More Funding for Artists!

I came across this today in the British Columbia live journal site. It's important, so I'm cross-posting here.

Please join a public campaign today to raise government public investment in the arts and culture to align with other provinces--ie, we are asking for investment of $10 per capita--one movie, no popcorn.

Investment in the arts industry funds health and education - find out more below.

Our deadline is October 23.

This drive is spearheaded by a roundtable of concerned private citizens, including Yulanda Faris, Chair of the Opera Foundation, Richard Prokopanko of Alcan, Cathy Barrett, partner in Nettwerk Records, and Heather Redfern, Executive Director of the Alliance for Arts and Culture, among others.

We are reliably informed that submissions from the public at large are key to the success of this campaign.

Regions count, the public counts, quantity counts. This is spelled YOU. If you are outside the Lower Mainland, this is especially important. It is vital that our government invest in the livability of our regions.

Please go to:

http://www.leg.bc.ca/budgetconsultations/ to say you want arts and culture funding increased. It can be brief. Remember Oct 23 is the dealine. If you can,please copy:

The Premier at: premier@gov.bc.ca
The Minister: olga.ilich.mla@leg.bc.ca
your MLA: (get addresses at http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm )
And US, care of: hredfern@allianceforarts.com,

WHY:

1) Investing in the arts turns a profit for government and helps finance health, education, and other programs:

The Toronto Film Festival generates $89m in economic activity, and $23m in tourism. For each dollar in government investment, the Montreal Jazz Festival generates $58 in economic activity. Stratford returns $42.6 in tax revenue for every dollar of government funding invested. The Gay Pride Parade in Vancouver alone generates $14m in economic activity--which is exactly the entire government budget for the BC Arts Council.

2) Attracts tourism:

Cultural tourists are affluent, mature, experienced and sophisticated--they spend 38% more per visit than other travelers. This market of 49 million people in North America alone is growing at 15% per year. 37% of all travel includes a cultural component. These travelers are the prize of the tourism trade. They've been around and they want an experience in addition to scenery and shopping when they travel. We are in a competition for these travelers, and don't know it.

3) Attracts the best and brightest:

We are also in a global competition for business leaders, managers, scientists, technologists, and innovators. The best and the brightest can live anywhere--we want them here in BC. We are in the Age of iPod and Electronic Arts, where technological innovation means that the arts will have much greater impact on our times than anytime in the last century. Our competition is busy building thriving cultural environments to attract those firestarters who are capable of transforming economies. Are we?

4) It's good.

It's good to be captivated, enthralled, challenged and engaged by professional artists. The better the environment for artists, the more we will attract the very best--and really build BC into a world-class region. The better for our lives and for our children.

OUR CURRENT POSITION:

-At current funding levels, BC is almost dead last in Canada, and the margins are very large.

-According to StatsCan data, BC's per capita investment in this sector is only 27.5% of the average provincial government arts funding across Canada. Newfoundland, Alberta, Manitoba, and the Yukon all invest several times what we do. The province of Quebec spends 10 times the BC number. In the last fiscal year, the BC government's advertising budget exceeded that of the BC Arts Council.

-Our present funding of the BC Arts Council is $14m--or .04% of total government spending. That is ten thousandth of our budget. This provides only a fraction of revenues for 710 organizations and artists province-wide, including the Jazz Festival, the Film Festival, the Children's Festival, Bard on the Beach, Ballet BC, Illuminaries, the VSO, the Playhouse, the Arts Club, the Writers Festival, and so on and so on.

-At this level of funding, our arts community is performing well below its potential.

-Weak funding affects support from Canada Council, which looks for provincial government support as one of its indicators. Canada Council investment in BC is well below average.

-The BC Arts Council reports a substantial increase in the number of arts organizations operating under deficits, and with increasing deficits. This sector has destabilized.

There is no need for this. Many world-leading artists and performers live and work in our province and communities. We have everything we need to become a thriving cultural environment and destination.

This is a request for increased investment in an industry that we know is already contributing substantial financial benefits to BC.

THE ASK:

Please join in asking the BC government for an increase in investment in the BC Arts Council to $10 per capita. That is one movie, no popcorn, for all of us. This will bring us to approximately 3rd in Canada in investment in the arts, and close to the middle.

Remember that this investment will generate tax revenues in excess of the amount requested.

Please pass this e-mail on to your friends and associates who care about the BC we are building now, today. Wide dissemination of this e-mail matters.

Thank you so much, and remember, it was a BC writer who gave us this:
"If you build it, they will come." (WP Kinsella, Yale BC)

ps: When a performing artist gets on a stage, benefits pass to:

sound technicians
lighting technicians
set designers
carpenters
hardware stores
wardrobe personnel
electricians
security personnel
program designers
ushers
paper suppliers
printers
photographers
advertisers
reporters
newspapers
magazines
rental companies
caterers
taxi drivers
gas stations
BC wine industry
hotels
waiters/waitresses
babysitters
restaurants
recording engineers

and the audience