![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/DSC_51121.jpg\" "\\"DSC_5112\\"")
<\/a>Public investment equals\u00a0public enjoyment<\/strong><\/p>\n Keith Higgins, a Vancouver-based artist, has been involved in artist-run organizations since the \u201980s. He has helped create all sorts of institutions, including Artspeak Gallery and The Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres, and continues to run Publication Studio Vancouver, a small publishing house, among other things. He believes that although there are ways for artists and arts groups to generate income, public investment allows artists to be more experimental in their work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re quite lucky to have an institution like the Canada Council, which awards money based on the perceived merits of the work, and exists at an arm\u2019s length from political imperatives,\u201d he says. \u201cThat really allows a multiplicity of voices.\u201d<\/p>\n Higgins says that when it comes to discussing arts funding, the focus often tends to revolve around whether or not artists can produce work. He says that\u2019s not necessarily the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re going to see art made,\u201d says Higgins, \u201cbut you\u2019re not going to see<\/em> it. What public investment often ensures is that the public will have access to the culture that\u2019s being made.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s paintings, sculpture, plays, or writing, the access to culture is an important distinction. Although there\u2019s some truth to the \u201cstarving artist\u201d stereotype, having poor artists doesn\u2019t necessarily serve the community.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I see it from my point of view,\u201d says Higgins, \u201cI see the arts as a welcoming space. Quite often in theatre, music, or dance, you find a haven for people who, for one reason or another, find they don\u2019t fit in somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Higgins also says that exposure to arts and different culture can enhance communication within a community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re more able to get along as communities and as societies when there\u2019s access to culture,\u201d says Higgins, \u201cespecially when there\u2019s culture being produced that\u2019s actually responsive to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Higgins, the importance of the arts isn\u2019t often acknowledged. The debate about the value of art can be a heated one. Opponents of public arts funding say an unfair advantage is given to people who get grants over those who don\u2019t. Beyond that, it\u2019s hard to place a monetary value on something as subjective as art. That being said, Higgins maintains that culture is worth investing in, for both social and economic reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe provincial government in British Columbia, regardless of its political stripes, has rarely stepped up with adequate or reasonable levels of support, especially when it comes to access to culture,\u201d he says. \u201cThe unfortunate thing about that is people without access don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to have those facilities in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Higgins feels that the underinvestment in culture has left us in a negative cycle. One result of this historic lack of appreciation is that many artists have left their communities in search of a place where they will feel valued.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also hard for artists to lobby for federal money, either from the Canada Council for the Arts or the Canada Cultural Investment Fund, when they haven\u2019t had investments on the provincial or municipal level.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Artistic independence<\/strong><\/p>\n Ian Case, general manager of the Intrepid Theatre, says they\u2019ve had to make administrative changes, including the reduction of staff, to keep up with funding cuts. Case has been working at Intrepid for almost 10 years and says the loss of provincial gaming grants and cuts to arts funding in 2009 has had huge impacts on the arts community in BC. (The provincial government uses revenue generated by gambling to fund eligible groups in the forms of grants.)<\/p>\n When Case started, government funding made up 45 to 50 percent of Intrepid\u2019s annual budget; now it\u2019s about 30 percent. The theatre company increasingly relies on earned revenues, donations, and sponsorship to make ends meet.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the company has grown it\u2019s become less reliant on [government funding],\u201d says Case. \u201cHaving said that, government funding is still really important, not only for Intrepid Theatre, but for all the non-profit arts organizations, because it allows them to maintain the accessibility and affordability of their programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Increased reliance on commercial or box-office sales means looking less at pushing the boundaries and more at marketing towards mass appeal.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving government funding means we can offer work that you might not see otherwise,\u201d says Case. \u201cIt also encourages artists to test their limits and create work that is more exciting than regular commercial fare.\u201d<\/p>\n The BC Liberals recently reinstated $15 million in gaming grants, bringing the total to $135 million annually. They\u2019ve guaranteed the same amount for the next fiscal year, but still haven\u2019t outlined a sufficient long-term strategy, at least not in the point of view of Higgins.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who\u2019s lived here will tell you that the provincial government works on a sort of binge-purge cycle, as far as budgeting goes,\u201d says the artist. \u201cAbout a year and a half before an election they suddenly have money for things. Abruptly after the election they say, \u2018By the way, our budget forecasts weren\u2019t quite right,\u2019 and the austerity measures roll out.