Better co-operation urged between festivals and city
Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan says the city’s festival community needs to fix the “disconnect” with city hall over funding for Canada’s 150th celebrations that has turned contentious among some major players of the festival scene.
Catherine O’Grady, Monahan’s Ottawa International Jazz Festival counterpart, penned an op-ed last week criticizing Mayor Jim Watson’s claim that the city is spending record levels on homegrown arts and festivals.
O’Grady wrote that while Watson has trumpeted the Arts Momentum Fund, funding windfalls and a 1.5-per-cent increase in the overall budget for festivals, the record spending actually relates to arts facilities and infrastructure upgrades and that operating funding remains “significantly behind” by about $1.2 million.
Watson took issue with O’Grady’s position.
“Her article is wrong on a number of fronts,” Watson told the Citizen on Monday at city hall, where he held his annual Family Day skating party on the Rink of Dreams.
“Infrastructure money is up to record levels, as is operating dollars because we increased every budget by 1.5 per cent, plus we added another $150,000 this year in base funding, $150,000 next year for the Arts Momentum Fund, plus (the Ottawa 2017 office) is giving $250,000 for arts and festivals and cultural programming, plus there’s another $250,000 for the festivals.
“When she says we’re not giving the amount of money that we say we are, the facts speak differently.”
Monahan did not comment directly on O’Grady’s position, and instead suggested working toward a more positive way forward.
“There has been a disconnect, I feel, between the festival community and the city in many ways around the 2017 celebrations, and these sorts of celebrations are always challenging in how to support the existing players, while also putting some grand party together,” Monahan said.
“2017 is already upon us. We need to work better with the city in future — 2018 and beyond. And there are models for this. Montreal has a special events department at the city which supports the jazz festival, Just For Laughs — their role is to support, often on the logistics side, all of the entrepreneurs making Montreal what it is.
“There’s a lot of great people doing great things here, and I think we need a better spirit of co-operation and partnership with the city, and that needs to be addressed in the coming years. 2017 is happening. There’s nothing we can do about it but learn from how it was rolled out and have a better feeling of co-operation.”
Watson bristled when asked if the 2017 experience could serve as a learning experience in future festival partnerships.
“The festivals that are big and bold and brave are going to use 2017 to increase attendance to go through the doors that are going to bring revenues up,” Watson said. “Those that constantly complain are doing themselves a disservice. The fact of the matter is, there’s a record amount of money, both in operating and capital. 2017 is all about driving more new customers to every existing festival.
“We love the festivals in our city. They make our city a special place in all seasons. 2017 is a marketing effort to attract more people, 1.75 million more people, to the city. We get them here and it’s up to those festivals to get them through the turnstiles and into their festivals. That’s a win-win for everyone.”
Watson pointed out that the executive director of the umbrella group Ottawa Festivals is on the board of directors for Ottawa 2017. He questioned any widespread dissatisfaction with the city’s support of festivals.
“This are two or three festivals that, for some reason, never seem to be content. They are the same ones that come all the time complaining and they’re always overly negative. The vast majority of festivals are positive. They’ve been working well with us in 2017 and they’re appreciative. I just can’t explain the negativity of two or three individuals who seem to have problems with facts.”