City of Vancouver Clarifies Arts and Culture Funding + Announces New Supports

Image: Vancouver Mural Festival.

Recently, the BC Alliance reported that the City was anticipating $55 million in cuts to arts and culture. We’ve been in conversation with City of Vancouver Cultural Services staff, and we’re happy to provide clarity to this initially alarming statement.

“What was deferred were some major capital projects related to the PNE and Hastings Park and some smaller investments in Chinatown,” explains City of Vancouver senior cultural planner Alix Sales, “all of which were already delayed as capital projects always take more time than expected.”

The City has clarified that there will be no cuts to arts and culture capital grants. On July 22, the City announced a new round of supports for non-profits and arts and culture organizations, including:

• $75K in grants supporting Indigenous artists, who have been disproportionately impacted through loss of work and venue closures, and to address historical low levels of civic funding

• $470K in grants to support diverse festivals and community celebrations 

• $1.2M in in-kind grants to support festivals, music, theatre and dance groups to adapt the ways in which they use civic space to continue to support artists and offer programs to the community

• $225K funding towards Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations to support space planning and research, as part of the City’s existing Making Space for Arts and Culture plan 

• $53K grants to BC Artscape, who provide workspace for over 70 cultural organizations, artists and community groups

• $766.4K towards Cultural Infrastructure Grants, that address the distinct lack of affordable arts spaces available to organizations and artists

• $500K of existing funding has been refocused to support cultural spaces with critical grants of up to $25K for COVID-19 recovery, equity, rebuilding and resilience. 

We want to thank the City of Vancouver for clarifying and assuaging our initial concerns, as well as for their renewed investment in the arts, culture and non-profit sectors.