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  • New Arts Investment in Hamilton

    June 7, 2013 by Stephanie Vegh

    This past Wednesday June 5 was a significant day in the ongoing work of creating new arts funding opportunities for Hamilton with the presentation of the Arts Funding Task Force’s recommendations to the General Issues Committee. We have previously covered these recommendations when they were shared at a public consultation on January 28 – you can read Stephen Near’s report in our earlier blog entry here, or read the report in its entirety at the City of Hamilton’s website (PDF).

    Supported by ten delegations from numerous artists and arts administrators (myself included), seven letters of support submitted to GIC in advance of the meeting, and ever-inspiring opening remarks from Dr. Eddie Friel, the Arts Funding Task Force built an irrefutable case for an new arts investment model that favours accessibility, transparent processes and ongoing evaluation to ensure that funds are spent strategically to the benefit of not only artists but the wider community. Central to this new model are eight new programs to address gaps in current funding opportunities (none of which support individual artists or arts organizations not registered as not-for-profits) and peer review to assess grants awarded on the basis of artistic merit.

    The Compromise Motion

    The goal of the Arts Funding Task Force’s presentation was to seek approval for a series of recommendations to accept the proposed model in principle and direct Tourism & Culture staff to identify revenue sources for the additional funding as well as take lead responsibility for the development of the program and its evaluation. In part, the motion approved at GIC to defer the recommendations to staff to investigate funding and governance implications still allows these goals to be met. However, without clear approval of the core principles from Council, these recommendations are increasingly in need of demonstrated public support of the sort we’ve already seen so passionately displayed in eloquent letters, compelling speeches at GIC and the number of artists who came to City Hall on Wednesday to witness the presentation and debate through what proved to be a long and daunting afternoon.

    Time is also a factor, as Tourism & Culture staff will need to consult with Governance and Grants Sub-Committees as part of their work to report back to GIC before 2014 budget decisions are underway in September.

    The Case for Additional Funding

    The result of over three years of volunteer-driven research and consultation into Hamilton’s current arts funding practices and funding models found in similar Canadian cities, the plans laid out in Strategic Municipal Investment in the Arts propose an additional $1,026,436 in funding to support the $1,898,564 currently spent across the City’s various funding opportunities for the arts to create a total annual investment of $2,925,000 to be distributed through a new structure of eight programs offering grants and services to individual arts professionals, arts organizations and arts entrepreneurs. There is substantial research from Hill Strategies to indicate that the existing amounts of funding for the arts is appallingly low for a city of Hamilton’s scale – only $3.08 per capita is spent on arts and culture in Hamilton compared to an average of $5.35 spent by seven cities of comparable size such as Ottawa, London, Windsor, Waterloo region and Winnipeg.

    The argument in favour of additional arts funding is economically sound given the solid economic evidence of the high return on investment that results from funding the arts, to say nothing of the wider benefits for thriving and engaged communities. Elevating Hamilton’s investment in the arts to meet the standards set by similar cities is a necessary step in our civic growth. In the face of clear evidence that Hamilton’s arts sector is profoundly underfunded, only a few Councillors voiced opposition to funding increase being discussed, even if empathy for the overwhelming poverty experienced by the average Canadian artist was sometimes alarmingly absent. The anecdotal success of a scarce 1% category of working artists does not excuse the struggles of the vast majority who struggle to find paid work in their field, a fact embraced by the very mandate of the Arts Funding Task Force to seek a solution that leaves no one behind and elevates the condition of all artists, not a select few.

    Why Peer Assessment is Essential to Successful Investment

    What yielded far greater resistance was the concept of peer assessment as a governance model for arts funding. While placing decisions on grants awarded for artistic merit in the hands of arts professionals is a self-evident gold standard for funding programs around the world, it quickly became apparent that the concept was a point of alarm for some Councillors at the table, demonstrating a need for further education on this point.

    Peer assessment by arts professionals is not a new concept in municipal arts funding – it is the governance model of choice of many cities, including but not remotely limited to Toronto, London, Waterloo region and Winnipeg. To a certain extent, Hamilton already places certain arts funding decisions in the hands of arts professionals when juries are convened to select public art commissions and declare recipients of the City of Hamilton Arts Awards. Both these programs have embraced the notion that arts professionals are valuable partners to Tourism & Culture staff when funds are to be allocated to artists on the basis of their artistic merit. To have arts granting decisions made by government bodies alone not only undermines the professionalism of artists and their organizations, but creates ominous conditions for creative censorship that should not be tolerated by any free society.

