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Notes for remarks by John Hobday, C.M., Canada Council for the Arts,At the Orchestras Canada Conference 2003, "Soundings"

"A Culture of Excellence"

Notes for remarks by John Hobday, C.M., 
Canada Council for the Arts,
At the Orchestras Canada Conference 2003, "Soundings"

At Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto
On Sunday, June 8, 2003 at 10:30 a.m.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and friends of long-standing.

Over the past three, and very intense days, the Orchestras Canada Conference has been an enriching and absorbing experience. I have heard many encouraging interventions in the course of our discussion and debate.

The Soundings process is nothing if it is not a partnership, but even partnerships have leaders, and I want to put in a particular word of praise for Elisabeth Whitlock, who was a driving force of Soundings in its very early stages.

Debra Chandler and Jenny Ginder picked up magnificently on this initial stimulus and produced a really sound and valuable discussion document.

In my former position, as Executive Director of the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, I was extremely supportive of Soundings, and I am delighted that the SSBFF was able to make very necessary funding available at a key moment at the beginning of the exercise.

As you have heard, the Canada Council for the Arts has also been a firm supporter of Soundings, providing both extensive funding and administrative back-up. Since I joined the Council as director last January, I have come to appreciate the quality and depth of its commitment to this undertaking and the personal commitment of both Russ Kelley and Micheline Lesage.

Above all, I want to thank Orchestras Canada for its leadership, now in the capable hands of Dan Donaldson. A project such as Soundings could have no hope of success without the wholehearted support and cooperation of the orchestral community. That cooperation has been forthcoming in significant ways, through Orchestras Canada itself, through the active involvement of individual orchestras, managers and players, and through the strong commitment of David Jandrisch and Laura Brownell of the AF of M and Rob McCosh of OCSM, which is represented here today by Steve Mosher.

Indeed, the active participation at this conference of so many orchestral musicians is a tribute to the deep involvement of the players in this exceptional enterprise. The whole orchestra community has carved out new territory through the Soundings process. I don’t believe we have ever before had such a broad and clearly focused overview of the orchestra environment, and it has been an eye-opener.

The road ahead will not be simple, but the degree of involvement by all parties in the orchestral milieu is enormously promising for the future of this country’s orchestras.

We have been reminded on many occasions over the last few days about the crucial role of orchestras as the major musical resource of Canadian communities, about the transformative experience of great orchestral playing, about the joy of transmitting that experience to receptive audiences.

We have also been reminded that we need collectively to work to strengthen Canadian orchestras, to create conditions for their sustainability and adaptability. I am encouraged to think that the work we are undertaking will lead to action - to stronger organizations with a clear and indelible artistic identity, a powerful awareness of the community in which they live and which they serve, and the adaptability and resourcefulness to grow within their means, and to thrive in their social and economic environment.

As you know, the Canada Council is the federal funding body for orchestras, and its support to orchestras makes up about 10% of the Council’s total grants budget. The strength and sustainability of orchestras is obviously one of our deepest concerns. So too are our grants to individual artists, our support for Aboriginal arts, and our commitment to the artistic practices of our rapidly growing, culturally diverse population.

Those of you who know me know that I am an incurable optimist, and while, as Russ Kelley said yesterday, we do not expect our budget to grow in the immediate future, I firmly believe that public funding for the arts can and must increase in the longer term. For that to happen, three things are, I think, essential.

  • First, the Council must present a clear and coherent plan for its use of any new resources and indicate how these resources will make a serious contribution to the long-term sustainability and adaptability of the arts.

  • Second, arts organizations will need to show that they are doing everything they can to strengthen themselves and to deepen the engagement they have with their communities.

  • And third, collectively the arts community and its supporters, working with the Council, will need to mount a strong and sustained advocacy campaign

In the last few days, we have heard stories about how many of you are renewing your joy in making music and transmitting it to growing audiences, adapting to changing expectations and demographics, diversifying your revenue sources, and finding new means of reaching the public. This is the kind of broad public support which we will need to harness if we are to influence political will.

For example, we have heard that….

  • The Regina Symphony Orchestra has an enviable record of fiscal responsibility.

  • The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has done a superb job in presenting the work of Canadian composers.

  • The Thunder Bay Symphony has an outstanding community development program and recently won a prize for its Aboriginal outreach activities.

  • Tafelmusik has structured itself to allow the time to seek out creative partnerships and has an exceptional educational program.

  • Symphony Nova Scotia recently renegotiated its collective agreement in a thoroughly amicable and win/win spirit.

  • The Windsor Symphony has significantly increased its subscriber base.

  • On an extensive tour to cities west of Quebec last year, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec garnered enthusiastic reviews.

  • And, as we have seen demonstrated at this conference, the Vancouver Symphony has a unique and excellent relationship among its musicians, managers, board members and music director that many might envy.

And I don’t have to mention their dedication to this Soundings conference - Jeff Alexander joined us at the start of the conference, then flew back to Vancouver for the Pinchas Zukerman fundraising concert, and returned on the red eye special to be with us again the next day! Bravo, Jeff!

For all the "bad news" we hear about symphony orchestras, these and many other stories you have shared at this conference remind us that with will, dedication, cooperation and hard work, orchestras can adapt to changing circumstances, surmount their difficulties and renew their vital presence in our society.

