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Notes for a speech by
Karen Kain
Chair, Canada Council for the Arts
Art Gallery of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Monday, June 5, 2006

It is a pleasure for me to be in Edmonton again – I was here last fall during the tour of the National Ballet and I have fond memories of my visit. That visit involved both parts of my life in the arts: as Artistic Director of the Ballet, otherwise known as my “day” job, and, of course, as Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.

I met people from the arts community at the time, as well as City Councillor, Michael Phair, who said he would introduce a motion at City Council to support the Canadian Arts Coalition’s campaign for a federal budget increase to the arts through the Canada Council. 

The Edmonton city council passed that motion, as did several other major cities in Canada. Together with the Coalition’s efforts, it had a real impact in Ottawa with the former government and helped lead to an announcement of a significant increase only a few months after my visit here.  But that is ancient history and now we are on to a new reality!

The Canada Council already has many connections with Edmonton. First, we provide over $3 million of support to the thriving arts scene here.

But no less importantly, we have had strong Board members from Alberta – among them, Gertrude Laing, who was Chair, Sandra LeBlanc, Jeanne Lougheed, and the incomparable Senator Tommy Banks. Today, Esther Ondrack, a business woman, volunteer and arts patron from Edmonton, is on our Board.  She is a great asset to the Council and a fine example of Albertan dedication.

The Council is also an active participant in the recently-formed tri-level network in Alberta bringing together regularly arts funders from the provincial, municipal and federal levels of government, and foundations. 

The purpose is to share knowledge, information and best practices, to work on issues of common concern and to work more effectively together.

Edmonton is a remarkable city for the arts – a city of festivals, including the famous Fringe, with a lively arts scene, an active Francophone community and some impressive infrastructure, and plans for more. 

You are also fortunate in that you have an active Mayor and city council who are very supportive of the arts, as well as the effective Edmonton Arts Council and some renowned leaders and philanthropists, past and present.  

In fact, Alberta leads the country in philanthropic and corporate support for the arts.

But we should not forget the important role played by our colleagues at the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, who have nurtured the arts and cultural life of Alberta.  Nor the contribution of your universities and colleges in the development of the arts here. 

We support and encourage the AFA in its efforts to secure more resources to keep pace with the growth of the arts in this province.

All in all, it is an impressive arts and cultural life you share.

I am grateful to the Edmonton Arts Council and to Catrin Owen and John Mahon for the invitation to be here this evening.  I welcome this opportunity to speak about the arts in general and the Canada Council in particular, as part of the city’s Cultural Planning Process.  It is encouraging to learn that the city is embarking on this path. 

Your invitation noted that I would be speaking about the future of the arts, and indeed I will, but let me first deal with some recent developments at the Canada Council.

In late April, the Council learned that the government had accepted the Board’s recommendation and proposed the appointment of Robert Sirman as the new Director.  Mr. Sirman, who is the administrative director of the National Ballet School of Canada, will replace John Hobday, whose term ended in January this year. 

Mr Sirman’s appointment was confirmed by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage last week and we look forward to his arrival sometime this summer.

In Mr. Sirman, we are getting a visionary and pragmatic leader who can guide and mobilize the Council to reach new heights of excellence.  There are numerous challenges ahead, as the Council must deal with the needs of established arts organizations and artists, while opening up to new art practices and the cultural needs of an increasingly diversified population from coast to coast.  It must also have the capacity to reflect regional concerns within a national artistic framework. 

We are confident that Mr. Sirman is equal to the task.

The other recent development was the welcome announcement in the federal budget of new funds for the Canada Council. 

This was great news, particularly because the government repeatedly insisted that it would only deal with its five priorities.  Because they did not include the arts, we feared that there was very little chance of new money for the Council.

Despite these prospects, the arts community continued to make the case about the value of, and the urgent need for, increased investment in the arts. 

On a national level, the Canadian Arts Coalition persisted in its campaign for increased funding for the arts through the Council.  This was reinforced at a regional and local level, in particular in cities like Montreal.

The cumulative increase of $50 million over two years, which actually translates into a $30 million increase to our Parliamentary appropriation by the second year, is significant because:

• it confirms the willingness of this government to assume its continued responsibility for funding the arts;
• it reaffirms the role of the Canada Council as the principal federal vehicle for undertaking that responsibility;
• it recognizes the urgent needs of the arts;.
• it acknowledges the benefits a strong, creative and sustainable arts sector can bring to Canadians and their communities.

