Business leaders can save art sector
Here is a sobering, and only partial, list of arts organizations in our community whose events have either been cancelled outright, or are in serious jeopardy: Toronto’s Contact Photography Festival. Our live theatre sector. The Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. The Toronto Fringe Festival. The Luminato Festival. Our independent cinemas. The Hot Docs documentary film festival. The Toronto International Film Festival.
Those of us in the private sector need to do better.
We all understand that companies invest in what’s important to them, which is why this steep decline in Toronto’s arts scene reflects a failure on the part of private sector leaders to recognize the value of the arts in our community.
Why are the arts important? The answer, and indeed the wonderful thing about art in general, will vary wildly depending on who you ask.
Art incites conversation. Conversely, it can speak without words when those words are too painful to speak. It can celebrate. Or it can demand change. It helps us see the beautiful, even as it refuses to let us forget the terrible. And, of course, the best art brings us together to wrestle with these experiences as a collective.
For me, as a newcomer to Canada in 2018, the arts represented a way to learn about the present and past of a complex country. As CEO of Nieuport Aviation, owner and operator of the terminal at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, I’ve heard similar opinions firsthand from passengers when they see the local art on display in our terminal, enjoy a live concert from our airport music program, or have other experiences we have deliberately created to better connect to our community.
Examples include Project T-Dot, a chronicle of the Toronto hip-hop scene by local photographer Ajani Charles; the Bloody Boats installation by artist Akshata Naik; or live performances by a diverse group of emerging musicians. For passengers, these exhibits and performances shed light on the vast and diverse community we serve in the GTA.
The City of Toronto has done a wonderful job — almost too good a job — in promoting the arts. It makes me wonder, has the private sector become too comfortable taking a back seat while municipal leaders underpin support for our art community?
In a word, yes.
Of course, there is inspiring art coming about through private-sector involvement. I recently got blissfully lost at The Power Plant on Toronto’s waterfront, a free-to-enter gallery supported by privatesector donors. And of course, the 2023 Mayor’s Evening for the Arts raised more than $1 million to keep art front and centre in our city.
But the time has come to move beyond what is traditionally expected of private companies when it comes to supporting the arts.
Business leaders should be asking themselves if their support of art is ticking a box under a list of corporate social responsibility initiatives, or are they truly invested in supporting the arts community. Do their lobbies and gathering places feature works from local artists? Is their company involved in events and initiatives that support the arts? Are they talking to our stakeholders about their involvement in the arts and collaborating on ways to amplify and echo our shared values?
We in the private sector can and should do more to promote the arts, whether pushing further on existing initiatives or creating something where previously nothing existed.
Ultimately, it is about participating in and advancing conversations about who we are, where we have been, and where we want to go. There’s an undeniable value in this for individuals, communities, and the nation at large.