Arts fund board will seek counsel over ‘unfounded’ allegations by Waterloo Region
Members of the Waterloo Region Arts Fund’s board of directors are seeking legal counsel following what they’re calling “unfounded” harassment allegations by members of regional council earlier this week.
“It’s unfortunate how everything has transpired, and some pretty serious allegations that are being presented as fact, is quite concerning,” said Raechele Lovell, the board’s chair.
“The meeting was done behind closed doors at council, several members of council were not permitted to comment, and so we are once again lacking in transparency and accountability,” she said.
According to the council agenda, the closed session was held to receive advice subject to solicitor-client privilege related to a local board.
Regional council’s decision to pause the arts fund for a third-party review due to alleged harassment and governance concerns, announced in a press release on Wednesday evening, came as a shock to its board members.
“We received the same letter that you did at the same time that you did… and so we are moving through the process of finding out this news at the same time as the public,” said Lovell.
The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund is an independent organization governed by a volunteer board, funded and supported by the region, and has provided $5.5 million for local artists and arts organizations since 2002.
Lovell, who became board chair last July, says she’s met numerous obstacles in her attempt to implement equity initiatives previously recommended by a consultant.
“We started doing an internal audit. It was very clear very quickly that there were many issues internally that needed to be rectified and there was also a resistance from the region side to work on the equity recommendations,” said Lovell, a local artist who was initially offered a position on the board by former members who stepped down, but wanted the ability to move the mandate forward instead of being the “token Black person” at the table.
After assuming the role of chair and onboarding new members to better reflect the community’s diversity, Lovell said it became clear that the autonomy given to previous chairs and the manner in which they were permitted to operate didn’t apply to her.
Lovell said staff turnover at the region made it increasingly difficult for her to obtain documents and information, such as policies and bylaws, that she needed to do the job.
“There was a lot of tension moving through the fall,” she said.
“We couldn’t do anything we wanted to do.”
Lovell said she wasn’t angry or aggressive, but simply made requests.
“I will add that we, as a board, are in agreement,” said Viktorija Kovac, another board member who joined a Zoom call Friday. “We’re trying to get this information to us as soon as possible, so that we can move forward with the work that we should be doing as volunteers, so we are in agreement with these requests and are also aware that they are happening.”
The board decided to pause the fall round of grant applications last year, but not without some resistance from the region and its council representatives on the board, Lovell said.
“I personally felt that there was a lot of gatekeeping happening and that I was being prevented from accessing the tools that I needed to be successful in the role as chair,” said Lovell.
A consultant’s report with 28 recommendations showed that just 6.3 per cent of recent funding rounds were awarded to racialized, queer, disabled and marginalized artists.
“When I looked at the applications, that was not reflective of the diversity that we had,” Lovell said.
“We had a lot of diversity apply and we didn’t fund a lot of diversity and I was also concerned about the number of applications that were going to folks who currently have operational funding from the region also. I felt like there was a double dipping.”
In December, during regional budget deliberations, Williams tabled a motion to cut 20 per cent of funding from discretionary grants, a number amended to 10 per cent and passed by a majority of council.
Arts fund board members said they were blindsided by the move, which reduced its annual allotment by about $40,000, compared to 2023.
“It was an entire board who did not have this information,” noted Kovac, who said the timing of the motion made it difficult to respond and members found out through the media after the budget was passed.
“We were all essentially a month behind the narrative.”
The arts fund board held a special meeting Feb. 1 when Williams verbally resigned from her position on the board due to a conflict of interest over the funding cuts, said Lovell.
“There was no conflict of interest on my part,” Williams stated via email on Friday. “That was speculation by the board.”
Both Williams and Redman submitted formal letters of resignation from their board positions with the arts fund on Wednesday.
Lovell said she launched a social media campaign earlier this year against the region’s decision to “defund” the arts and came before council back on Feb. 6 to speak in opposition.
Following that meeting, Lovell said she was approached by Redman, who told her it wasn’t the way she should go about things and that she’d help in any way she could.
Subsequent attempts to meet with Redman and resolve issues were unsuccessful, said Lovell.
“She won’t get into a phone call with me,” Lovell said. “She has no problem calling Sam (Varteniuk), the white man on the board, to ask what he thinks about things, but will not treat me as the chair and won’t talk to me.”
Redman didn’t respond to a request for comment by the Record by late Friday afternoon.
Lovell said she got a call from Redman’s assistant Wednesday evening, informing her the arts fund was under review. No additional details were provided to her about the allegations of harassment.
“We have intentions to continue drafting our own public statement that will be made available to the media and to the public, probably next week when we’ve had an opportunity to gather more information,” Lovell said.
In an interview Thursday, Coun. Michael Harris, who chairs the region’s administration and finance committee, noted that governance concerns will also be reviewed.
“It’s about accountability and stewardship of public funds and we were made aware of decisions that were made outside of the board’s policies and procedures, and this will also be reviewed by the third party,” he said.
While the arts fund is paused, the region says it will be distributing $350,000 in arts funding through the Waterloo Region Community Foundation in 2024, with more details expected to be announced this spring.