We are grateful for that increase and I should also commend the government for its plan to eliminate the capital gains tax on gifts of appreciated securities to charities, including the arts. 

This will have a significant impact on those hundreds of arts organizations which rely on fundraising to complement their revenues from public and other sources.

The announcement of the Council’s funding increase does not mean the end of the public debate about government funding for the arts but it indicates that the discussion with this government has gotten off to a good start.

That is why we welcomed the budget news with enthusiasm, echoing the expression of a general sense of encouragement from the arts community across the country.

Federal funding of the arts is obviously important in and of itself – but it is a shared responsibility with other levels of government. 

But what we sometimes under estimate is the strategic leveraging influence of federal support. 

When the federal government invests in an activity, it acts as a kind of moral persuasion and reference check for other levels of government – and for the corporate sector and individuals.  If the federal government contributes only meagrely, it sends the message that arts support isn’t important. 

For all these reasons, funding for the Canada Council is vital, not only for its immediate results in Canadian communities, but for its longer-term impact on other support from public, private and corporate sources.

A recent study by McKinsey & Company for the Council for Business and the Arts in Canada also demonstrates how public sector funding provides the foundation and leadership which leverages the private sector.  McKinsey points out that the arts in Canada more than pay for themselves through attendance revenues and increased tourism, with the performing arts producing a positive return of more than 200% based on direct and indirect benefits. 

As McKinsey concludes, the real beneficiaries of cultural investment are Canadian communities.

And I am quoting here:

“But, the most important outcome of the study didn’t have an economic basis. 

While corporate leaders found the numbers impressive, they all recognized that the real “return on investment” from culture is not monetary.  It is not the reason we make art and it is not the reason we need art in our lives

Our art makes us unique, it records our lives, it provides forum for debate, it improves education, creates community engagement, drives national brand identity, encourages multicultural expression.  Art facilitates neighbourhood regeneration, attracts creative employees, creates employee engagement and provides unique corporate marketing opportunities.

Public and private arts partnerships provide the financial foundation for creativity which in turn generates unique social, community and corporate value.”

So, we will continue to make the case for a further investment in the arts, working with the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Bev Oda, and the government, and emphasizing the enormous value that the arts bring to the lives of Canadians and to the cities and communities in which they live.  In advancing that cause, I hope the influential voice of Edmontonians will again be heard by MPs and political leaders.

In the meantime, we are working on how to put this budget increase to best use.  If the process for such budget initiatives follows its normal course of approvals, we should receive the funds, at the earliest, by the end of 2006. 

The use of these new funds poses some complex challenges for the Council and will require some profound consideration of the needs and the opportunities in the arts, as well as an examination of the Council’s processes.

Spending details must be developed with and discussed by the Council’s Board, and specific grants will be determined through the Council’s normal peer assessment processes, but the main outlines of our intentions are clear. 

We want to ensure that the money is invested to deliver the most significant outcomes for Canadian arts organizations, artists and communities across the country, maximizing the return on our contribution.

We will not, for instance, merely divide up the new funds by increasing each of our hundreds of grants to arts organizations and individuals by an equal and fixed percentage.

What we need to do is to think strategically about how these funds can have a significant impact on creation, production and dissemination in the arts. 

We will need to determine how these funds will generate the convincing outcomes to the quality of life of Canadians across Canada, which we will need in order to seek additional funding in the future.

And we will need to seek additional funding: Canada lags far behind many other countries in the developed world in its per capita support of the arts through arts councils – which range from over $24 ($24.36) in England to almost $11 ($10.97) in Norway to nearly $7 ($ 6.91) in Australia, compared – even with the increases in the recent budget – to our, roughly, $ 5.50.  So we have our collective work cut out for us.

We must act strategically:  with artistic excellence as our primary criterion, we must:

• recognize the role of arts and cultural institutions as generators of creativity,
• intensify local, regional, national and international touring and dissemination of the arts, and opportunities for Canadians to experience the arts and engage with artistic creativity; and
• give to our most promising individual artists the means and opportunities to develop their work through support at key moments in their careers.

We are very conscious that the government, the arts community, the media and the public will be watching closely what the Council does with its new funding.   

My colleagues on the Board share my concerns and my enthusiasm for the future and we are ready to tackle these challenges.

But with any significant moment in an organization’s existence, it is important to remember history - and as chance would have it, in March 2007, the Canada Council for the Arts will celebrate its 50^th year of existence - 50 years of extraordinary development in the arts across Canada.

