Prime Minister Stephen Harper, hitting the arts where it hurts. Boo.
Image: boontastic.com
VoCA finds it depressing - no, it’s deplorable - to think, that at a time when virtually EVERYONE not living under a rock recognizes the importance and value of the arts, from former British PM Tony Blair (Cool Britannia, anyone?) to Toronto’s mayor David Miller (Nuit Blanche, Luminato…) to the late Ken Thompson (who gifted so many wonderful pieces to the AGO), to the thousands annually who crowd the streets at Canada’s arts festivals in every major city of the country…
…that our Prime Minister still doesn’t get it.
From Simon Houpt’s article in today’s Globe and Mail:
“Late on Friday, while attention was focused on the DFAIT cut, the government quietly said it was also ending Trade Routes, a $9-million program run by Heritage Canada to help artists take their work abroad.”
“It’s hard to overstate how low a profile Canada has abroad. If that’s the way the government wants it, that’s their decision.
But if we want our voice to have influence in the rest of the world, to be the moral beacon we believe it is, that requires marketing Brand Canada. Sending artists and writers abroad is an integral part of that marketing that happens to be extremely cost-effective…”
Read the full article HERE.
Read the full Canadian Press release HERE, and copied below.
VoCA warns that the Harper Government is spinning the issues, trying to deflect attention and hoping you won’t notice the dramatic cuts to the arts.
VoCA has noticed, and we don’t like it. We urge you to make your pro-culture vote count in the next election.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Tories cut funding for artists touring abroad, cite ideological differences
2 days ago
OTTAWA — The Conservative government has announced it will no longer fund a federal program that subsidizes international promotional tours of Canadian artists.
Foreign Affairs officials confirmed Friday that PromArt will lose its $4.7-million budget next spring, effectively killing the program.
They attempted to play down reports that claimed the decision was motivated by ideological differences with many of the recipients.
“More than anything it’s a budget decision,” said Anne Howland, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson.
“The government is committed to a more disciplined approach to managing spending.”
But Howland didn’t deny that the ideological leanings of some recipients did figure in the decision.
“Certainly we felt some of the groups were not necessarily ones we thought Canadians would agree were the best choices to be representing them internationally,” she said.
Pressed for an example of those who failed to meet such a requirement, Howland cited a Toronto-based experimental rock band.
“I don’t even want to say it (their name) on the phone,” she said. “Holy F , that was one that was flagged.”
Holy F**k’s second album was nominated for a Juno award and the group has been shortlisted for the $20,000 Polaris Music Prize.
Les Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, author Gwynne Dyer and former CBC broadcaster Avi Lewis are among others who have received funding from the program.
“Some of the groups we felt had little to do with our foreign policy, or how Canadians would want us to be perceived abroad,” Howland said.
Alain Dancyger, the head of the Les Grand Ballets Canadiens, called the decision a catastrophe for both artist groups and Canada’s image abroad.
“Abolishing this program is the equivalent of killing the entire culture market abroad,” he said from Paris, where the ballet troupe has been performing with the help of PromArt funding.
Opposition parties said the funding cut is further proof of the rigidly conservative line taken by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.
The NDP compared the Tories’ decision to axe PromArt with bill C-10, their attempt to retroactively strip tax credits from films the heritage minister deems “offensive or not in the public interest.”
“These all seem to indicate concerns that are based in personal taste and conservative ideology, rather than in how to best reflect the diversity of culture in Canada and how best to represent Canadian cultural expression,” said Bill Siksay, the NDP’s culture and heritage critic.
He also questioned the political wisdom behind the move, given the Tories face three fall byelections, two of which are in Quebec.
“It really does seem to play to the most right wing part of the Conservative Party,” Siksay said.
“It doesn’t strike me as a strong political strategy for a government that is facing re-election and byelections.”
The government defended itself from accusations it is leaving Canadian artists out to dry by removing an important avenue for promoting their work abroad.
“We are still supporting arts funding, including international arts promotion,” said Howland, though she was unable to provide specific examples.
“Obviously the department is interested in continuing to support Canadian artists and entrepreneurs abroad through our network of missions and cultural representatives.”
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
15 comments ↓
Hi Andrea,
Yes, this is a sad day. I can’t remember right now which paper it was in this weekend, but there was a rundown of the comments Tories actually made on some of the previous grants, and it was very very ideological in nature.
Maybe they’ll still find some way to tour right-winger Mark Steyn? I don’t know, that’s a little extreme, but it’s clear that part of what irked them is the arm’s length nature of the now-cut program from their own political ideals.
The small-press community will certainly suffer from this as well. When I worked at a small press DFAIT funding was key to securing author tours abroad (and no, our authors weren’t Avi Lewis or Naomi Klein… they were women who wrote multi-award-winning books for children on human rights… are the Harperites against that as well?).
I can understand wanting to see profit-making publishers, galleries, authors and artists chip in for travel costs, but by and large they already do. This is not a “free lunch” situation.
