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Aerial view of horse design planted in field. Design by Joe Fafard, Photo by Douglas Air, Barrie, ON and © 1997 by MacLaren Art Centre.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Nourishing the Arts in Rural Communities
The Nature of Rural Arts
Concluding Remarks
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A recent Hill Strategies report, Artists in Small and Rural Municipalities in Canada, commissioned by the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council and Department of Canadian Heritage, found that there are significant concentrations of artists in small and rural municipalities across the country, demonstrating that the arts contribute to the quality of life and the social and economic vitality of many small and rural communities in Canada.
Coincident with this are the findings of Cultivating Rural Prosperity: A Case for Investment, Inspiration and Innovation prepared for the Foundation for Rural Living that: “The scarcity of art and cultural opportunities in rural [communities], only compounds the problem [of a] serious decline [in] key social determinants signalling quality of life in rural [communities]- healthcare, education, employment and recreation.” The report lists the gaps in rural communities, including:
- Rural non-profits have less organized infrastructures with fewer staff and resources;
- The sector is small in scale, lacks critical mass and is restricted by vast geographic distance;
- Networking, processes, and infrastructure are areas in which rural voluntary organizations must improve;
- Leadership development, systems and structures to support volunteers are lacking;
- Few charitable structures exist;
- Most of Canada’s top funders reside in urban centres and geographic criteria often preclude funding vast parts of rural Canada especially in regions removed or remote from urban reach;
- Rural non-profits struggle with achieving programming goals and revenue targets; and
- Development opportunities such as productive donor bases and endowments are not evolving.
The Foundation for Rural Living’s conclusion that “to flourish and meet the increasing demands of their citizens, rural non-profits must create and improve employment and educational opportunities as well as foster arts and cultural programs to stem the current tide of youth out-migration and declining quality of life” is a call to arms that represents a challenge to the public, to the arts community and to funders alike.
Now I do not want to suggest that it is the role or obligation of arts funding agencies and community arts programs to be saviours of the economy, nor that the instrumental benefits of engagement in the arts are anything other than that: good, but often incidental nevertheless. I will strongly assert, however, that when artists and community members work together dynamically the engagement is palpably intense, the effects are felt reciprocally, and that this is true whether in an urban or rural context. I hope my examples drawn from rural communities demonstrate that creative interplay will often result in activities that address issues which are particular to that community, and can indeed produce local transformations.
I want to end with a description of MacLaren Against the Grain: The Fafard Field Project, one of the most celebrated works in the annals of Canadian community-arts. Its initiator, William Moore, who was the director of the MacLaren Arts Centre at the time, told me this week that the Art Gallery of Ontario refers to it as the most successful community-arts project ever!
This 1997 collaborative project between the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario, the artist Joe Fafard and the annual International Ploughing Match, created a ploughed and planted work of art suitable for aerial and elevated viewing in a large farm field. Its connections linked farmer and artist, cultural and farming institutions, and the City of Barrie with its rural community. The result was a unique growing installation exhibition representing the ploughed image of a horse planted in different crops that changed with the seasons and thus appeared animated as can be seen online (here).
This rural community-arts project, a collaboration if ever there was one, exemplifies the synthesis of community citizens and professional artist in the creation of a memorable and transforming experience – the universal goal of any arts project whether remote or urban.
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