Canada Council gets a makeover
The Canada Council’s long- anticipated makeover was announced Wednesday morning.
The federal arts agency announced that in the name of streamlining the process for all involved, it’s changing the categories under which artists and arts organizations apply for funding each year.
Gone are 147 different programs, which, according to Canada Council director and CEO Simon Brault, created longer debates about which category artists belonged in than discussions about the merits of their application.
They will be replaced by a halfdozen national, non- disciplinary programs designed to fit all 147 categories into their individual funding tents.
The old system will remain in place for 2015- 16, with the new model taking effect in 2017 — the Canada Council’s 60th anniversary — to minimize confusion.
While Canadian arts funding largely survived intact after the economic crisis of 2008 that resulted in big funding cuts in places like Britain, Australia and Spain, Brault says a rethink of the way funds are distributed is necessary.
“I’m convinced that where we are now,” he says, “is a place of strength — but ( we also) need to admit that the ( present funding) model is almost exhausted.
“In Canada,” he says, “for different geopolitical and financial reasons, we have not been forced and we are not being told and forced by anyone to reinvent ourselves — so far.
“But my view, is that we have a very short period of time to do it if we want to do it on our own terms — and that is a huge privilege.
“That’s why I felt,” he says, “when I was appointed to that job, OK, let’s do it if we have the right conditions in a way that is well planned — but also quite radical.”
At the recent gathering of member companies for the PACT ( Professional Association of Canadian Theatres) in Toronto, the feeling in the air was definitely anxious concerning how the new- look Canada Council will impact members, says new Theatre Calgary executive director Colleen Smith.
Smith said that during earlier meetings with the council, they referenced the changes made to arts funding in Australia — alarming many in the Canadian theatre community, because the new Australian guidelines don’t create an arms- length distance from the government of the day.
“It makes everyone ( in the Canadian theatre community) really nervous,” she says, “because at the end of the day, you can slice and dice your funding programs up however you want, but depending on the government that is in power, they have the ability to shift things
at a moment’s notice — and sometimes they do.”
While Smith — who added that the federal arts funding Theatre Calgary receives is tiny — said the council has consulted with arts groups across the country, there’s a feeling that those consultations were less about listening and more about informing.
“What the general theatre community believes,” she says, “the process has been and what the council feels the process has been are two different things.
“That’s really why the concern,” she says. “It’s sort of an internalout exercise, as opposed to a consultative one. That’s not what they’re saying, but that’s what we’re feeling. That’s why I think it’s of concern.”
For Brault, the new non- disciplinary approach reflects what he says is a new style of storytelling coming from a new generation of Canadian artists, who don’t fit comfortably into a previously defined artistic discipline — one that will be more open to all sorts of different, innovative funding partnerships, rather than the Canada Council being a top- down funder.
“The new generation doesn’t want to be supported in a way,” he says, “that basically we’re telling them, you have to fit our multiple boxes, and if you don’t, don’t talk to us.
“They want us to be more adaptable to their visions and aspirations.
“The way to go,” he says, “is to come back to very few programs — programs that are non- disciplinary, more driven by clear goals and clear expected outcomes.”
The new Canada Council funding streams are as follows:
Explore and Create. Artists, collectives and organizations focused on research, development, exploration and innovation in the creation of new work advancing their art forms.
Engage and Sustain supports arts organizations in the production and presentation of ongoing, sustainable, high- quality artistic activities that engage the diversity of citizens within their communities and beyond.
Creating, Knowing and Sharing Aboriginal Arts supports Aboriginal artistic and cultural expression and the vitality of Indigenous artists, artistic practices and communities.
Renewing Artistic Practice supports innovation, collaboration, sustainability and adaptability in Canada’s professional arts sector.
Artists Across Canada encourages the dissemination of excellent Canadian art across the country for the benefit of as many Canadians as possible.
Arts Abroad supports the presentation and circulation of Canadian art and artists abroad.