In 1957, the government of the day seized upon a windfall of $100 million from the taxes on the estates of two prominent Maritime financiers to create the Canada Council.  It was a bold and visionary decision. 

Incidentally, two years after the Council was established, the government of Alberta created a branch responsible for culture. 

This was before every other province but one took such a proactive position on behalf of the arts - except for Saskatchewan, which set up its Arts Board in 1948.

The decision to create the Canada Council fulfilled the recommendation of the Massey-Lévesque Commission, which had looked into the state of the arts, letters and sciences across Canada in the late 1940’s and early 50’s. 

The Commission found a huge “passion for the arts” among Canadian citizens and a flourishing amateur arts scene across the country. 

Meanwhile, however, the professional arts were virtually non-existent. 

Artists left Canada because they couldn’t make a living here; virtually all our books came from Britain and France; the performing arts we experienced came in on tour from the US and were performed in gyms and school auditoriums.  Canada had absolutely no cultural presence on the international stage.

The creation of the Canada Council was intended to unleash the rich potential of Canadian creative talent, satisfy the hunger of Canadians for access to their own artists, to their own stories, and make a place for our cultures in the world.

Could anyone in 1957 have foreseen the transformation that was to come?

As we look back today, in this era of measuring value and impact, there is absolutely no doubt that the sustained and patient investment of public funds in the arts through the Canada Council, and through the provinces and the municipalities, has had a profound impact on our country, our lives and our communities.  That impact can be seen in statistics which quantify artistic contributions to communities. 

For some decades now, the artistic and cultural work force has been expanding at three times the rate of the overall workforce – a little like the energy sector in Alberta! 

The arts and cultural sector contributes close to $40 billion to the Gross Domestic Product or GDP, and employs nearly 600,000 people (which is 4% of all workers).  Professional artists number 131,000 – an increase of nearly 30% in the last 10 years.

Even more important are the unquantifiable but undeniable impacts on our view of ourselves as Canadians, with shared values, senses of self and humour, and with richer lives as individuals and as communities.

Can you imagine Edmonton or any other city or community in this country without the investment of public funding from all levels of government, and from individual and corporate patronage, in the arts?  It would be surely a far less inviting place.

The arts in Canada are now distinctly and distinctively Canadian, produced in all parts of Canada, in both official languages, and accessible to Canadians across the country.

They are inclusive and reflective of the diverse cultural expressions of the country, of the Aboriginal population, provided in all art forms, by individual artists and through organizations of all sizes and types, and through all kinds of repertoire - contemporary, traditional and cross-disciplinary – and of international calibre.

And equally importantly, they are enjoyed by audiences around the world.

As we celebrate 50 years of achievement in the arts, it’s inevitable that we reflect on how far we have come, but it’s also essential that we take a look at our future. 

We can’t know exactly what the future will be like 50 or even 25 years ahead.  But we do know that the environment in which we live as Canadians and as people committed to the arts is in a period of fundamental and tumultuous change.

This era of change affects every aspect of our lives.  Some of the important new realities are:

• The rapid and significant demographic changes to Canada’s population, especially the increasing cultural and Aboriginal diversity of our major urban centres. 
• The evolution of Canada as one of the world’s most urbanized nations – with challenges for the growing metropolitan centres and for smaller towns and rural areas losing population.
• The relentless pace of technology, which is changing virtually every aspect of how art is created, produced, disseminated and experienced.
• Changes in artistic practice –the blurring of boundaries through fusion, cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary practices, especially but not exclusively among young people, Aboriginal and culturally diverse artists and arts practices.
• Changing public attitudes and expectations – about the arts and what constitutes the arts, about the need to demonstrate clearly how public funding of the arts benefits the public and society, and about the public’s desire for a larger voice and greater involvement in decisions about the provision of public services, including artistic experiences.

These are, I believe, welcome challenges – the Council has a history of being open, inclusive and transparent in its actions, and it must use this opportunity to ensure that it is the best possible vehicle for arts support in the 21^st century and brings demonstrable benefits to Canadians. 

Therefore, it’s important, I think, that the Council and the Canadian arts community take a serious look at themselves in the new context – not with the idea of relinquishing core artistic values, but in fact making them more meaningful and powerful in today’s and tomorrow’s world.

To do so, I think it’s essential that the Council reflect seriously on how it will evolve to remain a vital and effective part of Canada and Canada’s arts and culture in a world of rapid and fundamental change.

Such an examination will not mean that the Council ceases to be a national funding agency at arm’s length from government or that it abandons its traditional use of peer assessment in reaching grant decisions.

