Liberal leader Stephane Dion - a man who understands the importance of culture..we hope.
Image: voiceofcanada.files.wordpress.com

Liberal party leader Stephane Dion has finally responded to the unbelievable Conservative party cuts to cultural programs:

“Harper seems to not understand that we need to be stimulating those programs. We must encourage different arts and culture…”

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Image: toothpastefordinner.com

1. HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE SAYING IN CALGARY:

Wait a minute. If our dynamic Canadian culture is in such demand all over the world, then surely the world will beat a path to its door and pay full freight to watch the likes of Les Grands Ballets, if not Holy F—.

Was this another story of our splendid arts community banding together to combat the heartless, uncultured Harper Conservatives?

Read the full article from the Calgary Herald HERE.

2. AND HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE SAYING OUT EAST:

With new cuts to culture and arts funding, the Conservative government is showing once again its complete disrespect toward our country’s cultural institutions and a flagrant lack of vision that is hurting our arts community and culture

The Conservatives are now showing clearly what they have in mind for Canada’s arts and culture. The lack of explanation for the cuts and the silence of the Heritage minister is unacceptable.

Read more HERE.

3. THE LIBERAL PARTY SPEAKS UP - FINALLY

Liberal Heritage critic Denis Coderre has criticized the government for not being forthcoming with information about cuts to a slew of arts-and-culture programs.

“A Liberal government … will reinstate all those programs and [Canadians] will have … a true structural vision of what culture should be for our country,” he said, in a telephone interview from his riding in Montreal.

More on Liberal plans in THIS Globe and Mail article.

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In case you missed it, here’s a link to the latest on the Canadian culture cuts - from today’s Globe and Mail:

“The Tories are committed to cutting $44.8-million in spending on arts and culture by April of 2010…”

Click HERE for an article that basically amounts to a long list of cultural programs to be cut.

Yesterday, VoCA spoke with curator Barbara Fischer, whose proposal of London-based artist Mark Lewis was selected as Canadian representative at next year’s Venice Biennale - arguably the most important and high-profile art biennale in the world.

Ms. Fischer expressed concern over the cuts and suggested that the future of Canada’s pavilion is in danger, since about one third of the money needed for the pavilion comes from government funding programs.

Nota bene: In 2001, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller won a coveted prize at Venice for their installation, The Paradise Institute, which helped to catapult them into the stratosphere of global contemporary artists.

…says Carol Vogel in the New York Times. Dasha Zhukova, the 27-year-old girlfriend of mega collector Roman Abramovich is set to open a new contemporary art space in Moscow. The Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture already features an enormous installation by (VoCA favorite) Montreal’s Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

A light installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow.
Image: nytimes.com

Check out our interview with him HERE.

Read Vogel’s article HERE and FlashArt’s take HERE

This Globe and Mail article quotes Canadian Heritage Minister Josée Verner:

“Culture is an essential element of the identity of a nation and in that sense, will always have its unfailing support,”

And yet…

“The Stabilization Projects, to be shut down in April, were established in seven cities from Victoria to Charlottetown to provide financial and administrative support to arts organizations….”

“The department also plans to end its annual contributions of $300,000 to the A-V Presentation Trust, $1.5-million to the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund and $2.5-million to the National Training Program in the Film and Video Sector…”

Yes, it’s all good, Mr. Harper. Image: conservativehome.blogs.com

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.

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The Musée d’art contemporain, with the generous support of its Foundation, has purchased 37 works by 24 artists participating in The Québec Triennial.

Additionally, many of the pieces are currently on loan pending eventual gifts, while others are in the process of being purchased.

Please note the names of the following artists as ones to watch:

-David Altmejd - click HERE

David Altmejd, Le Berger, 2008. Image: canadianart.ca

-Gwenaël Bélanger - click HERE

-Valérie Blass - click HERE

-Anthony Burnham - click HERE

-Patrick Coutu - click HERE

-Michel de Broin - click HERE

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1. Dean Drever: Bear Minimum

Michael Klien Gallery, Toronto

August 2 - 30, 2008

Dean Drever, She Loves Me She Loves Me Not (Bullets). Image: douglasudellgallery.com

Dean Drever continues his examination of power and violence in this show, which takes as a theme the Kodiak bear.
Drever is a member of the Haida Nation and Haida culture acknowledges the bear as an embodiment of a supreme being having both extraordinary physical and supernatural powers.

Bear Minimum presents the Bear, life sized and hand carved.

Check out more on the website HERE.

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6. MASSIMO GUERRERA: DARBORAL

26 juin au 31 août, 2008

Quartier Ephemere/Fonderie Darling

“Darboral s’articule autour de plates-formes artistiques et spirituelles, qui invitent le visiteur à prendre part à différents rituels. Partages de nourriture à l’occasion de repas et suçage de noyaux, ateliers de créativité lors de moulages corporels et adaptation de prothèses, prise de conscience des modes d’ouverture physique et psychique, méditation, donnent lieu à une série d’éléments dont les traces de passage composent Darboral.”

It’s a work that concentrates on the rhythms of the creative experience, and shares these processes with others. It’s a contemplative space that gives back to art it’s original function, in the service of the ritual.

The Massimo Guerrera installation at Quartier Ephemere. Image: VoCA

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The Quebec art scene is ON FIRE.

La Belle Province is home to the country’s most exciting artists, many of which are included in the excellent Quebec Triennale at the MAC in Montreal.

Montreal also hosted the recent IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art) congress in May, which brought international curatorial eyes to the city thanks to Chantal Pontbriand of Parachute.

One of Canada’s best new galleries, the DHC Art Foundation, continues to make waves with their programming –Feist is playing the opening of Sophie Calle’s solo exhibition later this week.

Canadian chanteuse Leslie Feist. Image: rcrdlbl.com

The MMFA has co-organized the superb YSL retrospective and with the always excellent Canadian Centre for Architecture and the city’s many galleries, there is no doubt that Quebec and Montreal in particular, is the hottest place in contemporary Canadian art right now.

Here are a few of VoCA’s discoveries:

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