    The Challenge Ahead

    While Tourism & Culture do their work to deliver their own report and recommendations to GIC in the near future, the arts community and its countless supporters still have opportunity to reach out to Councillors and lend their vocal support to the new arts investment model. You can still join your fellow artists and citizens in writing to your Ward Councillor to let them know why this new funding strategy is both overdue and necessary. Your support is especially crucial if you happen to reside in one of Hamilton’s mountain or rural wards – we know that artists and their supporters work and live in all parts of our city, and it’s essential that Councillors know that you count among their taxpayers.

    The Hamilton Arts Council will continue to work throughout the summer to add our voice to yours and ensure you remain updated on any updates in this process in the coming months. The broken funding system that has hampered Hamilton’s arts community remains one of the greatest challenges our artist's face, and working towards a model that leaves nobody behind is one of our key priorities.

    Resources

    For those who weren’t able to attend Wednesday’s GIC meeting – or equally likely, unable to stay for the duration after an unannounced stakeholder’s meeting – you can view the entire proceedings thanks to Joey Coleman’s ever-valuable Livestream recording.

    Want to write a letter to your Councillor but not sure how to begin? The seven excellent letters written by artists and administrators so far are a good place to get some inspiration. Note all links go to PDF documents on the City of Hamilton website:

    Marco Cibola, Studio Ours Inc.

    Brandon Vickerd, York University

    Lloyd Turner, Hamilton Folk Arts Heritage Council

    Renee Wetselaar, former co-chair of Arts Advisory Commission

    Jen Hsieh, Sorry You’re Happy

    Nancy Gray, Chair of the Board of the Dundas Arts and Craft Association

    Shirley Madill, Curator

  • The Artist as Citizen – Why We Advocate for Hamilton

    February 15, 2013 by Stephanie Vegh

    Several weeks back, the Hamilton Arts Council was proud to see one of our own Board of Directors, Tim Potocic, named by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce as its 2012 Citizen of the Year. This recognition of Tim’s accomplishments, as well as those of his fellow nominee Vitek Wincza of the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, pronounces a fact that has always been held as given by the Hamilton Arts Council – that the arts are a vital player in the greater health and prosperity of our city. Both Supercrawl, a popular event mobilized by volunteerism at an incredible scale, and the HCA’s Culture for Kids in the Arts program, which gives transformative voice to disadvantaged youth in Hamilton, forge a clear connection between the arts and the civic well-being of the community they engage.

    Nearly three years back, at a time when we were still known as Arts Hamilton, our Board of Directors looked both within and without to re-examine our role in this arts community that had outgrown many of the grassroots opportunities we had previously offered. We asked members, artists, arts organizations and community partners how we should best serve today’s Hamilton, and were unanimously informed of both the absence and need for a unified organization that could safeguard the interest of the arts and speak on their behalf.

     

    After these conversations and considerable re-visioning among our Board of Directors, the Hamilton Arts Council took that message to heart and made advocacy a cornerstone of our mission. Our advocacy takes many forms, and very often our most powerful tool is the act of constantly lending visibility to the many artistic activities happening in our community. Letting the power of what our city’s artists accomplish take centre stage is perhaps the single greatest argument one can make for the value of the arts in Hamilton.

    When that awareness is lacking in the public conversations that directly impact the arts, we are equally committed to speaking with a louder and more direct voice. Since adopting our new mission and strategic direction, we have gone to City Hall to preserve funding for the 2012 City of Hamilton Arts Awards* and interceded to prevent prohibitive fee increases for Special Occasion Permits. More recently, we issued a statement to City Council on the potential impact of a downtown casino on our thriving arts community – a hard-working collection of individuals and organizations who have forged a new nation-wide reputation for Hamilton but have been dismissed rather than celebrated for having come about through the modest efforts of many rather than the broad stroke of a single hand.

    Preserving a place for our artists in these conversations is essential to our mission, especially when the arts community is not in perfect consensus – we know and love the arts for valuing the impossibility of representing multitudes with a single authoritative voice. Because we are creative, because our thoughts always challenge, we rely on knowledge and sound ideas to advocate – not only for a given position, but for the basic right of artists as citizens to be heard and for their works to be respected as an essential part of our city’s growth and future.

    Owning and expressing our voices cannot be separated from the artist’s life or from the work of an arts council – it is at the core of who we are.

    * ED Note: While the Hamilton Arts Council is the current third-party administrative partner of the City of Hamilton Arts Awards, at the time of the program’s debate at City Council in 2011, this contract was held by Cobalt Connects.

