National arts council initiative launched to address underfunding in Alberta arts sector

Those with a stake in Canada's arts sector don't think Alberta is getting an equitable share of national arts funding.

In order to address the problem, the Canada Council for the Arts is launching the Alberta Focus Initiative to increase awareness about funding opportunities for local artists. 

Starting this spring, two arts liaison consultants will be hired to build an on-the-ground presence for the council in Alberta to increase awareness about the council's funding opportunities for artists within the province.

"We need to learn more about: what is the arts sector like in Alberta? And so having a local presence of the Canada Council for us to learn, but also to develop those relationships, is really the basis as to why we decided to create this initiative," said Michelle Chawla, director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Chawla says she doesn't feel the Alberta arts sector is being supported like it should be, so the liaison consultants will help ensure that arts organizations and artists across various disciplines in the province will get better access to the Canada Council's funding opportunities.

She also says her organization hopes to work with all levels of arts funders in the province to help "move the needle" on increased funding for Alberta's arts sector.

Fewer applications, less Alberta representation

In terms of why Alberta's artists and arts organizations are lagging behind in grant funding, part of the problem has to do with a lack of applications coming from the province. 

"One of the issues that we identified is that the arts community in Alberta is not applying at the same level as we would see in other provinces," said Chawla. 

"The No. 1 thing is we want more applications coming from Alberta."

She hopes this new initiative will work to reverse the lack of grant awareness. 

Patti Pon, CEO of Calgary Arts Development, says this new initiative from Chawla's organization should succeed in boosting applications coming out of Alberta.

Pon's organization works with the City of Calgary to fund the arts at the municipal level.

"We've known for many, many years, there is an inequity in funding to Alberta artists, and in particular, Calgary artists," said Pon, adding she believes this new initiative will be able to reduce the inequity. 

However, Pon also believes Alberta artists should seek opportunities to involve themselves more in the juries that approve grant cash. She believes the assessors on the juries that consider arts grant applications may be lacking an Alberta perspective.

"The most significant factors were the number of applications coming from Alberta and the number of assessors from Alberta on the juries that consider applications," said Pon.

"Those two things, in particular, impact us because if you don't have jurors on the jury who know about the work that's happening in the region, it's hard for them to comment about the context that the work is being performed, exhibited, created."

Pon believes more Alberta artists should consider using their administrative and leadership skills to get a seat at the funding table and potentially consider becoming grant assessors. 

'Artists pay rent, they don't get a discount'

She says grant funding not only goes to support an artist's creative process but also their livelihood.

"These are Calgarians. Artists pay rent, they don't get a discount," she said. 

"They pay the same for gas, they pay the same for a jug of milk and they contribute incredibly to helping us make sense in times when things don't make sense — and goodness knows we need those sense-makers right now."