The arm’s-length principle on which the Council was founded ensures that there is no interference in decisions about the support, or the form, content or uses of works of art from the political or administrative realm of government.  This principle reflects deep and abiding democratic values which governments of all political stripes have upheld for nearly 50 years, and it has the power to survive into the future.

Similarly, the peer assessment process by which applications for support are evaluated chiefly on the basis of artistic merit by knowledgeable people independent of political direction, has proved its worth over many years.  It may – and no doubt should be - adapted and changed as time goes on to reflect contemporary conditions, but as a fundamental principle it should remain in place.

Yet, I must stress that the arm’s length principle and peer assessment are not intended to isolate the Council or the arts community in some far-off ivory tower. 

They do not imply that the Council is immune to or disconnected from the evolution of society.  In all periods of history, important public institutions, if they are to survive, must re-engage with their society and sometimes redefine their relationships with it. 

That, I believe, is what the Council and the arts community must do to ensure that they remain vital and essential participants in the life of Canada.

Here are some considerations we might take into account as we look to our next 50 or at least 10 to 20 years:

First, we must be in step with the evolution of artistic practices and the cultural development of Canadian communities. 

Second, we should have the capacity to anticipate important developments in the arts and in the social and political environments that directly affect the arts. 

Third, we should continue to challenge the increasing commercialization of the arts and the tendency of the market to control cultural development.

We will also need to continue to have a high level of expertise, openness and understanding in all arts disciplines in order to carry out the complex, subjective and risky job of discovering, encouraging and supporting all arts practices of merit. 

Finally – and possibly most importantly - we need to reach out to engage Canadians more fully in our country’s artistic and creative life, to bring to them the enormous joy, inspiration and fulfillment found in arts experiences.  I would suggest that this is more important now than it has ever been.

In renewing our engagement with the arts and with Canadians, I think we have to open the door to a greater number of conversations and rethink our relationship with the Canadian public.

We need to connect directly with all Canadians through a broad and deep conversation on the value of the arts, because we all have a common interest in the future of our communities.

I am convinced that we will need to respond to the new realities of our environment with greater direction and force than ever before.  We will need to take informed risks.

These are complex challenges. We cannot face them alone.

The Canada Council plays an important national role in fostering and promoting the creation and enjoyment of works of art. 

But, as we move forward, this national mandate must, as it has been, be complemented and enriched by a strong presence and voice for the arts at a community level.  By being here today, you are signaling your presence among those voices.

Political leaders and governments should not be hearing only from artists and arts managers about the value of the arts and of public funding.

They should be hearing from business leaders, volunteers, leaders of civil society organizations, arts patrons, students, and from people taking the time and effort to comment on cultural development.  Ultimately, they should be hearing from you.

Around the world, people increasingly understand how successful communities are built and how the arts and culture create innovative, healthy, diverse and humane places to live. 

Repeated studies have shown that social and economic development is profoundly connected to – and dependent upon - cultural development. 

We know that cities must be able and willing to nurture, support and celebrate creativity in all its dimensions if they are to be economic leaders in the future.

This was recognized by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Canada’s leading CEOs and entrepreneurs, in its recent report “From Bronze to Gold: A Blueprint for Canadian Leadership in a Transforming World”.

The report acknowledged Canada’s financial and economic success but said that if we are to make it to the top internationally, we have to unleash a more creative economy.  One critical aspect of that economy is cultural development. 

The CEOs said – and I quote - “The quality of a community’s cultural infrastructure…has a direct impact on quality of life and therefore on the competitiveness of communities in attracting people and investment.”

In a growing number of cities around the world, the arts and culture are at the centre of new development strategies, contributing to the three basic skills of human life: learning to be, learning to know and learning to live together.  Artists and arts organizations can play a central role as community builders – creating conversations, making connections between citizens and nurturing conditions for thinking, planning and acting with imagination.

The arts in Canada will only have a viable future if our institutions, including the Canada Council, seek to protect and to encourage the scaling of the highest artistic and cultural summits for the good of the greatest number of people.  

And I am convinced that the work that you do with your fellow Edmontonians to ensure the arts are a vital part of your daily lives is a cornerstone of this future.  

I congratulate the city and the arts council for embarking on this process of developing a plan to ensure that the arts and culture form an integral part of the lives of the people of Edmonton.  And I offer our collaboration in tackling those issues that are going to be challenging to all of us.

Thank you for your invitation to me to participate here today, and I wish you every success as you undertake the important work of making the arts and culture central to the future of Edmonton.