Changing the dial on the arts contribution

Last week, TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin asked the question ‘Who needs the arts? And “who should carry the can?”

The National Ballet School’s Jeff Melanson, Stratford Shakespeare Festival Antoni Cimolino, Toronto Arts Council’s Claire Hopkinson, Ryerson University’s Gerd Hauck and Artist Pandora Topp made a clear and compelling case for investing in Toronto and Ontario’s cultural sector. If you missed the show, it’s available as a podcast on iTunes – it’s worth watching.

Although a fan of Steve Paikin, it was disheartening to hear him allege that ‘the only argument I’ve ever heard from the arts is that they need the government to give them more money.” It reinforced the need for everyone in the cultural sector to change the channel on how Ontarian’s and Canadian’s perceive the arts in our country. I’ve been at one to many dinner parties where I hear friends argue that the arts need to be more ‘business-like’. Rather than being at the soul of our country, the sector is seen as continually looking for hand-outs, without entrepreneurial know-how or acumen.

Cold comfort though it is, the arts aren’t alone in battling this perception. Ontario’s Partnership Project led by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Eric Hoskins and Ontario Trillium Foundation Chair Helen Burstyn heard this from across Ontario’s 46,000 not-for-profit organizations. Their report states “there is a general perception among many that they are perceived as supplicant, coming to government only for the purpose of funding.”

So the question is, how do we change the channel on the broader public perception of the arts? A question many ponder these days.

Enhanced public engagement in the arts is a great start – gobbledeegook to many, this means encouraging friends and neighbours to get out and experience arts activity, be it amateur or professional, local or international. Chances are, most friends and neighbours are already engaged in a myriad of arts activity – they just don’t connect it to ‘the arts sector.’

Culture Days is making great strides in engaging even more Canadians. While the word is out, there is still a long way to go though.

Governments, too, are assisting: Ontario announced a tax credit to encourage children’s artistic activity last fall. Today (17 March), the federal government also announced that details of a similar credit will be contained in the 22 March budget.

… all steps in the right direction.