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Home | Resources > Newsletter | Synergy - October 5, 2004
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October 5, 2004 -- Volume 15 Number 11 Synergy, the electronic newsletter information for people who value arts and culture A word from the executive director. Advocacy Alert: the Department of Canadian Heritage needs our support in renewing the Tomorrow Starts Today Program. And, they need it now. In one of my first duties as the executive director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture I attended a meeting of colleagues from across British Columbia with the BC and Ottawa staff from the Department of Canadian Heritage. The conversation was highly productive and many ideas were brought forward to improve the programs and their delivery if the federal government renews them. The Heritage staff will be meeting with federal Cabinet committees almost immediately to discuss the renewal of the Arts Presentation Program, the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program and the Cultural Spaces Canada Program. These programs have been critical to a substantial number of the Alliance members and their audiences and a crisis will occur if they are not renewed. The Alliance is actively working on your behalf but your elected representatives need to hear from you individually as well. I urge you to contact your MP -- you can find out who your MP is and get contact info at http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html, and also contact the cabinet ministers who represent BC. We've included a list below. Include the following messages in your correspondence:
Did you know?
Please also visit the advocacy page we created on our website for the last federal election, for more tips and hints on contacting your representative in Ottawa: http://www.allianceforarts.com/advocacy/campaign-for-culture.html Heather Redfern,
The Honourable Ujjal Dosanjh The Honourable David Emerson The Honourable Raymond Chan The Honourable Stephen Owen With information from the CCA Bulletin, the newsletter of the Canadian Conference of the Arts. IN THIS ISSUE: 1. BC government boosts tourism funding Editor: Allison Markin 1. BC government boosts tourism funding In late September the BC government announced that it is giving Tourism British Columbia an extra $25 million for its marketing budget, doubling it, and another $25 million to municipalities to be used as a one-time grant for tourism-related initiatives, according to The Vancouver Sun. Tourism BC is the crown corporation responsible for marketing the province. The industry generates $10 billion annually for BC, with 22.4 million visitors traveling to or within the province. Numerous tourism agencies, including Tourism Vancouver and the Union of BC Municipalities were pleased with the announcement, which follows on the heels of legislation for a tourism levy, which will benefit Tourism Vancouver. More information can be found on Tourism BC's website: Information on the levy is at: Meanwhile, back in Ottawa parliament returns to work this week, starting off with today's Speech from the Throne, emphasizing cooperation and fiscal discipline, and more or less committing to follow through on key Liberal party promises made during the election campaign. There was one specific mention of culture in the speech, at the end of a section about cities and communities: "What makes our communities vibrant and creative is the quality of their cultural life. The government will foster cultural institutions and policies that aspire to excellence, reflect a diverse and multicultural society, respond to the new challenges of globalization and the digital economy, and promote diversity of views and cultural expression at home and abroad." Other highlights:
With information from the CCA Bulletin, the newsletter of the Canadian Conference of the Arts.
The City of Vancouver has been considering proposals to develop the old Woodward's building, culminating in a protest at Vancouver City Hall last week to demand social housing in the new development. Westbank Projects has been chosen to develop the site, to the tune of $149 million. The City will receive less money in the end, compared to the other two proposals that were on the table, but Westbank was chosen for the social merits of its design, including a daycare and space for community groups. The City's steering committee for the project consulted the Portland Hotel Society, according to The Vancouver Sun, a non-profit group that manages the city's safe injection site, a credit union and art gallery. For more information on the plans, visit: The Globe and Mail recently reported that changes to Canada's copyright laws may hurt student access to the internet. Amendments to the laws could result in students and teachers paying a fee to use material now available online for free. The proposed changes come from a draft document by the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian heritage. Educators are not worried about creators who protect their work by passwords and/or by only allowing access for paying users or subscribers, but oppose the idea of having to pay to access information that is publicly available on the internet. The potential changes mean that users, ie teachers and students, would have to comply with licensing agreements and pay fees to a copyright collective representing website creators in order to access their websites. A decision is expected over the fall or in early 2005. The September issue of the Arts Research Monitor, distributed by Hill Strategies Research Inc., included several reports on human resources in the arts and culture sector. A Statistical Profile of Artists in Canada, (found at http://www.hillstrategies.com/resources.html) based on the 2001 Census and focusing on nine occupations found that:
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada has produced The culture sector labour force: has the 1990s boom turned to bust? Culture sector employment, 1991-2003 (found at http://www.statcan.ca/english/ads/87-004-XPB/cullab.htm) speculates, in the first report of two, that the growth of the cultural sector may have halted in 2000. This was based on a very small decrease in cultural employment in 2002. However, the second report, which updates the data to 2003, shows that the 2002 decrease was a blip in a pattern of strong growth. This report notes that between 1991 and 2003, culture sector employment grew annually by 2.5 percent, compared to 1.7 percent for the general workforce. The report shows that there were about 598,000 cultural workers in Canada in 2003.