  • January 2013 Theatre Arts Committee Meeting Notes

    February 14, 2013 by Stephen Near

    The Theatre Arts Committee was convened this past January by the Hamilton Arts Council as part of our mandate to promote critical dialogue in our creative community. Aside from a general discussion on how to encourage a greater sense of community with the Hamilton theatre scene and the importance of nominating local theatre artists for the upcoming City of Hamilton Arts Awards some of the specific talking points are covered below.

    The TAC was reformed last year with all of the members being theatre artists in the Hamilton region who work to advocate on behalf of theatre arts in the city. The meeting on January 14, 2014 took place at Theatre Aquarius and was attended by Trevor Copp (Tottering Biped Theatre), Ray Louter (Redeemer University College), Radha Menon (Red Betty Theatre), Luke Brown (Theatre Aquarius), Barbara Milne (The Pearl Company) and Stephen Near (Hamilton Arts Council Liaison).

    1) Theatre @ Supercrawl: The Committee discussed how the theatre community could present at Supercrawl 2013. The obstacles of how to present the diversity of Hamilton’s theatre scene amidst a bustling music and visual arts event were also discussed. It was suggested that the community might collaborate together to create a pictorial collage of “moments” from the past year of Hamilton theatre. This might be punctuated by sound bites, video-clips, etc. to create an interactive, multimedia, installation about theatre work and artists in the city. The goal would be to paint a picture about what stories have been told on Hamilton stages in the past year. The Committee also discussed encouraging the use of the Twitter hashtag #hamonttheatre.

    2) Media Coverage for Theatre: The Committee talked about how to better market and promote upcoming productions more to the media in the city. There are concerns about the coverage of theatre by both the Spectator and the View as well as by CBC Hamilton. The Committee discussed the idea of encouraging more widespread use of blogs and to building relationships with local theatre critics and arts reporters to improve coverage of theatre artists.

    3) Upcoming Theatre Events and Productions: The Committee summarized some of the events and productions coming up for them or their companies. Tottering Biped is staging a new work at Theatre Aquarius called First Dance which is in the midst of a tour of southern Ontario universities. Red Betty in partnership with Hamilton Festival Theatre is producing her new show The Circus at the Lyric Theatre also involving Lori Le Mare‘s aerial performance troupe. Barbara reported that the Pearl Company was holding the 1st Annual Winter Theatre Festival featuring plays by Bob Wiseman, Krista McNaughton and playwright Bruce Gooch. Ray reported that Redeemer is doing South Pacific. Luke reported that Aquarius is staging Last Romance with Jamie Farr and is in the midst of planning a series of training workshops open to Hamilton theatre artists.

    4) Hamilton Arts Council news:  Stephen reported that the Hamilton Arts Council will be significantly revamping their website to allow for greater interactivity bu users and members. He gathered feedback from the members of the TAC as to what they would like to see on the site. Stephen also talked about the Annual Theatre Guide and reported on both the positive comments and the critical feedback received from the community. The HAC is planning on releasing a new Guide for 2013-14.

    5) Project Funding: The Committee discussed the issue of Hamilton artists getting theatre project funding. They discussed the recent initiative by the City of Hamilton Arts Advisory Commission and the Arts Funding Task Force to address the issue of municipal level arts funding. The Committee discussed the deficit of project funding from the OAC towards artists in Hamilton. Much of the funding seems to be going to artists in Toronto. The Committee raised the prospect of Hamilton theatre artists communicating to the OAC about the growth of the arts community in the city and opening a dialogue about how to improve the prospect of funding from the province.

    6) Canadian Plays and Playwrights: Stephen mentioned that he is in talks with thePlaywrights Guild of Canada and local Guild member playwrights on how to get more new Canadian plays by local playwrights produced by community theatre companies in Hamilton.

  • A new Approach to Arts Investment in Hamilton

    February 1, 2013 by Stephen Near

    On the evening of January 28th, inside a packed room of artists and cultural figures from across Hamilton, The City of Hamilton’s Arts Advisory Commission (AAC) and the Arts Funding Task Force (AFTF) presented a new set of proposed arts funding initiatives. These proposed changes would see a dramatic change in the way that funds are distributed into the arts and cultural sector. The arts community have known about this meeting for a while now and everybody in the room shares the opinion that not enough is being done to support and cultivate the arts sector in Hamilton. But the Task Force promised some terrific ideas on how to change all of that.

