Early grant a lifeline for Niagara’s devastated arts groups
Besieged by the COVID-19 pandemic, some of Canada’s arts organizations will get a temporary lifeline from the Canada Council for the Arts.
The public arts funder announced it will provide about $60 million in advanced funding — roughly 35 per cent of its annual grants — to more than 1,100 funded organizations across the country.
One of them is children’s theatre group Carousel Players in St. Catharines, which was thankful for any good news in light of its tours and education programs being cancelled. The company said its payroll for April was supposed to be 19 people, but after the cancellations it’s down to three.
“And with no income expected until summer at the earliest, even three people is a strain on the company’s resources,” said general manager Kate Leathers. “It would have been terrible to have had to lay even more people off knowing that there was income coming that little bit too late. This move by the Canada Council will bridge that gap.”
Leathers estimated Carousel Players will receive about $45,000, which is 35 per cent of last year’s grant.
Canada Council director and chief executive officer Simon Brault said the early grants are meant to help “stabilize” the arts sector in light of the sudden, devastating halt to all arts programming.
“There is an urgent need to alleviate the financial pressure on those organizations that are the backbone of the arts sector in Canada,” he said.
The advances will be issued by May 4.
Niagara’s largest arts institution, the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-theLake, has cancelled all events until May 25.
Many other Niagara arts groups will not benefit from the Canada Council grants, however. Essential Collective Theatre in St. Catharines does not meet the grant criteria of $75,000 in each of the past three years, said general manager Rebecca Walsh.
“Smaller companies like ours are slipping through the cracks to survive this.” The company had to cancel its March production and all programs for the remainder of the season, effectively shutting down for 2020.