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Cutting Arts Funding Hurts Us All
Did you catch this item back in October? "B.C.'s beleaguered literary organizations are forming the Coalition for the Defence of Writing and Publishing in British Columbia one day after the Arts & Culture branch of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture & the Arts simultaneously removed all funding from the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia ($45,000), BC BookWorld newspaper ($31,000) and B.C. Association of Magazine Publishers ($20,000).";
No? That's probably because there was little outrage expressed by the press - and even less fanfare by the government. And this little announcement was just the tip of the iceberg: Provincial funding for the BC Arts Council is dropping by 82%, from $19.5 Million (2008/09) to $3.5 Million (2009/10 and 2010/11). What do they do? Well, everything from supporting professional arts and cultural organizations throughout the province to funding amateur theatre, music, dance, visual, media and literary arts organizations, to maintaining programs that support community arts groups, festivals, museums, training and service agencies. As William Gibson, author of Neuromancer put it, "As a futurist, someone with some experience in long-range scenario-based corporate and municipal planning, I've seen my share of jaw-droppingly shortsighted proposals. But these proposed cuts to support for the arts in BC (almost 90% by 2011) really take the cake. This is governance guaranteed to rot the fabric of our province's future.";
So what? I can hear you asking. I'm no artist. Perhaps not, but you do live in a province enriched, culturally and financially, by the thousands that work in the cultural industry. And make no mistake, it is an industry. According to Stats Canada, Cultural industries contributed $40 billion to Canada's GDP in 2002 alone. During that same year, Mining and Oil and Gas extraction contributed only $35.4 billion. The Agriculture and Forestry industry contributed $21 billion to Canada's GDP, approximately half that of the Cultural sector.
It's also an industry that employs a whole lot of people, and the numbers are growing. Whereas Agriculture and Forestry combined with the Mining, Oil and Gas industry, employed 602,200 Canadians, Cultural industries in Canada were responsible for directly employing 597,000 Canadians in 2002 or 3.8% of Canada's workforce. Between the years of 1996 and 2001, employment in the cultural sector grew at an annual rate of 3.4%, significantly faster than the overall Canadian employment growth rate.
It's ironic that the announcement came while my wife and I were in Europe, attracted by the museums and public art that enrich so many European cities. There, the importance of artists to a nation and a culture has been understood-and supported-for hundreds of years, resulting in societies that are more literate, more aware, and more engaged. And also more cognizant, apparently, of the significant economic benefits generated by the arts.
Let's use the example of $96,000 of cuts cited above. When you attack the writing and publishing sector, you force BC printers out of business. Those publishers who can afford to, take their printing out of the province. When publishers themselves are forced to shut down, their staffs are put out of work. The books that would normally be produced and sold locally go elsewhere, reducing provincial sales and income taxes. Fewer BC writers are published, at a significant economic and cultural cost. When you slash support for BC BookWorld, you are jeopardizing the most effective book advertising medium in the province, leading to reduced sales. Reduced sales means more bookstores close, especially the smaller independent bookstores that are so central to the social and cultural life of smaller communities. When local magazines close, not only do we lose unique BC voices, we lose advertising revenues, national and international profile, skilled employees, markets for local writers, and wages.
Something is seriously wrong with the Government's financial priorities. Salmon Arm's local Arts Council was informed a few months ago that the $24,000 they had received annually to organize arts activities in the community and maintain the Art Gallery (the gallery-which hosts weekly jazz concerts, regular exhibits of local art, poetry readings, concerts by local and visiting musicians, exhibits of art from regional school children, weddings, community group fundraisers and many other activities-is a true community centre) was being eliminated. On that same day, the SA City Council was informed, without any request on their part, that $30,000 was being made available to them to host the Olympic torch run through our city.
These latest moves by the government send a chilling message: Art-related industries and activities critical to local communities and to the maintenance of a literate, aware and engaged society are neither valued nor respected. Clearly, massive subsidies to the Olympics and corporations and the construction of highways and bridges (though all the arts cuts combined wouldn't pay for a mile of the Highway 97 expansion) take precedence over the work and contributions of thousands of artists, writers, musicians, actors, publishers and crafts people across BC.
