arts funding cuts
BC ART ATTACK: Interview with VIVO General Manager Emma Hendrix
Emma Hendrix is a multi-media artist and sound designer. He is the General Manager of VIVO Media Arts Centre. Q – How has VIVO been impacted by the cuts to the arts? How has this impacted artists? This year VIVO was pretty lucky in terms of funding. We are one of the few organizations who [...]
BC ART ATTACK: Interview with Artspeak Director Melanie O’Brian
Melanie O’Brian is the Director of Artspeak Gallery in Vancouver. Q – How has Artspeak been impacted by the cuts to the arts? How has this impacted artists? How has your publications program been impacted? Artspeak has been impacted by the BCAC (BC Arts Council) cuts in that we cannot produce any new publications this [...]
Duncan: CVAC weighs options in gallery closure
The Cowichan Valley Arts Council will likely have to close its gallery doors at the end of September. But they’re working with Cowichan Valley Regional District to look at options and strategies on keeping the local arts scene alive. “Now is the time we have to act and everything we do is collaborative. We simply [...]
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 [...]
Nanaimo: Arts groups struggle despite boost
It’s good news that the provincial government reinstated $7 million of arts and culture funding, but it won’t help one Nanaimo theatre company, said its artistic director. The money will help bigger, more established arts organizations in B.C. with operating costs but will not assist Western Edge Theatre, which is a smaller, younger organization that [...]
BC ART ATTACK: Interview with PAARC President Keith Higgins
Keith Higgins is the President of PAARC (Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres) and the Director of the Helen Pitt Gallery. He is also one of the founders of Artspeak Gallery. Q – The Helen Pitt Gallery, like many small arts organizations, has been severely impacted by the cuts to arts funding. Can you describe [...]
The B.C. Arts Council is caught between the arts community and the government that funds it, The separation of art and state
The separation of art and state is, to many, as sacrosanct as the separation of church and state. 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 [...]
Triumph for BC arts community
Just two weeks following the resignation of Jane Danzo, Chair of BC Arts Council, the Government reorganized its funding to provide an additional $7 million to the BC Arts Council, increasing the council’s budget to just over $16 million for this fiscal year. Following BCs devestating series of arts cuts, Danzo felt it was necessary to [...]
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 [...]
Last-minute funding reprieve for B.C. publishers
Following a barrage of criticism in response to recent cuts to the arts, the B.C. government has restored partial funding to the B.C. Arts Council, the provincial body that disperses monies to cultural organizations. The announcement comes as a welcome surprise to B.C. publishers, many of which expected to see their provincial funding cut by [...]
Prince George: Arts group hopes for funding restoration
The Executive Director of the Prince George and District Community Arts Council says her organization has been treading water since their BC Arts Council funding was cut by almost forty percent from last year’s levels. Wendy Young hopes that will change now that the province has announced the BC Arts Council will receive seven million [...]
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 [...]
Performer turns busker to raise awareness, Dancer Ziyian Kwan takes her concerns about B.C.’s arts funding to the street
Facing an uncertain future as a dancer in Vancouver, Ziyian Kwan decided to do what she does best. She started dancing in public as a protest against the provincial government’s cuts to arts funding. What surprised Kwan is how her very individual action has snowballed. Her two hours of dancing at Kingsway and Main on [...]
Canadian Dance Assembly calls B.C. arts cuts “scorched earth policy”
The following is an open letter, dated August 26, addressed to Premier Gordon Campbell: Dear Premier Campbell, I am writing you on behalf of the Canadian Dance Assembly in response to the recent and devastating decisions made in British Columbia in the field of arts and culture, affecting our daily mission as a national dance [...]
Minister slams B.C. arts funding
Federal Heritage minister James Moore heaped cash and praise on local arts and cultural groups yesterday for their contributions to the economy, in what some saw as a slight to the B.C. government. “Any government which says it has a plan for economic recovery and doesn’t have a plan in place for arts and culture [...]