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Art economy<\/strong><\/p>\n The BC Arts Council (BCAC) is a provincially funded peer-review panel that gives grants to artists and arts groups. The government appoints its members but the panel operates under its own mandate.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the government gives us the money they do not interfere in how we distribute it amongst the disciplines and applicants,\u201d says Stanley Hamilton, BCAC chair.<\/p>\n The BCAC acts as an advocate for the arts, and has a different funding pool than the gaming grants or the Ministry of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development, another provincial contributor to arts funding.<\/p>\n Last year, the BCAC contributed almost $17 million in arts grants, across 225 communities in BC. Hamilton says almost 80,000 people are employed in the arts sector in BC. The economic impacts of the arts are felt regionally, as well, and it\u2019s not just the employment of the artists. Hamilton points to the Belfry Theatre and the Victoria Symphony, both of which receive operating grants from the BCAC, as supporters of the local economy. Their audiences tend to spend money on dinner or drinks when attending shows, as well as parking, public transportation, and cabs.<\/p>\n Case also knows the effect of the arts on the economy, and he\u2019s often asked to argue for the arts from the economic point of view. He cites the 2010 Greater Victoria Arts and Culture Sector Economic Activity Study,<\/em> completed by Dr. Brock Smith of the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria, as a great example of the success of arts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a small industry,\u201d says Case. \u201cIt creates a lot of jobs, and it\u2019s an economic generator municipally, in terms of activity downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n The study says the total economic activity generated by the Greater Victoria arts and culture sector in 2010 was $170 million in net income. This takes into account all expenditures by part-time artists and hobbyists, full-time artists, and arts businesses and organizations, as well as money spent by arts patrons, and is the equivalent of $21 million in property tax revenue.<\/p>\n The report shows that money invested in the arts scene in Victoria not only stays in the community, it also draws people here. The vibrancy of a city rich in culture entices investors and tourists alike.<\/p>\n Higgins, too, applauds the economic impact of the arts, but says wages are still pretty low when compared to the provincial average, and a lot of artists are struggling. Higgins is also the executive director of the UNIT\/PITT Projects, formerly the Helen Pitt Gallery, and says they almost had to close their doors due to gaming grants cuts in 2009. When the gallery moved, the only premises they could afford in Vancouver didn\u2019t have plumbing or heat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re managing, but I wouldn\u2019t ask somebody else to work in these circumstances,\u201d says Higgins. \u201cI\u2019ve got full-time work here: publishing, presenting exhibitions, putting on public programs. But my salary works out to about 10 bucks an hour once you break it down over all the work I\u2019m doing. The ability to apply for the [gaming grants] again is going to ease a lot of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All points to public funding<\/strong><\/p>\n Jo-Ann Roberts, host of All Points West<\/em> on CBC Radio One in Victoria, says exposure to and involvement in the arts fosters our ability as a society to think creatively.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been my feeling that the arts allow us to think about bigger issues,\u201d says Roberts, \u201cand to see things in a way we haven\u2019t seen them before. The arts often show us a creative way forward when faced with tough times.\u201d<\/p>\n She makes the case for publicly funded art and includes some of CBC\u2019s programming in that category, although not everyone agrees. Opponents of the CBC say that taxpayers\u2019 money would be better spent elsewhere and that the market should dictate art consumption.<\/p>\n The issue with this, says Roberts, is that when left in the hands of private media corporations, the focus becomes generating profit, rather than the public interest.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause [CBC] is not tied to meeting just what shareholders want, we can often present what is not commercially viable, at least initially,\u201d says Roberts.<\/p>\n She cites CBC Radio 3, which promotes independent music, and their annual literature competition, Canada Reads, as two of many examples of how CBC makes art accessible to the public.<\/p>\n The bottom line when it comes to arts funding, according to Roberts, is providing avenues for arts groups to be heard. She says arts cuts directly impact the state of arts in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cIf art isn\u2019t publicly funded,\u201d says Roberts, \u201cthere\u2019s less reason for private news or broadcast organizations to cover and support the arts, because they\u2019re not feeling any competitive pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Stephen Harper famously declared that \u201cordinary people\u201d don\u2019t care about arts funding during the 2008 election campaign, artists and arts groups were quickly forced to prove their worth. At that time, $45 million had just been cut from the federal arts budget, and not long after, the government of BC made serious cuts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-february-8-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2311,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}