Our Challenges - as I see them at 10:00am on Sunday June 8th - 2003

We can identify at least five major challenges. They are closely related to the key findings of the Soundings exercise about the importance of governance, artistic development, community relationships and capitalization (and I think by the latter we mean having adequate financial resources of all kinds to manage the uncertainty inherent in artistic enterprises).

The Soundings findings relate to what I see as the five fundamental challenges facing the arts community as a whole.

  1. The challenge of rapid growth and increasing diversity in the arts and in population, outstripping the growth of audiences and markets.

  2. The challenge of uncertainty in public funding.

  3. The challenge of shifting patterns of private-sector support.

  4. The challenge of increasing competition from technology-based leisure activities. (Arts organizations will have to master the uses of new technologies, not just in marketing, presentation and customer relations, but as means of enriching the artistic experience.)

  5. And the fifth challenge - the increasing complexity and specialization of administrative demands. This is a governance and management challenge, and I want to explore it in a little more detail.

Canadian arts managers are, within the limits of the conditions they work under, extraordinarily good at their jobs. In many cases, they are absolute miracle workers. In all too many cases, however, they are expected to perform miracles on an almost daily basis, simply to keep their organizations alive!

The stress of maintaining management services under trying conditions eventually affects artistic output as well.

To sustain artistic excellence, we must have excellence in governance and management - and sound financial health to manage the risks inherent in any artistic endeavour.

As this conference has confirmed, many of these challenges boil down to collective responsibility: sorting out the areas of responsibility and the lines of communication, command and accountability among board, musicians, management and musical direction. There are no hard-and-fast systems, so it is an issue that must be re-evaluated for its effectiveness at intervals in the life of each organization.

Simon Streatfeild reminded us a few days ago that a healthy and sustainable orchestra:

  1. Knows who it is,

  2. Knows who it is trying to serve, and

  3. Knows how to get there.

All of these fundamental decisions rest on a shared artistic vision and strategic plan, the full involvement of all the stakeholders in forging that vision and plan, and a clear direction for achieving it.

With regards to strategic plans, Russell Jones’ quote, "strategic plans are a handrail and not handcuffs," resonates well with me.

At the Canada Council, we want to develop a new relationship with arts organizations receiving operating grants, including orchestras, to help strengthen the organizational infrastructure so that the organizations can flourish artistically and engage the fullest possible audience.

Our goal will be to encourage arts organizations to develop the sustainability and adaptability that will allow them to carry through with their long-term artistic goals. We will help to strengthen the infrastructure of both established and emerging arts organizations, and encourage organizations that lead the way in a culture of excellence.

The Council will seek partners in finding ways to help organizations address this challenge and to provide organizations with the tools and expertise they need.

As an important part of our new relationship with arts organizations, we also want to strengthen our present cordial relations with provincial and municipal arts funders - and eventually, I hope, the private sector - to ensure that we work together as closely and productively as possible to provide maximum benefit to Canadian artists and arts organizations. At the federal level, we are working closely with our colleagues in the Department of Canadian Heritage to do the same - that is, create the best possible working relationship not for our own sakes but for the sake of artists and arts organizations.

Before I conclude, let me paint a picture of what we at the Council think a truly successful orchestra looks like.

  • Above all, it demonstrates wonderful artistry in performance,

  • it is an integral part of its community and is seen - like the public library - to be an essential service,

  • its musicians are respected and honoured members of the community and major contributors to its musical life,

  • it has an agreed vision which is shared throughout the organization,

  • that vision is supported and upheld by a valued, skilled management and a devoted and knowledgeable board which fully understands its role and responsibilities as trustees, and

  • it works as an integrated team both on stage and behind the scenes.

A truly successful orchestra also

  • lives within its means, is financially sound and has diversified revenue sources, working capital reserves, and ideally an endowment fund; and

  • it has the resilience and flexibility to respond effectively and quickly to take advantage of new opportunities and address early warning signals with appropriate action.

Ownership of the future of the live orchestral experience belongs to you - the musicians, the boards, the managers and the music directors of our orchestras.

Among you, there are many success stories. There are resources of great value. And there is willingness to change. Orchestras Canada - and you as its members - have made a significant investment in the Soundings process, and I believe that this process can be of great practical service to you.

At the Council, we are prepared to work with you, to learn from you, to fine-tune solutions to individual challenges, to develop and deliver tools and expertise. As a next step, we are committed to continuing our involvement and our enablement of Orchestras Canada to carry out Phase 3 of the Soundings process - the developments and initiatives that will be discussed in the next few hours: It is my understanding that Phase 3 starts on Monday morning!

Let me also commit the Council to work with you - all of you, artists, managers, board members - all arts service organizations, and the widest possible spectrum of the arts community in making the clear and concerted case for a substantial increase in public funding for the arts in Canada. As our panel yesterday suggested, the funding agencies alone cannot do this job effectively, but they can work side-by-side with the community to advance this case.

Just as all the members of the orchestra family - the players, the music director, the manager and the board - are needed if true and lasting and sustainable solutions are to be found, so too on the larger scale of increased public funding we will need to involve everyone we can, including the key influencers on your boards and the artists, who are our principal inspiration.

Christopher Newton said it best, in his presentation at the beginning of this conference. It takes three things - but every one of those things - to make art work: an idea, an artist, and an audience, and the audience we serve first is made up of our fellow citizens, the residents of our cities and towns. This, as Chris said, is what it’s always about - the joy of art-making and the joy of communicating true artistry to others.

Thank you.