This article appears courtesy of the Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Vancouver. The City of Vancouver's Transit Shelter Advertising program has benefited hugely from the City's new partnership with Viacom JC Decaux. Since May 2004 the number of faces available during any given week has increased from 70 to 110. This has meant that many more Vancouver cultural groups have had access to this excellent marketing medium, and that many are getting more sites than ever before. The Office of Cultural Affairs would like to remind all applicants that it is best to request space a minimum of four months in advance. However, because the months of January and February are expected to be slow, you may want to consider an extra-ordinary campaign running undated creative which can be reused throughout the following year. For information on how to apply consult the updated Transit Shelter Advertising Program guidelines, found at: http://www.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/oca/grants/transitad/ This article appears courtesy of the Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Vancouver. The City of Vancouver Book Award is a $2,000 prize that has been presented annually since 1989 to authors of books in any genre that demonstrate excellence and contribute to the appreciation and understanding of Vancouver's history, unique character or the achievements of its residents. This year the award will be presented by Mayor and Council on Tuesday afternoon October 19, 2004 at City Hall and broadcast live on Shaw Cable. Visit http://www.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/oca/Awards/index.htm to learn more about this annual prize and to discover how you could win all six books in the 2004 City of Vancouver Book Awards Collection. Shuffling at the Opera Vancouver Opera recently named Jonathan Darlington its new music director, following two years of having Darlington as its principal conductor. In the meantime, general director James Wright is taking a three-month sabbatical beginning in January. Director of resource development and Alliance for Arts and Culture board member David Shefsiek will be acting general director. Visual artist off to finals Vancouver artist Brad Phillips is the Western Canada finalist of the 2004 RBC Investments Canadian Painting Competition, co-sponsored by the Canadian Art Foundation. Phillips competes November 17 in Toronto against the Central and Eastern Canadian winners. Visual arts awards, part two In its "Best of Vancouver" issue, the Georgia Straight praises the creation of two awards for visual arts: this past spring the Audian Foundation for the Visual Arts in BC presented Ann Kipling with the first of its annual $25,000 prize for lifetime achievement (by a BC artist). In September, the first annual Joe Plakett Foundation Award, also for $25K, went to UVic student Mark Neufeld. The award enables masters level or newly graduated Canadian painters to spend a year in Europe. 75 years for the Commodore Granville Street's Commodore Ballroom will be celebrating 75 years in early December, and would like memorabilia for a retrospective display. If you have old concerts posters, photos or other bits of history, call 604-739-4550 or email commodore75th@hob.ca. New helm for the Canada Council Former prima ballerina Karen Kain was recently given the post of chair of the Canada Council for the Arts. She retired from dancing in 1997, but has remained active on the advocacy front and has served on several national boards. OCA staffing Cherryl Masters has assumed the position of cultural planner at the Office of Cultural Affairs at the City of Vancouver. She takes over from Alice Niwinski, who retired this past August. Cherryl was formerly with the BC Arts Council. Utne Magazine, out of Minneapolis, recently published an article by The Washington Monthly's Richard Floria, called The Creative Class Brain Drain. In it, Vancouver is touted as a creative-class centre on par with the likes of...Seattle. Read the piece at: If I had a billion dollars... ...I'd tell the provincial government how to spend it. That's the question being posed by the BC government, with liberties taken, as constituents can fill out a survey online to let the government know how to spend its predicted billion dollar survey. Fill out the survey at: CIDA deadline approaching The deadline to submit an RFP for the Canadian International Development Agency's Mass Media Initiative is October 21 at 2pm Eastern. The Initiative provides financial support for communications projects such as television and radio productions, magazine features, newspaper articles and exhibits. Info on preparing proposals can be found at: http://www.cida.gc.ca/mmi
"I'm in acting now, so I don't talk about politics." Copps is currently starring in a dinner theatre production of the play Steel Magnolias at the Howard Johnson's in Kingston, Ontario. She plays the character made famous by Olympia Dukakis in the 1989 movie, and she's earning Equity wages. Comments? Send a message to: Copyright © Alliance for Arts and Culture, 2005 |
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