2004-10-11
Arts world a victim of government neglect
OTTAWAAs usual when arts people get together, the subject was money or the lack of it. The occasion: last weekend's roundtable on private-public partnerships in the arts world, held at the National Arts Centre, as orchestrated by NAC president Peter Herrndorf...
Dr. Martha Piper, president of the University of British Columbia, flew in from Vancouver to tell arts people they could learn a trick or two from colleagues in the world of education.
Her point was that cultural organizations could lobby more effectively if they presented a united case, a strategy that worked for Canadian universities.
Indeed, universities and hospitals have built such an aggressive and effective fundraising machine over the last decade or so, they've become the New York Yankees of the philanthropic league. "The sky's the limit," Piper said. "There is no lack of money in this country."
But Richard Bradshaw who, unlike Piper, actually toils in the cultural trenches daily as general director of the Canadian Opera Company argued that Canada won't be able to fulfill its rich cultural potential until governments "change the number of zeroes" in their arts budgets.
It's all very well for Piper to imply that cultural leaders need only become as clever as their counterparts in the fields of health care and education. But hospitals and universities typically get three-quarters of their money from government, while major arts organizations get one-quarter or less of their budgets from government.
According to Bradshaw, Canada is a great and rich country with a Third World budget for the arts. The Canada Council's grants for all cultural organizations across the country, he noted, totals $142 million about half the annual subsidy received by Berlin's three opera houses.
Bradshaw demanded an immediate increase of $200 million in the Canada Council's budget and threw in a pointed reference to his well-funded host: The National Arts Centre gets about half of its $45 million annual revenue from the government. That's because the NAC and the National Gallery, being in the nation's capital, are seen as a federal responsibility.
Isn't it about time the government of Canada acknowledged that a handful of performing arts institutions the Canadian Opera Company, the National Ballet, the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra also have earned the right to this level of funding? (Bradshaw's opera company gets less than 25 per cent of its $21-million budget from government, and less than $2 million from Ottawa.)
After all, they are indisputably the jewels in the crown of this country's cultural life, contributing hugely to whatever cachet Canada has in international circles. Private philanthropists have done more than their part. These groups can't reach their potential without major government support, even if they don't happen to be based in Ottawa.
The Roundtable was part of a dizzying and exhausting weekend lineup at the NAC. The most glittery was a gala concert featuring Yo-Yo Ma and the NAC Orchestra a fundraiser for the National Youth and Education Trust.
With considerably less fanfare, Trying a new play in which Toronto actor Paul Soles gives the performance of his life ended its three-week run the same night. Soles will be reprising his role as curmudgeonly U.S. Justice Francis Biddle when this production comes to his hometown as part of the Canadian Stage season at the St. Lawrence Centre. But Toronto will have to wait until May to see this play, written by Joanna Glass, and based on her experience 35 years ago working as Biddle's assistant in the final year of his life.
The NAC, which has recently been trying to raise its profile in Toronto, will also bring its orchestra, under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman, to Roy Thomson Hall in late November.
The traffic moves in the other direction as well. Those who missed the Shaw Festival's gem Rutherford And Son can catch it in Ottawa, where it will resurface after closing in Niagara-on-the-Lake this weekend.
© Toronto Star
Her point was that cultural organizations could lobby more effectively if they presented a united case, a strategy that worked for Canadian universities.
Indeed, universities and hospitals have built such an aggressive and effective fundraising machine over the last decade or so, they've become the New York Yankees of the philanthropic league. "The sky's the limit," Piper said. "There is no lack of money in this country."
But Richard Bradshaw who, unlike Piper, actually toils in the cultural trenches daily as general director of the Canadian Opera Company argued that Canada won't be able to fulfill its rich cultural potential until governments "change the number of zeroes" in their arts budgets.
It's all very well for Piper to imply that cultural leaders need only become as clever as their counterparts in the fields of health care and education. But hospitals and universities typically get three-quarters of their money from government, while major arts organizations get one-quarter or less of their budgets from government.
According to Bradshaw, Canada is a great and rich country with a Third World budget for the arts. The Canada Council's grants for all cultural organizations across the country, he noted, totals $142 million about half the annual subsidy received by Berlin's three opera houses.
Bradshaw demanded an immediate increase of $200 million in the Canada Council's budget and threw in a pointed reference to his well-funded host: The National Arts Centre gets about half of its $45 million annual revenue from the government. That's because the NAC and the National Gallery, being in the nation's capital, are seen as a federal responsibility.
Isn't it about time the government of Canada acknowledged that a handful of performing arts institutions the Canadian Opera Company, the National Ballet, the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra also have earned the right to this level of funding? (Bradshaw's opera company gets less than 25 per cent of its $21-million budget from government, and less than $2 million from Ottawa.)
After all, they are indisputably the jewels in the crown of this country's cultural life, contributing hugely to whatever cachet Canada has in international circles. Private philanthropists have done more than their part. These groups can't reach their potential without major government support, even if they don't happen to be based in Ottawa.
The Roundtable was part of a dizzying and exhausting weekend lineup at the NAC. The most glittery was a gala concert featuring Yo-Yo Ma and the NAC Orchestra a fundraiser for the National Youth and Education Trust.
With considerably less fanfare, Trying a new play in which Toronto actor Paul Soles gives the performance of his life ended its three-week run the same night. Soles will be reprising his role as curmudgeonly U.S. Justice Francis Biddle when this production comes to his hometown as part of the Canadian Stage season at the St. Lawrence Centre. But Toronto will have to wait until May to see this play, written by Joanna Glass, and based on her experience 35 years ago working as Biddle's assistant in the final year of his life.
The NAC, which has recently been trying to raise its profile in Toronto, will also bring its orchestra, under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman, to Roy Thomson Hall in late November.
The traffic moves in the other direction as well. Those who missed the Shaw Festival's gem Rutherford And Son can catch it in Ottawa, where it will resurface after closing in Niagara-on-the-Lake this weekend.
© Toronto Star
by Martin Knelman, Toronto Star - Oct 9, 2004
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