MEDIA RELEASE: CULTURE MATTERS – DON’T TORCH THE ARTS!

Media Release: Sept 8, 2009
From the Direct Action Committee of the Alliance for Arts and Culture.

CULTURE MATTERS – DON’T TORCH THE ARTS!

We call on all those who believe in the value of arts and culture in our communities to join a rally at noon on Wednesday, September 9th in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery to bring public attention to the recently announced, brutal cuts to our sector by the BC government.  

Funding to the arts and culture sector has NOT been restored; the provincial government is planning to cut over 80% of what has consisted of only 1/20th of 1% of the provincial budget.  No other provinces in Canada have reduced support for a sector that, according to government statistics, produces significant returns on investment. This is a sector that creates both social and economic capital.  ART WORKS!

We ask you to consider the ways that arts and culture touch your daily lives at home, in the streets, your children in schools, community centres, on TV, your music, on the internet, in videogames and in theatres, museums and galleries. We ask you to think about culture as part of our individual and community identities, a way to connect with our diverse origins…with who we are today and with what we care about.  Arts and culture are woven into the fabric of our daily lives. The arts are NOT A FRILL!

Our symbol is a grey and empty rectangle, a metaphor for a world without art and culture.

Please join us.

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Media Contacts: 
Brenda Leadlay: brendajoy@shaw.ca  or 778-990-2690
Judith Marcuse: Judith@jmprojects.ca or 604-319-8436

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Many thanks to Victor Terzis, Graphic Designer at Left Right Minds, for laying out our flyers.