Money restored for the arts not enough, groups say Creative ‘brain drain’ predicted as funding increase fails to make up for last year’s slashing
The provincial government has restored some funding to the arts, but advocates say it will not be sufficient to nurse the community back to health, still bruised from last year’s cuts in gaming grants and BC Arts Council funding.
This year’s budget allocates $46.1-million for the arts, which includes $10-million in funding from a new 2010 Sports and Arts Legacy Fund.
According to the budget, this marks a spending increase for arts and culture of just over $4-million from last year.
But arts groups are upset that funding wasn’t restored to 2008-09 levels, as recommended by the standing committee on finance.
“Some money has been restored, yeah, but it’s not anywhere near what is necessary to sustain the sector,” said Amir Ali Alibhai, executive director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture. “I guess on paper it looks good because we certainly didn’t see that 90-per-cent cut to the BC Arts Council that was indicated in the service plan [last September].”
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Comments
Hi Dean,
Thanks for your comment and information about the Actors Fund of Canada. I added a link to the fund under “blogroll”. Also happy to add a link to your blog as well. Interesting posts. Nice photos!
Thanks again and hope you enjoy reading BC Arts News.
Sheryl
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Hi Sheryl, I just found your BC Arts News Blog through the Alliance. There ae a lot of resources i was unaware of so thanx for that. Also I just posted a short story on my B Roll Blog about re the Actors Fund of Canada. Thought you would enjoy it as the Fund is not listed here.
Kind Regards,
Dean Buscher