BC Gaming
Select Standing Committee on Finance recommends increase in arts funding
The province’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services has recommended that arts funding be made a high priority in the 2011/12 budget. The bipartisan committee, which has been conducting hearings throughout the province since September 15, released its recommendations today. For the second year in a row, the committee called on the province [...]
North Vancouver: City aids funding-starved theatre: $25,000 gift helps Presentation House cope with gaming grant cut
The City of North Vancouver has produced $25,000 to help bail out Presentation House Theatre after the provincial government doubled back on a commitment to give the arts group gaming money. The theatre will be approaching the District of North Vancouver for the same amount. In his written report to city council, Ian Forsyth, director [...]
B.C. Association of Charitable Gaming heightens tensions
A city councillor says the provincial government could hold Vancouver’s social housing hostage if council sides with the B.C. Association of Charitable Gaming, which challenged the city to block gaming expansion. “The province can make it very difficult for us to proceed,” COPE councillor Ellen Woodsworth said. “They still haven’t funded the 14 sites that we’ve [...]
Non-profit groups say B.C. duped them over casino proceeds
A coalition of non-profit groups is calling on Vancouver city council to delay approval of a downtown casino complex until the province agrees to steer more gambling revenue to charities and the arts. “There are huge pressures on city council and on the city of Vancouver to get this thing signed, sealed and delivered so [...]
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 [...]
Non-profits take aim at gambling revenues
A coalition of British Columbia social and arts groups plan to launch a campaign Friday aimed at steering a greater portion of gambling revenues to non-profit groups. Organizers will also be calling on politicians to make funds for non-profits a condition for zoning changes that would be required for the construction of a proposed new Vegas-style casino [...]
Courtenay/Comox: Cultural funding reaches Valley
Three Comox Valley institutions are receiving a total of $8,800 in cultural funding from the B.C. government. The Comox Archives and Museum Society gets $5,000, the Sid Williams Theatre Society gets $2,000 and the Comox Valley Pipe Band Society receives $1,800. The money comes from a total of $662,740 in community gaming grants supporting youth [...]
Wells-based artist Bill Horne asks B.C. government to triple arts funding
An artist from the small Cariboo town of Wells is calling on the B.C. government to increase its funding of the arts. “The two main things I would like you to consider are the restoration of all Gaming monies to the non-profit sector, without any strings attached, and a tripling of the province’s investment in [...]
Terrace: Art gallery in need of money
EVEN WITH its recent fundraisers, the Terrace Art Association will be forced to close the art gallery if it can’t secure more financing after its provincial gaming grants were pulled earlier this year. Laura McGregor, Terrace Art Gallery coordinator, said the association has raised $8,000 through its membership drive, recent art auction, donations and membership [...]
Only cowboys and country fairs can hope for festival gaming funds
New eligibility criteria for gaming grants should dash any hopes local arts festivals had for funding. The B.C. Liberals have halted the distribution of all gaming money going to arts groups that don’t focus directly on youth. But there was a small window of optimism about a remaining category called Fairs, Festivals and Museums. No [...]
Olympics hangover endangers the arts in B.C. Our Vancouver correspondent: B.C. arts groups, facing deep budget cuts, are in an uproar over a plan to spend $30 million on post-Olympic ‘Spirit Festivals.’
This is the worst it’s ever been,” says Violet Goosen, general manager of the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Hers is one of many organizations reeling from cuts in provincial arts funding — cuts described as “devastating” by B.C. Arts Council chair Jane Danzo, in her recent letter of resignation. Canada’s arts funding model is closer to Europe’s [...]
Vancouver Island: Annual Bash in need of lifeline
The annual Vancouver Island Blues Bash could disappear because of provincial government funding cuts, say organizers. The loss of a 2011 provincial gaming grant means the 16-year-old music festival at Ship Point might not continue next year and beyond, said Darryl Mar, executive producer of the Victoria Jazz Society. The event attracts 15,000 people annually. [...]
Hilary Peach: B.C. government “hijacks” $10 million from cultural community
This originally appeared on the Poetry Gabriola blog. Way back when we learned that the BC Liberal government was planning to cut arts funding in B.C. by up to 92 percent (they settled for around 80 percent) all kinds of weird things were going on. Among them, Gaming was supposed to be administrating the B.C. [...]
Fringe organizer outraged, hurt by province’s reason for denying funding: Letter refusing grant argues festival doesn’t reflect community
Victoria Fringe Festival organizer Ian Case says he’s not surprised that the BC Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch has shut the popular festival out of grant money this year. But the reason cited in a letter from the province has outraged him. “Fairs and festivals that do not reflect the community, regional or cultural characteristics [...]
Gaming branch denies $42,500 application from producer of Victoria Fringe Festival
The primary B.C. government arts-funding organization, the provincial gaming policy and enforcement branch, has denied an application from the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival. The Intrepid Theatre Society has been producing the popular Victoria festival for 23 years. Intrepid’s general manager, Ian Case, told the Straight that his organization applied for $42,500 in gaming funds. In [...]
