Council’s funding by almost 50 percent, cutting its distribution amount to BC arts groups from about $14 million to $7.9 million.

As of early September, the government said its arts contributions were $16 million for the current fiscal year.

The Creativity Counts initiative is recruiting community arts champions in each riding to take the case for public investment to their local MLAs. Collectively, the organizations represent thousands of artists and community arts groups.

Q. The Chair of the BC Arts Council recently resigned. What was your reaction?

Jane Danzo’s resignation broke the logjam we’ve been stuck in for a year, so I was hugely relieved. She was a government appointee and she knows the premier personally, so her public stand against the Arts ministry was fairly explosive. It certainly won her the admiration of thousands of British Columbians concerned about arts and culture. Her letter of resignation protested two things: the government’s unreasonably devastating cuts to the BC Arts Council, and its political interference in BC arts and culture. It’s worth mentioning here that on both points, BC is quite unique in Canada. No other province has made arts cuts like these, and many provinces have in fact increased funding. And compared to other provinces, the BC Arts Council has only ever had a weak version of a proper “arm’s-length” relationship with government. Some have jokingly called it “wrist’s-length.” When the government eroded the last of the Council’s independence, Danzo of course had little choice but to quit in protest. About two weeks after her resignation, undoubtedly partly the result of her resignation, the government reversed its cuts somewhat by re-allocating $7 million back into the Council. This is an inadequate amount, but at least it will help the Council save a number of organizations from collapse. The Council must now pressure government for a proper arm’s-length relationship, and they need to get it in writing.

For 2010, $3 million has been put toward B.C. Spirit Festivals to be held in February, and $7 million has been provided to the B.C. Arts Council.

The B.C. government has said annual amounts of $10 million will also be available in 2011 and 2012.

“You’ve seen how we allocated this year’s [Legacy funds]. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Minister Kevin Krueger said when asked how the remaining funds will be allocated.

The council board held a special meeting Friday September 3, 2010 to review plans for allocating an additional $7 million in provincial funding, which increased the council’s budget to just over $16 million for the current fiscal year.

This additional funding has come from the 2010 Sports and Arts Legacy, a program designed, in part, to enhance opportunities in the arts for all British Columbians.

Interim chair Stanley Hamilton said some of the funds will be available to council operating clients who already applied last spring and those who apply this fall.

“It only seems fair that when money comes in mid-year that we should set something aside so we can go back and revisit that decision,” Hamilton told the Straight today (September 13).

“We’re trying to be even handed between those who have already been adjudicated this fiscal year and those yet come,” he added.

Art can be spiritual — at its best it is insightful, individual and even critical.

These qualities are not always aligned with governmental objectives.

There is a moment in Bruce Beresford’s film Mao’s Last Dancer in which we see ballet dancers, schooled during China’s cultural revolution, dancing as an act of propaganda. Expressionless, with red flags flying in the background, the dancers are more like soldiers, executing every step for a cause.

While we in Canada are philosophically and politically far removed from that kind of crushing control over art and expression, our cultural institutions are not immune to controversy. In the past year the B.C. Arts Council has been at the centre of a dramatic and often bitter debate between the provincial government and the arts community; a debate that was fuelled last spring by the slashing of the arts council’s budget, followed by the August resignation in protest of its chair, Jane Danzo, and finally, on Wednesday, the reinstatement of $7 million in funding.

Following BCs devestating series of arts cuts, Danzo felt it was necessary to resign from her position “in order to have a voice,” and it appears she was heard.

“In my opinion, the work of the BC Arts Council Board, has not been supported by government on a number of different levels,” expressed Danzo in her resignation letter.

The restoration of funding comes after more than a year of intense criticism and action from the BC arts community calling for a restoration of funding to 2008/09 levels. Despite council recommendations the provincial government originally put that funding towards an Arts Legacy Fund (written about by Tyler Morgenstern a few weeks ago).