A Summer of Protest in the BC Arts and Culture Community

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1 September 2010

Dear Friends of BC Arts and Culture,

For the BC Arts and Culture Community this summer has been defined by an overwhelming desire to protest against the short-sighted and highly politicized decisions made around arts and culture investments in our province.

Jane Danzo's resignation from the BC Arts Council highlighted what many in the arts community, and myself have been saying since the massive cuts began in 2009 - that funding for the arts in this province has not only been slashed, but much of the remaining funding has been tightly controlled and politicized by this government.

Click here to read my open letter to Minister Krueger.

In 1996 the NDP Government created the BC Arts Council with the support of the arts community to ensure that independent, peer-reviewed decisions were made about where funding for arts and culture was to be spent in our province. Carole James, and the Official Opposition continue to believe that arms-length funding is the best model for supporting the arts in BC. Last week in an interview Minister Kevin Krueger attempted to spin the truth behind Ms. Danzo's resignation, suggesting that Ms. Danzo resigned because of a vicious and threatening arts community. This despite the fact that she stated that she was resigning because of government interference with the BC Arts Council. “Basically I had to resign in order to speak out, and what I wanted to speak out about was a process and the lack of process that was used with respect to the arts funding in B.C.”(Jane Danzo, CKNW World Today Weekend, Aug.21).

Minister Krueger's statements once again demonstrate a profound lack of respect for the BC arts community. In response I called on Minister Krueger to listen to the community and give the remainder of the "Legacy Fund" to the BC Arts Council, strengthen its arms-length status and restore the budget for arts and culture provincially.

Recently I visited communities in the Rockies and Okanagan to meet with artists and learn more about how their work builds community and supports economic growth in their towns and regions. What I heard again and again was that artists are frustrated by the government's lack of respect for arts and culture as both an economic engine and integral and important part of our society.

So what can you do? Writing and meeting with Minister Kreuger, Coleman and your local MLAs matters. Speak to your friends, family and colleagues. Organize creative protests such as Western Edge Theatre's Dear Ron Campaign, Plank Magazine's Thots, or Dancer Ziyian Kwan's dance protest performances - to raise awareness in your community. As with Ms. Danzo's letter of resignation to Minister Krueger, it is these kinds of inspiring actions that will continue to spur more and more British Columbians to speak out against the BC Liberals regressive cuts to arts and culture, and for a province where we value our great creativity.

And beginning in late September, the Finance Committee will once again hold public consultations for the 2011/12 budget. I encourage you to attend those meetings and send submissions to the Committee so that their report to the Finance Minister will once again call for a restoration of arts funding to 2008 levels, as it did last year. The dates for those meetings will be set in early September and I will keep you posted when they will be held in your community.

I hope that you will continue to contact me with your thoughts and opinions on what a positive strategy for the growth of a stronger arts and culture sector in our Province would look like. I am proud to speak out loudly in support of the people who love arts and culture in our great province and I will continue to do so.

Sincerely,