    As the lights dimmed, both Anna Bradford and Councillor Jason Farr took to the stage and made it clear that the City of Hamilton sees the importance of supporting the arts and understands that a strong arts scene leads to a healthy and vibrant community. Next to the stage was the Chair of the Arts Advisory Commission, Tricia LeClair, who outlined the evening's agenda which included a crucial community feedback and discussion component. She then outlined some statistics about the arts and their importance in the community. It turns out that 95% of Ontarians not only feel that the arts enrich their lives but they also believe that the success of Canadian artists gives citizens a sense of pride in Canadian achievement. This last point was an interesting insight especially to me. Since moving to Hamilton over two years ago I've noticed one important thing about Hamiltonians and, specifically, the artists of this city: they have a very passionate sense of pride in themselves and the quality and character of this city.

    Tricia also pointed out that 89% of Ontarians believe that if their community lost its arts activities the people living there would lose something of value and 81% believe that the government should spend public dollars on funding the arts. She clarified the challenges facing Hamilton with regards to funding the arts. As many know, arts funding is generally low in this city and significant gaps exist in the structure of how the funding is distributed. Clearly, the current programs--which include the Community Partnership Program and the Boards & Agencies Budget Stream--do not effectively meet the needs of Hamilton's growing arts and culture sector.

    The goals for the Arts Funding Task Force, in this regard, were fivefold: cultivate artistic creation and dissemination; provide stable operations support; encourage emerging and established projects; build capacity and sustainability; and foster entrepreneurship. Speaking to these points was Tim Potocic, founder of Sonic Unyon Records, Board member of the Hamilton Arts Council, and the newest recipient of the Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award.

    Tim set the tone for the news to come by pulling out a camera and taking a picture of the packed room in front of him. Tim's been at the forefront of many arts initiatives in the city with the most notable being the Supercrawl festival which last year pulled in over 80,000 participants to the downtown core. So it was fitting that he was the one laying out the details of eight new and upgraded arts investment initiatives proposed by the Task Force.

    First of all, there is the Created in Hamilton initiative. This is a new program that would represent a total investment of $150,000 to be disseminated across Hamilton in the form of grants to individual artists focusing on project creation. For me, this was very welcome news as so many artists in Hamilton have made it clear they want to see individual project grants available to them at the municipal level. Many other Canadian cities have such grants and Hamilton's lack of such project funding has been a deficit in my view.

    The second proposal represents Innovation Grants for a total investment of $100,000. Also a new program, this initiative would specifically go to support inventive approaches and special projects in the creation of new work. Although I am a strong advocate of art that is ground-breaking, I did feel the details of this particular initiative needed to be better defined. The Task Force agreed and advised that the community feedback and discussion component would hopefully address some the broad strokes of this proposal.

    The third proposal was to Arts Festivals and Events for a total investment of $350,000. This would essentially be operating grants for major festivals in the city as well as project grants for established and emerging arts and culture events. Although this wouldn't be a new program per se, Tim specified that it represented a significant revision to the city's existing funding for such events via the Community Partnership Program and Boards & Agencies.

    The fourth proposed investment would encompass Arts Grants for Established & Emerging Organizations. Representing a total amount of $2 million, these grants would help fund the operating costs of arts organizations but might also encompass project grants for non-arts organizations. I understood that this initiative would essentially replace existing Community Partnership Program funding as well as the Boards & Agencies funding with the new model.

    Next in the presentation was another new program called Business Development Services for Arts Entrepreneurs. Meant to emphasize the building of start-ups in the arts and culture sector, this new initiative would invest $50,000 in services to encourage and sustain entrepreneurship in the arts in Hamilton. On seeing this, I was reminded of one of the first conversations I had with Jeremy Frieburger (link Cobalt) where he told me that one the most important characteristics of those in the Hamilton arts community is their entrepreneurial spirit.

    The sixth proposal was another new program designated towards Capacity Building Grants for Arts Organizations. Representing an investment of $75,000, the program would help organizations build capacity and meet sustainability challenges. This was another initiative that spoke to me as I have seen so many arts groups face immense challenges in the area of operations and sustainability particularly small theatre companies and galleries trying to get off the ground.

    The seventh proposal was the Capital Maintenance and Equipment Fund. Representing a total investment of $200,000, this program would be a series of grants to assist arts organizations maintain and meet their equipment needs. It's another proposed new program and an initiative that would really be useful to companies across the board. Conceivably, such grants might allow theatre companies to upgrade their lighting grids and galleries to invest in new media equipment.

    Finally, the eighth proposal is a Capital Facility Development Fund. During the presentation, Tim specified that the investment amount has yet to be determined since it would work as a group of affordable loans and incentive programs to assist with facility acquisition and development. Although vague in the details, this proposal has the potential to be a real game changer in terms of allowing organizations and investors to acquire and redevelop spaces in the city into new centres of arts and culture creation.