I guess I also wonder how much of this is baiting the Liberals and the NDP yet again, and whether there will be any response there at all. I really hope so but I also kind of doubt it.
I bet Harper is betting this won’t hurt his support in the West… but at the same time we see Calgary putting on one of its biggest art shows ever this summer with the Big Gift. If arts supporters and patrons there made some noise, I’m certain it would weigh more heavily with the Tories than if the outcry came solely from Toronto and Montreal.
Don’t really know what else to say right now but look forward to what ideas others might have.
Re:
“I don’t even want to say it (their name) on the phone,” she said. “Holy F , that was one that was flagged.”
What a partisan Ftard!
Canadians really have to start taking a hard look at what the Conservatives are doing to this country. We talk about Canada as a beacon to the world, but Harper’s conservatives are chipping away at the libertarian ideals that makes Canada so great. Harper’s government has mired us in a war in Afghanistan, they begrudgingly accepted same-sex marriage (and would reverse it in a heartbeat, I’m sure, given half-a-chance), they silence party members who don’t tow the line, their environmental track record is abysmal, and now they’re targeting the arts. This is a beacon? We bitch and moan about Bush’s Republicans, but at least the Americans seem to have woken up and realized what a bunch of incompetents they’re being governed by. I don’t even want to think of all the other things that the Harper government has slipped by us without us noticing!
And Holy F*ck rocks!
“…but Harper’s conservatives are chipping away at the libertarian ideals that makes Canada so great.”
Hey Bill, what’s libertarian?
Libertarian: an advocate of liberty especially in regards to freedom of expression and action.
One look at the list of supported projects shows a who’s who of Canadian culture across a broad spectrum of human endeavours. This is the dismantling of a program that seems to support virtually all the humanities, and the reasoning behind canceling it boggles the mind.
This will have a direct and deleterious impact on the international image of this country as we lose the ability to send our best and brightest overseas as ambassadors. Anyone who has spent any time living in other countries knows that culture is Canada’s greatest export, and this appears to be an attempt to dismantle that – with some poor excuses indeed.
I guess that might be one way to put it - but somehow I think there’s a little more to it, don’t you?
Hey Bill, I agree with you. I posted the above link because I think the term “libertarian” as used needs a bit of disambiguation.
Yes, I was using the word in the most basic, contemporary dictionary, sense of the term…pretty much what the Wikipedia entry expands upon in the Libertarian Policy section of their definition…not in any broad historical way.
Much more here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080812.wcuts12/BNStory/National/
It’s interesting to read the comments following the article in the Globe and Mail. It seems when those who support cutting arts funding think about “the arts”, they default to visual arts, especially painting (see all the references to Monet and the Cistine Chapel [sic]) because it’s the easiest target to bash away at. It seems like people are forgetting that such funding can be accessed by creative types of all stripes - musicians, choreographers, writers, film-makers, etc. - and of any political persuasion. I wonder if they’d be as rabid about cutting programs if it was their favourite rock band that couldn’t come to their town because there was no funding for a tour?
It also seems that those who are most into cutting (visual) arts funding are those who know little about it, historically or otherwise. I found it a bit sad that the anti-funding people had to refer to Monet and Rembrandt as their examples of painters. That’s the best they could come up with? Not one Canadian? Not even the Group of Seven? That shows how little we should probably listen to their opinions, but it’s hardly surprising, I guess. I’d partially chalk that up to the lack of art education in our public school system, but that’s a whole other issue…
It seems to me that what the government should have done is revamped these programs instead of just killing them. It seems that people aren’t so much against supporting culture as against government fiscal mismanagement.
And, as someone who does charity work that requires the support of visual artists, I have to say that artists are among the most generous and giving people you will ever meet. All of the artists I have come across have expressed a far greater generosity of spirit than that shown by the Harper goverment and all the “ha, ha, your art sucks and now you don’t have funding for it” bloggers on the G&M and National Post sites.
I don’t know why the Conservatives are making such a big deal about picking up the tab for Holy F-ck and Avi Lewis’s international travel perks. I mean, when was the last time you found yourself sitting next to your MP in that back row where the seats don’t decline?!
Somebody needs to catch Stephen Harper in bed with a male prostitute and crack pipe before he takes us down!
A meeting to discuss the cuts to cultural and heritage granting programs was just brought to my attention Here’s the basic info:
Event: TOWN HALL - Budget Cut Announcement
“NOWS THE TIME”
What: Convention
Host: FUSE Magazine
Start Time: Wednesday, September 3 at 7:00pm
End Time: Wednesday, September 3 at 10:00pm
Where: The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen St. West, Toronto
Check out the facebook page for more info:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=68841715710
I guess Harper is taking a page from the Chinese government’s control mania which extends to even attempts at blocking a NYC exhibit on the Cultural Revolution. We may have to have our own!
The Conservatives have very thin skins in regards to where public money is spent, and a huge blindspot as to the free rides they get, many more so than the dissenting artists. The image this conveys is PETTINESS on their part.
Leave a Comment