ARTS GROUPS SHORT OF FUNDS
New report recommends city boosts grants after eight-year freeze
After nearly a decade of making cuts, arts organizations are operating “close to the bone” — and local groups say Calgary needs to catch up to funding levels in other municipalities to sustain the sector.
Arts consultant Karen Ball, who compiled a report for Calgary Arts Development based on six months of contributions from more than a dozen local arts groups, said civic grants to 10 cornerstone companies have been frozen at the same level for the past eight years. In that time, audiences have grown, operating costs have swelled and the gap between revenues and expenses is growing.
The sustainability framework, which was presented to a city council committee this week, states an annual municipal investment of an average of eight per cent of the operating budgets of the cornerstone companies — an increase from the current 3.5 per cent — would have a “profound effect” on the sustainability of those groups.
The companies that comprise Calgary Arts Development’s cornerstone program are Alberta Ballet, Calgary Opera, Folk Festival Society, National Music Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, Glenbow Museum, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, One Yellow Rabbit and Theatre Junction Grand.
Calgary Arts Development is the city ’s designated arts development authority.
While the sector has already stretched its ability to operate with fewer resources through measures such as cutting staff, marketing budgets and the number of artists on the stage, Ball said municipal dollars allow local groups to cover day-to-day costs, such as energy bills, salaries and space rentals, that typically aren’t as appealing to sponsors.
“If you have enough base funding to appropriately staff your organization and pay your basic operating expenses, at the rate of inflation … then you can chase corporate dollars and you can build relationships with donors and you can make better use of your data and you can grow audiences and diversify them — and all of that results in more revenue too,” said Ball.
“If you tie their hands, then they’re chasing the power bill money ... I don’t want to live in a city where my visionaries are trying to figure out how to turn on the lights over painting a picture of the future of the city and telling our stories and bringing us together and putting us on the map.”
The framework was produced as a condition of $2 million in bridge funding allocated by city council to the 10 groups last summer.
Patti Pon, president and CEO of Calgary Arts Development, said the target average of eight per cent of the cornerstone companies’ operating budgets — which would put the organizations more in line with what their counterparts across Canada receive from municipal funders — amounts to just over $5 million.
Closer to the next city budget, the authority will work with administration to prepare a funding request with all its programs in mind.
“That’s one program, and then we would be looking to find ways to invest with individual artists, as an example,” Pon said.
Members of the city’s priorities and finance committee agreed this week to take into account Calgary Arts Development’s recommendation for increased municipal funding to sustain arts organizations, but asked for the authority to come back before the city begins its annual budget talks with more specific numbers.
“When I realized that we had frozen our base budget for eight years for non-profit organizations that operate on the absolute edge, I’m absolutely convinced that that is a mistake and we have to fix it, and we have to fix it this November,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said during the committee meeting.
“I am interested in between now and November, having a lot more analysis, so that when we come to the decision of how much more to give, that we have a real idea of what that is.”
Pon said she thinks Calgary will see some companies fail following years of having to make cuts. Ball noted the city does have a history of losing arts organizations during every economic decline and collapse, due to the sector’s reliance on corporate funding.
But, Ball added, what she heard from the groups consulted during the framework discussions was that they “want to contribute more,” including setting goals to better reflect the city’s diversity and increase access to the arts.
“They want to be able to be more strategic to the advancement of the city, its economy, its prosperity, the way we live,” said Ball.
“But they ’re so close to the bone now that they ’re having trouble advancing themselves as organizations creatively and contributing at the level that they know they can. That to me, is more striking
Calgary is the fourth largest city ... but our arts funding per capita lags behind smaller cities like Hamilton and Winnipeg.
than closing doors.”
Chris George, executive director of Alberta Ballet, said the organization supports Calgary Arts Development’s position on increased municipal funding for the arts.
“Like many in the Calgary arts community, we’ve been active with Creative Calgary to encourage funding support and we have met with a variety of councillors and sent correspondence to them all,” George said.
Maud Salvi, executive director for Sled Island — one of the noncornerstone companies that participated in the sustainability discussions — said challenges for the arts sector include a lack of dedicated, low-cost art space, and Calgary’s geographic location, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to centres such as Toronto and Montreal, where presenters can split travel costs for international artists.
“This disadvantage is amplified by the low level of Calgary’s civic arts funding compared to other major Canadian cities,” Salvi said. “Calgary is the fourth largest city in Canada, but our arts funding per capita lags behind smaller cities like Hamilton and Winnipeg.”
Paul Dornian, president and CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, said like the rest of the local sector, his organization has been affected by a decrease in corporate sponsorships due to the economic downturn. For many arts companies, capital reserves have diminished, and some have gone into debt.
“We’ve had deficits for the last few years, and that’s a real challenge to the long-term sustainability of an organization,” Dornian said.
The result of organizations losing stability, he added, is people aren’t willing to take chances creatively.
“You’re going to be looking at employing as few people as possible, rather than doing something that actually buoys the economy in Calgary, where you’re employing more artists, and you have those natural multipliers. If we employ a certain number of people in Calgary, they’re out in the community, spending money — buying groceries, buying gas, purchasing services, renting or purchasing houses.”
Dornian said investing in the arts sector is “one of the things that anywhere in the world makes a community great.”
“There are no great communities that don’t have that healthy arts component,” he said. “And I’m really encouraged to see that the city is thinking about this so carefully.”