NEWS: Creative communities enraged by cuts to arts funding

Despite the provincial government’s reinstatement of some of the gambling-revenue funding it withdrew from arts and community groups at the beginning of the month, many of those affected remain outraged that full funding has not been restored.

On the heels of widespread outcry when groups learned of severe funding cuts in the week the B.C. budget was announced, the provincial government announced September 2 that it would restore about $25 million in grants to the arts and culture sector. Critics say that isn’t enough — and a consequence will be job losses across the province.

Clad in grey clothes to demonstrate what the world would look like without the arts, hundreds of members of B.C.’s arts and culture community gathered in Vancouver and Victoria on September 9 to protest the 85- to 92-per-cent funding cuts expected by 2012.

For Florence Barrett, a Simon Fraser University theatre student who attended the Vancouver rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, those cuts will be devastating to her hometown of Fernie, B.C., where she has worked as the assistant curator at the town’s museum. “The money we get from the gaming fund is our operational money... Without this money, we’re screwed,” she says.

“The community is coming forward and we raised a bunch of money this summer, but even with that, the city isn’t going to pay for it. We don’t have enough people to get tax money like that.”

Similar to other arts groups who only learned of the cuts by reading the news or checking their bank accounts, Barrett says the government didn’t give the Fernie Museum any notice. “The money disappeared, and then we got a notice from the B.C. Museum Association. Still no word from the government,” she says. “We’re in a rural community... How are you going to get your exposure to arts and culture? How are you going to imagine and dream beyond your borders? You’re not. You’re going to be stuck in the mountains.”

During the B.C. Legislature’s opening sessions earlier this month, NDP arts critic and Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert debated the cuts against housing and social development minister Rich Coleman. This week, Coleman told mainstream media that non-profit and charity organizations are not entitled to guaranteed gaming grant money, adding that grants are assessed every year on the basis of merit. In a legislative sitting September 1, Coleman responded to Herbert’s criticisms by saying that funds had been reapplied across the gaming-grant program to take care of people in need. “You have to look at the envelope of money and say, ‘What’s best? Where is the humanity in the decision in a grant program?’” Coleman said. “The decision we made, and the recommendation I made to government, was that we would protect services to children first, services to those most in need second; that we would actually fund some meals and some shelters in B.C. for people who are suffering from mental-health issues and addictions in the province of British Columbia.”

In an interview at the arts rally last week, Herbert told WE that Coleman was setting up false arguments. “Anybody who’s watched the legislature knows that the B.C. government has done next to nothing to support children in poverty,” he says. “They’ve set up this false argument to try to cause a fight between various sectors who are all being hit very hard, with the hope that we’ll fight among ourselves.”

Vancouver city councillor Ellen Woodsworth supported Herbert’s efforts by bringing forward a September 8 motion at city council calling on the provincial government to restore investments to the arts and culture sector. Councillor Raymond Louie amended the motion to include childcare, education, and library cuts. The motion passed, with all councillors but the NPA’s Suzanne Anton voting in favour of the motion.

“I think one of the things that these kinds of rallies are doing is pointing out that this isn’t a soft sector,” Woodsworth said from the sidelines of the Vancouver rally.

“There are huge spin-offs to putting money into the arts. It’s seen as a burden on the economy, but it’s actually an integral part of the economy.”