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 organization.

He said it was over the alliance’s support of a petition by the B.C. Association for Charitable Gaming to the City of Vancouver. The petition asks council not to approve rezoning a site next to BC Place for a new Edgewater Casino.

Alibhai’s organization, along with other non-profit and charitable groups, are taking the action as part of an effort to push the provincial government to allocate more gambling money to charities.

See also: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra withdraws from Alliance for Arts and Culture

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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 of community, sport and cultural development. The word arts no longer appears in any ministry title.

“Does that mean that arts and culture are less of a priority?” asked Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture. “That was a bit concerning, that it’s not out there, and there was a time when the Liberals were really speaking a lot about arts and culture, and created the ministry responsible for arts and culture.”

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.

Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, said Victoria expanded gambling on the understanding that 33 per cent of profits would be plowed back into important social and community services. With the recent cuts to gambling grants to arts and community groups, that figure has been slashed to about 10 per cent.

Alibhai is calling for Premier Gordon Campbell’s provincial government to increase funding to at least 20 per cent of all gambling revenues.

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 their audiences, business partners, volunteers, and donors to stress to MLAs the benefits of a thriving cultural sector.

The initiative comes in response to B.C.’s consistent ranking among the bottom of all the provinces when it comes to per-capita arts funding. The B.C. Liberals have also made major cuts to gaming grants to arts groups and have cut core funding.

In its September 15 presentation at the prebudget hearings (to read the entire submission, click here), the alliance cited a Statistics Canada study from earlier this year showing that B.C. spent $9.67 per capita in 2007–08. The next-lowest figure was next door in Alberta, which spent $20.81 per capita on operating grants to the arts and culture sector. The national average was $26.73.

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 B.C. compares to other provinces in Canada.

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 cuts made to the budget of the BC Arts Council this apparently “no strings attached” funding will bring the Arts Council budget close to the high-water mark prior to the cuts of the last two years.

This is good news for clients of the BCAC and allows the Council to move forward with its own strategic plan.

The Alliance for Arts and Culture today called for Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger to “moderate his comments” in the wake of two radio interviews in which he referred to some arts advocates as being “vicious”, alluded to having been “threatened” in a meeting at the Alliance office last November, compared his experience in the meeting, with some 20 representatives of the arts community, to “an extortion process” and likened the group’s approach to “a junkie waving a needle”.

In an August 26 interview with Kathryn Gretsinger on CBC Radio One Minister Krueger said: “We had one (meeting) in Vancouver where I was actually threatened. It was like an extortion process” and “there are some people in the arts and culture community that are actually quite vicious.”

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 and Culture issued a press release saying Krueger has accused the group of threatening him and saying the group’s approach was like a junkie waving a needle.

“I think it’s easy to take things out of context, and that’s from both sides. It’s so easy to have things misconstrued or misinterpreted,” she said.

“We all have to work together. I hope it is patched up.”

Alliance executive director Amir Ali Alibhai said in the press release that the perceived threat occurred at a meeting between about 20 group members and Krueger last November.

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 events.

On September 1, Krueger was at it again, this time on a C-FAX Radio show hosted by Adam Stirling,

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 been allocated from a $10-million arts Legacy fund introduced at a time when the sector is reeling from the loss of core funding.

Under the B.C. Spirit Festivals program, grants of up to $50,000 each are available to arts councils and First Nations groups that apply before the deadline in early October.

The assembly, a nonprofit umbrella organization that mainly serves arts councils, has been asked to administer the funding in cooperation with the B.C. Arts Council.

Richoz said the Spirit Festivals program offers assembly members a much-needed chance to receive financial support.

To read the letter: http://www.straight.com/article-339897/vancouver/tom-durrie-asks-assembly-bc-arts-councils-oppose-kevin-kruegers-spirit-festivals

“This year is a hallmark of creative excellence and the continuation of strong artistic expressions from First Nations artists,” said Dr. Lorna Williams, Chair of the at the First Peoples’ Council Board. “Each year the quality of the proposals we receive increases, which demonstrates the growing capacity of Aboriginal arts administration in B.C.”

Kevin Krueger, minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, said the festivals will build on the success of the Cultural Olympiad, associated with the 2010 Winter Games

Krueger said he announced his proposal for spirit festivals at the Assembly of B.C. Arts Councils’ annual general meeting late this spring. But the Professional Arts Alliance of Greater Victoria’s Scott Walker says the proposal appears to be excluding professional arts groups such as those in his 17-member organization.