Arts community gets a voice at city hall

Vancouver’s vibrant arts and culture community will be getting back its voice at city hall.

More than 20 years after city council did away with an advisory committee on the arts, it is bringing in a new “arts and culture policy council” to broadly represent arts and culture.

The 15- member advisory committee, approved Tuesday, comes after years of lobbying by arts and culture groups who felt they lost a voice at city hall with the disbandment of the former committee.

“There was a feeling by these groups that they hadn’t been appropriately heard at city hall,” Vancouver Councillor Heather Deal said.

“We’re talking about organizations who usually come to city hall looking for funding or help with something, and they felt there was a lack of proactive input into the arts and culture community, as opposed to being reactive when the city does things.”

The committee won’t have the ability to make recommendations on which groups get civic funding, but it will advise council and city staff on services and programs, and act as a conduit for feedback on city initiatives.

Deal said the new committee, which will become active next month after members are selected, will immediately work on two major issues.

One is the growing difficulty for arts and culture groups to access cultural space set aside in new developments.

“The fact is we have community amenity contributions going into creating cultural spaces which are, for a variety of reasons, unaffordable by the arts and culture community. We want to hear from them some ideas for solutions,” Deal said.

The other pressing issue is the difficulty not- for- profit groups have in affording city- owned cultural spaces.

“We should look at our agreements and see if there is some way to tweak or change our policies in how we work with those organizations. I would want the new committee to look at that.”

A public call for members will be made in early March.