BC Arts Service Organization
VSO pulls out of arts alliance lobby after disagreement over advocacy
By Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun, December 2, 2010 The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has resigned from the province’s biggest arts lobby group over a petition regarding a rezoning application for an expanded Edgewater Casino. Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture, confirmed Wednesday that the VSO had pulled out of the [...]
B.C. cabinet shuffle erases arts
Premier Gordon Campbell’s cabinet shuffle has left members of B.C.’s arts community wondering what importance, if any, the B.C. Liberals will be giving to the creative sector in the coming months. The October 25 shuffle saw Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Kevin Krueger move to the Ministry of Social Development and rookie MLA Stephanie Cadieux appointed minister [...]
Call your MLA: new arts coalition urges British Columbians ARTS CUTS / ‘BC has the least arts funding per capita in Canada, which is appalling,’ Dennis says
The Assembly of BC Arts Councils, the BC Touring Council, the Vancouver-based Alliance for Arts and Culture and the ProArt Alliance of Greater Victoria are joining forces to encourage members of BC’s legislature to push for greater government support for arts and culture. It’s an initiative that’s being welcomed by queer arts groups who’ve felt [...]
Double community and arts funding, top lobbyist tells B.C., lliance of the province’s largest arts lobby groups says it should get a larger share of increasing gambling revenues
The provincial government should almost double funding to non-profit community and arts groups to $240 million a year as a way to help restore the social contract it has broken with the citizens of B.C., says the head of an alliance of the province’s biggest arts lobby groups. Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the [...]
Community Arts Champions to take message directly to province’s politicians
The province’s arts activists are recruiting “Community Arts Activists“ to work with MLAs in each B.C. riding. The project is being backed by the Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils. the B.C. Touring Council, Vancouver’s Alliance for Arts and Culture, and Victoria’s ProArt Alliance. The idea is to have delegations of people representing arts groups and [...]
Alliance for Arts and Culture pushes legislature’s finance committee
B.C. ranked last in the country among all provinces and territories in per capita operating funding allocated to arts and culture even before recent cuts. And it would take a $75-million annual provincial investment to bring B.C. up to the national average, according to the Alliance for Arts and Culture’s submission to the legislature’s committee [...]
Submissions highlight B.C. government’s dismal funding of the arts
The 10-member, bipartisan legislature committee on finance and government services has heard some comprehensive arguments for increasing the provincial investment in arts and culture. In the committee’s prebudget hearing in Vancouver on September 15, the Alliance for Arts and Culture and Headlines Theatre founder David Diamond each submitted thoroughly documented reports that showed how poorly [...]
BC ART ATTACK: Interview with Alliance for Arts and Culture’s Amir Ali Alibhai
Amir Ali Alibhai is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture in BC. Q – The BC government this past week restored some funding to the arts after heavy advocacy by supporters of the arts. To what degree will this make up for the cuts that happened? In terms of the recent [...]
The Alliance for Arts and Culture calls on arts minister Kevin Krueger to “moderate his comments”
The following is a formal response from the Alliance for Arts and Culture to Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger, after his comments yesterday likening the group’s tactics to “a junkie waving a needle”. The alliance represents about 330 arts groups and artists from a variety of disciplines. The Alliance for Arts and [...]
Krueger stands by comments arts group threatened him
A war of words between a Vancouver-based arts organization and Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister Kevin Krueger is hopefully just a misunderstanding, the manager for Western Canada Theatre said Friday. But Krueger stood his ground that the alliance made an outright threat against him. Lori Marchand made the comment after hearing the Alliance for Arts [...]
Kevin Krueger says arts-funding threats were “no different than a junkie waving a needle”
For the second time in just over a week, Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Kevin Krueger has claimed he was threatened by the Alliance for Arts and Culture. In late August, he alleged that an unknown arts organization in Vancouver basically practised “extortion” against him in a meeting. The alliance offered a radically different version [1] of [...]
Provincial arts funding creates friction
Joan Richoz, president of the Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils, admits the province’s Spirit Festivals program is a touchy subject, but maintains the grants will benefit many communities. In late July, the B.C. government announced it would set aside $3 million for “arts and culture festivals” that must be held in February 2011. The festival money has [...]
Tom Durrie asks Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils to refuse to disperse spirit festival funding
Former B.C. Arts Council member Tom Durrie has written an open letter to the president of the Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils. Durrie wants Joan Richoz to refuse to disperse funds for B.C. spirit festivals to be held in the month of February. To read the letter: http://www.straight.com/article-339897/vancouver/tom-durrie-asks-assembly-bc-arts-councils-oppose-kevin-kruegers-spirit-festivals
B.C. First Nations and Aboriginal Artists and Arts Organizations Awarded AADA Grants
The First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council (the First Peoples’ Council) today announced that the Aboriginal Arts Development Awards (AADA) program has this year awarded 47 grants totaling $540,000 to Aboriginal and First Nations artists and organizations working in all artistic disciplines across the province. Proposals are accepted annually from First Nations and Aboriginal [...]
Festivals set for 2011
The B.C. government plans to fund arts-centric festivals, dubbed “spirit festivals,” throughout B.C. in February but what’s unclear is what, if any, role professional arts groups will have in the festivals. Kevin Krueger, minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, said the festivals will build on the success of the Cultural Olympiad, associated with the [...]
