Culture Matters!
ArtsConnect is very concerned about recent cuts to BC provincial gaming grants that benefit local arts groups, among many other community groups and charities. We are working locally, and with the Alliance for Arts & Culture (www.allianceforarts.com) and the Assembly of BC Arts Councils (www.assemblybcartscouncils.ca), on two key points:
- The urgent need for the Provincial Government to live up to its commitment to give at least one third of gaming revenue to charities, per the 1999 Memorandum of Agreement with the BC Association for Charitable Gaming.
- The urgent need to restore funding to groups recently denied Gaming funding.
We are calling local arts groups and arts supporters to action. We urge you to contact your local Mayor, Council, MLA and MP to voice your concerns about the impact recent cuts will have on our communities and our society. The arts are an economic driver and the many benefits they provide are well-documented. Arts education fosters creativity and valuable life skills, and helps us to engage with life. Arts funding should be increased, not cut, for the wellbeing of our province.
To read more on the importance of art read the Vancouver Sun article The arts help us all to engage in life or the Vancouver Sun article Games' cultural legacy will disappear if arts funding cuts continue, Jay Peachy's letter Art is a Means for Survival, or Craig Spence's letter. You can also find out what Kicking Horse Culture is doing in response to the funding cuts by visiting Face of the Arts. And you can read the November recommendation from the Finance Committee to restore arts funding. View the PSA short film "Artless" and then take action. Or, join with Arts Advocacy BC and make your voice heard as one of 4.4 million reasons to support the arts.
If you live in the Tri-Cities, here is contact info for your local MLA:
Port Moody-Coquitlam - Hon. Iain Black
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Coquitlam-Burke Mountain - Douglas Horne
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Coquitlam-Maillardville - Diane Thorne
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Port Coquitlam - Mike Farnworth
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To learn more about what you can do to advocate for the arts in our communities, view the Culture Matters PDF file and take action!
"The Arts are an essential part of public education. From dance and music to theatre and the visual arts, the arts give children a unique means of expression, capturing their passions and emotions, and allowing them to explore new ideas, subject matter, and cultures. They bring us joy in every aspect of our lives.
"Arts education not only enhances students' understanding of the world around them, but it also broadens their perspective on traditional academics. The arts give us the creativity to express ourselves, while challenging our intellect. The arts integrate life and learning for all students and are integral in the development of the whole person.
"The Arts communicate and speak to us in ways that teach literacy and enhance our lives. We must continue to find a place for arts programs and partnerships not only for what it teaches students about art, but for what it teaches us all about the world we live in."
~ Dr. Terry Bergeson, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction
SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN “CREATIVITY COUNTS: RESTORE ARTS FUNDING NOW”
ArtsConnect is a member of the Alliance for Arts and Culture which has just launched the Creativity Counts: Restore Arts Funding Now campaign as our contribution to the groundswell of arts community protests against the devastating cuts in provincial arts funding.
We have six requests to make of our members, friends and colleagues:
- Personalize this message and send it to everyone on all of your email lists -- professional and personal. The government needs to hear from everyone who cares -- working artists (professional and amateur), audience members, arts board members, and their friends, colleagues and neighbours.
- Go to Creativity Counts: Restore Arts Funding Now and send an email message to the Premier and your own MLA. We have created an auto-letter tool for your use. Nearly 7,000 letters have been sent to Premier Gordon Campbell, his ministers and individual MLAs since our campaign began. If you haven’t sent yours yet, please do so now at www.creativitycounts.ca.
- Review our Advocacy Toolkit and use and adapt it in your personal advocacy efforts. It contains a wealth of information, accurate statistics, case studies of the damage these cuts are doing to our communities and ideas for action.
- If you are an arts or community event manager and have an event coming up, donate some advertising space in your program to this campaign. Email our communications director Kevin Dale McKeown at
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to request a working document of the ad which will appeared in the Georgia Straight on Nov. 26, which can be adapted to your programs ad specifications.
- Consider featuring the Creativity Counts logo (design courtesy of our friends at Hamazki Wong Marketing Group) as a hotlink button on your own website and social media pages. Email Kevin at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and he will provide you with the button's html code and some accompanying text.
- Donate to the Alliance's Advocacy Fund. Buttons and postcards and bookmarks and lobbying and organizing meetings all cost money. Your support will keep this campaign going. There is a PayPal link at creativitycounts.ca.
What do we hope to achieve with your help? We have only a few more weeks to influence discussions and decisions around the budget that will be brought down in early March. A relentless drumbeat of protests, letters, emails and community-based activism will ensure that the decision makers in Victoria hear our message loud and clear right up to the last moment. Creativity Counts. Restore Arts Funding Now.
Among the many grassroots initiatives underway, a “Petition in Support of the Arts” will be presented to the Legislature on February 10 or 11. Everyone is invited to download a copy of the petition, collect signatures, and send the results in to the organizers to be included in the final presentation to the Legislature.