Dear Mr. Campbell,

Congratulations on your victory last night. You must be honoured to be among of a select group of Premiers who have been elected for a third term.

C'mon, people… let's start talking about arts and culture during this election! We’re trying, but not everyone running for office wants to engage in this important discussion. We tried to arrange a live debate between candidates from the different parties regarding their respective arts and cultural platforms - no luck.

Today (Monday, April May 4, 2009), at 4pm, we will be hosting a live debate on arts and culture with Spencer Herbert (NDP) and Vanessa Violini (Green Party) in the comments section of this blog post. To participate, simply submit a question in the comment field. (Note: submitting a question does not guarantee inclusion in the debate - we have a wide range of topics to cover and may not have time to address all issues). Important note: To watch this event unfold in real-time, you may need to continually refresh your browser.

[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignright" width="150" caption="All-Candidates Debate at Stanley Theatre (photo by Mischa Bartkow)"][/caption] In an innovative departure from the usual all-candidates debates, the Alliance for Arts & Culture will host a “live-blogging” forum on May 4th at 4pm with Spencer Herbert (NDP candidate), Vanessa Violini (Green Party candidate). At this point, no Liberal Party candidate has chosen to participate; however, Bill Bennett, Liberal candidate and former Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts – who cited prior commitments - will post a prepared statement on behalf of the Liberals. We have asked each candidate to begin the session with a response to the two questions:

1. In your opinion, why aren’t we talking about the Arts and Culture in this Election?
2. What is your party’s position on the significance of the art and culture in BC’s economy and its future growth?

We will then begin with questions submitted online.

This is a guest post on the behalf of all the artists and administrators working tirelessly to restore the cuts to the BC Arts Council, and a call to action for British Columbians everywhere. It’s time to step up.

Our BC Arts Council’s budget has been dealt a devastating blow.

[caption id="attachment_146" align="alignleft" width="135" caption="Photo by Trevor Brady, The Georgia Straight"][/caption] A message from the Executive Director: So yet again the arts and cultural sector seem to fall off the table.  The NDP and Green platforms for BC Election 2009 addressed arts and culture and made some encouraging promises. The Liberals have, thus far, described their rather impressive track-record, without addressing the large cuts to come to the BC Arts Council in the near future, nor including the significant arts and cultural industries in their platform, except a minor mention of the Film sector. I get it. This election is clearly about the Economy; it is about Health, Education, Environment; it is about Social Services and values; it is about the next four years – our future.  It is about the sustainability of our families and communities.  It is about survival.

Some of our Alliance members have been reporting some disturbing news regarding current investments in the arts. Music BC, for instance, has reported that the funding it receives from the province to administer a grant program for touring  has been frozen. There are also reports about multi-year gaming grants recipients being told that their funding has been frozen due to the election. The response from officials has been, "As there is an election in process, only interim budgets were approved. We are still sorting all of that out. We should be done with that soon.” How many more of you are able to confirm these freezes? Is this just because there is currently an election being run or are these portents of future cuts to the arts? We should ask these questions during this election.