The group may have been smaller in the windowless room at the Glenbow Museum than it had been in the sunny lobby of the TransAlta Arts Barns in Edmonton, but the energy was the same and the conversation was just as animated and full of interesting insights.
Once again there was general acknowledgement that the election campaign had illustrated clearly that the art sector has an image problem which allowed cuts to cultural programs to be used as a wedge issue. It was suggested that while we may have communications problems with the population at large, our lack of cohesiveness and communications between us may be the first thing we have to address.
The need for more coordination, for stepping back from daily specific concerns to establish areas of common interest and develop supporting strategies was stressed by a number of interveners and expectations that the CCA should play a major role in this respect were considerable. The need for tools and training in advocacy were underlined and the CCA was complimented and thanked for the work and information it provided to its members during the recent election campaign, but more was expected from it.
While I can only agree about the need and about the fact that by its very nature and mission, the CCA is well positioned to play a key role in this respect, I had to underline the modesty of our means with regards to the breadth of our mandate.
This led one participant to state that the CCA must become financially more independent from governmental support and he offered to help find new resources from Albertan philanthropists, an offer which I welcomed and which I will certainly follow up on!
Another issue raised was the generational gap within the arts community and the impact that new technologies have on the very concept of what it is to be an artist. Where are we to draw the line between professionalism and amateurism? Should this growing phenomenon be perceived as a threat or quite the opposite, as an opportunity to expand the notion that the arts can be part of everyone’s active experience and not the fact of elites? Maybe the law of the market and time will, once again, establish what has enduring quality. But in the meantime, is there a danger that a growing schism between “highbrow” and “middle or lowbrow” art will make advocating for the arts even more difficult because it fragments the sector even more? And how can we muster these new technologies to better advocate?
Important questions to ponder indeed!
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3 comments:
Dear Alain,
You came to Calgary in search of answers. But, as you discovered, we had more questions than answers for you:
How can we get through to the government?
How can we build consensus?
How can we speak with one voice?
How can the CCA play a significant role when other arts organizations are also out there lobbying and advocating?
And so on.
To my mind, we would have been better prepared to provide some of the answers you seek if you had given us the agenda beforehand and asked us to read the two research papers posted on the CCA home page. You might also have given us the CCA's advocacy priorities from 2006, and asked us to reflect on how many of them are still relevant.
I applaud you for taking the time to come to Calgary to talk to us about better positioning arts and culture in the public debate. As you know, you received one strong message from us about having the CCA rely more on the private sector than on the government for its funding. But there could have been so many more constructive suggestions like this if we had been properly briefed.
Sincerely,
Brian
Hi,
Glad you came to visit. I'd love the blog to be translated to French for your Calgary post : We may not be numerous, but our voice counts.
I also want to highlight the importance of building partnerships to increase support from other sectors to the arts. I've never felt as supported in my work to see French thrive in western Canada or Ontario as when my Anglophone friends who are passionate about my language and culture (French in Western Canada) come to defend it in public. I suggest the same kind of analogy would work for supporting the arts from the business sector, or mining industry or education sector. Having them claim benefits for their own sector.
I regret being forced to post in English today. I would much prefer to do so in my first language, as the CCA is officially bilingual. It would have been ideal to support and contribute to the French-language debate which, no offence, I typically find more interesting and more advanced than the English-language debates where the very existence of state support for the arts is still regularly attacked.
In anticipation of the solitudes meeting on more neutral ground, where I am not forced into so many compromises, for the sake of everyone's understanding, best wishes.
Inouk
Hello,
The French Calgary blog post is available at the following address:
http://forumscca.blogspot.com/2008/11/le-forum-de-calgary.html
Thank you for your comment.
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