    The reaction from the assembled crowd ranged from scattered cheers and applause to hushed whispers as people feverishly wrote and compared notes. The proposals put forth represent a fundamental shift in the way that arts funding would be delivered to the city and, even more so, an increase from years past. Overall, the recommendations outline an increase in existing arts and culture funding by $1,026,436 for a total of just over $3 million.

    Next up was the Chair of the Task Force, Kristine Germann, who outlined how these recommendations represent a six-point plan to City Council. This would involve 1)adopting the model at Council, 2) securing the funding and sources for the programs, 3)ensuring that adequate transparency and accountability is in-place, 4) properly administering the implementation and oversight by Culture and Tourism Division, 5)determining effective means for reporting on the success of the programs, and finally 6)creating an overall cohesive program.

    The evening culminated with a series of round table public participation sessions focusing on four key points of clarification: topics that the Task Force felt needed further development. These topics were: Peer & Jury Review, Encouraging Innovation & Novel Approaches, Determining Success, and Advisory Services. For me, this part of the evening was the most exciting. It allowed me an opportunity to sit down at a variety of tables with artists from all across Hamilton and brainstorm ideas about what I'd just heard. And, at every table, there was a facilitator who guided us through a series of questions to help focus the discussion.

    I ended up participating at the Peer & Jury Review table and the Encouraging Innovation & Novel Approaches table. Ideas were thrown back and forth and there was a real sense that the arts community was truly excited to be so deeply involved in helping to shape a policy model that could shape the future of arts funding in Hamilton for years to come.

    The evening wrapped up but I felt like I could've stayed a lot longer. The feeling of optimism, of a change in the air, was palpable and I was left with a very charged sense of things to come. There are still many details left to iron out and, of course, these proposals will need to be passed by City Council. But the blueprint is now in place and it is an encouraging sign that the vibrant arts community of Hamilton had a direct hand in drafting it.

     

     

  • November Literary Arts Committee Meeting Notes

    January 22, 2013 by Stephen Near

    The Literary Arts Committee was convened last November by the Hamilton Arts Council as part of our renewed mandate to promote critical dialogue in our creative community.

    The LAC is the longest running Committee associated with the Hamilton Arts Council and all of the members are published authors or publishers in the Hamilton region who work to advocate on behalf of the literary arts in the city. The meeting on November 28, 2012 was attended by Susan Evans Shaw, Mary Anderson, Noelle Allen (Wolzak & Wynn),Claire Meldrum, Wilma Seville and Stephen Near (Hamilton Arts Council Liaison).

    1) Lit Live 2012-13: The Committee discussed the Lit Live Festival and reported that Gary Barwin has also agreed to sit on the Lit Live Committee and will be taking a hand in maintaining the blog along with Chris Pannell. The Committee also discussed funding matters regarding Lit Live including the upcoming Ontario Arts Council grant deadline. The Lit Live Reading Series is a monthly event that takes place on the 1st Sunday evening of every month and is held at Homegrown Hamilton.

    2) 20th Annual Hamilton Literary Awards: The Committee first reviewed the success of the 19th Annual Hamilton Literary Awards (Held in November 2012) and discussed some ways in which the Awards could be better administered and organized for next year. The Committee also discussed the future format of the Annual Hamilton Literary Awards which will feature four Awards in the following categories: POETRY – Book, NON-FICTION – Book, FICTION – Book and the *new* category of the Book that best epitomizes the spirit or essence of the city of Hamilton. A variety of ideas for what to call the Award were suggested and discussed by the members of the Committee with a final decision being made in January. The Committee also discussed how they can be more involved in administering the Awards including contacting prospective adjudicators and assisting the HAC in gaining sponsors for the Awards. The Committee is very enthusiastic about continuing to move forward with the Lit Awards and the streamlining of the Awards from seven to four categories will allow the HAC to develop more press and advertising by possibly releasing a short-list in advance of the awards ceremony in November. .

    3) New Committee Membership: Several members of the LAC have already stepped away from the Committee and so the members briefly discussed prospective candidates. Several notable individuals in the Hamilton literary scene were mentioned as possible candidates and some members have volunteered to ask these individuals.

    4) Niagara Literary Arts Festival: The Committee briefly discussed the possibility of collaborating with the planners of the Niagara Literary Arts Festival. Bringing the Festival into Hamilton for June 2013 might be a possibility especially if it could be done in collaboration with Open Streets Hamilton.

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