By Mike Levin

The Council for the Arts in Ottawa has just kicked some butt. It was written in bureaucratese, which is probably wise when criticizing bureaucrats, but there’s fighting words in the summary of a report the council just released.

The news isn’t unique: local arts institutions and festivals are barely hanging on because they don’t have political champions, like in other capital cities in the Western world, who are willing to fight for arts’ larger role in society. But there’s a fascinating backstory in the report, one that identifies specific weaknesses in the local sector, and it adds context to this tale of woe.

A tough slog for Ottawa arts organizations. Courtesy of Wikimedia.

The Complication

Not only are local arts organizations getting shafted in funding’s game of Survivor; we’re apparently pitifully unconscious about how how the rules work. Those are my strong words, only insinuated by the Council, but statistics in its report (started in 2008) back them up:

Of the $231.6 million in public cash that was injected into Ottawa’s arts-and-culture industry in the past seven years (I’m assuming that’s the time frame because it isn’t spelled out in the summary.), only six percent went to 72 local associations; the other 94 percent went to five national institutions – the Museum of Civilization and affiliated War Museum, National Arts Centre, National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Nature and Science and Technology Museum and affiliated Agricultural Museum, Aviation Museum and Space Museum.

Of the $118.8 million doled out between 2001 and 2008 by the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program for stabilization (to establish non-profits), capacity building (to strengthen finances) and endowment (to attract private money), local Ottawa groups got $795,115.

That’s 0.65 percent….for Canada’s fourth largest city. Winnipeg received 12 times as much. What in Heaven’s name is that about?

It’s about a lot of things, obviously, but mostly about Ottawa’s arts sector not having anyone who knows how this game is played, or perhaps not having the resources to play it. The irony is that arts people seem caught in the same Catch 22 as those in economics, education and community (to just start a very long list): things can’t be fixed without the right resources and we can’t get the resources until things are fixed.

The number of those actively creating art in the city is increasing, but their abilities to generate revenue is spiraling downward. Like most other sectors of North American society, we’re in denial and quiet despair, individually focussed yet collectively adrift.

All funding is about politics, and this reveals the bitterness of Ottawa’s situation. We’ve watched the decay of institutions, like political office, for so long, we don’t trust anyone to lead us.

The Resolution

Enough talk, for now, about the importance of arts. People are so caught up in their own fears about the future that continued proselytizing can only make the perceived spiral more scary. Public resources are available to help local associations, and we need someone to jump into that game.

The CAO’s report suggests establishing a United Arts Fund under existing Ottawa municipal planning. It’s something like a foundation committed to one purpose, leveraging public-and-private funding for local organizations.

But the stark reality is that this can only happen if the elected members of City Council make it happen. Peter Honeywell and the CAO are working on revealing the arts elements of October’s municipal election. Local arts media will also get involved to help tell the story of which candidates might be willing to actively fight for the arts cause.

Change can only happen in one way: if the local arts community gets involved in the political process, simply, through the ballot box. There is no other hope for improvement in sector-wide health. Individuals benefit under the status quo, which is the 30-year momentum generated by our current un-collaborative, humanity-dissipating economic system.

There’s no guarantee that lobbying for an attitude change at City Hall will produce an arts champion. But it seems certain that maintaining the current political mix will widen the economic cracks that local arts organizations have been falling through.