[Don Sawyer is a writer, educator and former director of Okanagan College's International Development Centre. He lives with his wife in Salmon Arm. You can contact Don Sawyer by email at donsawyer@telus.net or by mail at Don Sawyer c/o North of 50, Box 100, Armstrong, BC V0E 1B0. For more information on Don's writing and development work, visit his website at www.northerned.com]
No? That's probably because there was little outrage expressed by the press - and even less fanfare by the government. And this little announcement was just the tip of the iceberg: Provincial funding for the BC Arts Council is dropping by 82%, from $19.5 Million (2008/09) to $3.5 Million (2009/10 and 2010/11). What do they do? Well, everything from supporting professional arts and cultural organizations throughout the province to funding amateur theatre, music, dance, visual, media and literary arts organizations, to maintaining programs that support community arts groups, festivals, museums, training and service agencies. As William Gibson, author of Neuromancer put it, "As a futurist, someone with some experience in long-range scenario-based corporate and municipal planning, I've seen my share of jaw-droppingly shortsighted proposals. But these proposed cuts to support for the arts in BC (almost 90% by 2011) really take the cake. This is governance guaranteed to rot the fabric of our province's future.";
So what? I can hear you asking. I'm no artist. Perhaps not, but you do live in a province enriched, culturally and financially, by the thousands that work in the cultural industry. And make no mistake, it is an industry. According to Stats Canada, Cultural industries contributed $40 billion to Canada's GDP in 2002 alone. During that same year, Mining and Oil and Gas extraction contributed only $35.4 billion. The Agriculture and Forestry industry contributed $21 billion to Canada's GDP, approximately half that of the Cultural sector.
It's also an industry that employs a whole lot of people, and the numbers are growing. Whereas Agriculture and Forestry combined with the Mining, Oil and Gas industry, employed 602,200 Canadians, Cultural industries in Canada were responsible for directly employing 597,000 Canadians in 2002 or 3.8% of Canada's workforce. Between the years of 1996 and 2001, employment in the cultural sector grew at an annual rate of 3.4%, significantly faster than the overall Canadian employment growth rate.
It's ironic that the announcement came while my wife and I were in Europe, attracted by the museums and public art that enrich so many European cities. There, the importance of artists to a nation and a culture has been understood-and supported-for hundreds of years, resulting in societies that are more literate, more aware, and more engaged. And also more cognizant, apparently, of the significant economic benefits generated by the arts.
Let's use the example of $96,000 of cuts cited above. When you attack the writing and publishing sector, you force BC printers out of business. Those publishers who can afford to, take their printing out of the province. When publishers themselves are forced to shut down, their staffs are put out of work. The books that would normally be produced and sold locally go elsewhere, reducing provincial sales and income taxes. Fewer BC writers are published, at a significant economic and cultural cost. When you slash support for BC BookWorld, you are jeopardizing the most effective book advertising medium in the province, leading to reduced sales. Reduced sales means more bookstores close, especially the smaller independent bookstores that are so central to the social and cultural life of smaller communities. When local magazines close, not only do we lose unique BC voices, we lose advertising revenues, national and international profile, skilled employees, markets for local writers, and wages.
Something is seriously wrong with the Government's financial priorities. Salmon Arm's local Arts Council was informed a few months ago that the $24,000 they had received annually to organize arts activities in the community and maintain the Art Gallery (the gallery-which hosts weekly jazz concerts, regular exhibits of local art, poetry readings, concerts by local and visiting musicians, exhibits of art from regional school children, weddings, community group fundraisers and many other activities-is a true community centre) was being eliminated. On that same day, the SA City Council was informed, without any request on their part, that $30,000 was being made available to them to host the Olympic torch run through our city.
These latest moves by the government send a chilling message: Art-related industries and activities critical to local communities and to the maintenance of a literate, aware and engaged society are neither valued nor respected. Clearly, massive subsidies to the Olympics and corporations and the construction of highways and bridges (though all the arts cuts combined wouldn't pay for a mile of the Highway 97 expansion) take precedence over the work and contributions of thousands of artists, writers, musicians, actors, publishers and crafts people across BC.
[Don Sawyer is a writer, educator and former director of Okanagan College's International Development Centre. He lives with his wife in Salmon Arm. You can contact Don Sawyer by email at donsawyer@telus.net or by mail at Don Sawyer c/o North of 50, Box 100, Armstrong, BC V0E 1B0. For more information on Don's writing and development work, visit his website at www.northerned.com]
Submitted on January 25, 2010 in By David.
