Fiona Wright, education and community outreach manager for the Carleton University Art Gallery, was a participant in Young Canada Works.
Museum directors are worried about the future of the arts in Canada after the Conservative government signaled that it will be redirecting youth employment funding and bringing change to pornography laws.
In the Oct. 16 throne speech, Governor General David Johnston said funds to help youth find work will be redirected to “high-demand fields.”
John McAvity, executive director of the Canadian Museums Association, says this could mean art galleries and museums will be excluded putting the Young Canada Works, a program that funds cultural internships, at risk. The program is funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and distributes $6 million yearly.
McAvity will join museum advocates from across Canada in Ottawa to lobby politicians to contiunue funding the program on Nov. 26, Canadian Museum's Day.
He says 90 per cent of museums wanting to host interns from Young Canada Works are already being turned down, despite their interest to bring in young workers.
“The cupboard is bare. The federal government is not investing any new money and now I hear all of a sudden they may be redirecting money."
Ottawa museums rely on Young Canada Works, says Laura Gibbs, the Ottawa Museum Network’s executive director.
“A lot of our front-line staff are drawn from that program,” she says. “The students play a critical role. They’re not just sitting in the back.”
Gibbs says the program also helps young people launch their careers. A lack of work experience is a major barrier for new workers trying to get a foot in the door, she says.
Jason St-Laurent, curator of SAW Gallery, says work experience Young Canada Works is valuable and benefits both interns and galleries.
“This program was probably how 90 per cent of people that are currently working in the cultural world have got their foot in the door,” he says. “It happened to me.”
For Fiona Wright, her Young Canada Works internship in education and community outreach at the Carleton University Art Gallery, led to a full-time position. She says this transition would have been “next to impossible” without funding.
“It’s really difficult and highly competitive to get a job in the cultural sector, so I felt very lucky,” she says.
“A lot of young people rely on internships to get into the industry.”
Len Westerberg, a spokesperson for the Department of Canadian Heritage, declined an interview, but wrote an email stating the department will invest $80 million this year for youth opportunities that “strengthen their knowledge of and attachment to Canada.”
This amount is in line with dollars invested for “promotion of and attachment to Canada” in past budgets.
Still, a spokesperson from Employment and Social Development Canada wrote in an email that there are no cuts to youth job funding this year, adding that the 2013 budget focuses on promoting “skilled trades, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
But McAvity says he is concerned about a shift to subsidizing for-profit job creation and training when demand is so high for jobs in the cultural sector.
Meanwhile, a change to pornography law will ban the “non-consensual distribution of intimate images,” according to the throne speech. McAvity says changes to the law could bring unintended harm to arts and culture in Canada. In the ‘80s, he says, pornography law caused problems at the National Gallery, with nude paintings from the 15th century coming under scrutiny.
“We support any advancement to eliminate and prohibit cyberbullying, but I just worry that when legislation gets drafted it does not include legitimate artistic merit,” says McAvity. “What is an intimate image? What about this consensual contract? Do you have to have a lawyer?”
St-Laurent says that SAW has always sided with freedom of expression and anti-censorship, even in the midst of controversy.
“When (laws) become overarching and bleed into the world of art or cinema, that’s when it becomes really dangerous,” he says.
The term “intimate images” refers to explicit sexual activity or nudity, according to a working paper recommending this legislation, produced by the Co-ordinating Committee of Senior Officials, Criminal Justice, Cybercrime Working Group in June 2013
The paper says “cartoons and other creative works” are excluded, the subject must be “real and identifiable,” and the offence should capture “all ways in which intimate images may be shared.” This includes physical delivery, social networking, email, and word of mouth advertising.
But the legislation itself has not been drafted yet and McAvity says Canadian Museums Day will be a chance to make a case for changes in youth funding and pornography law.
“At this point what we would like to have is consultation,” says McAvity. “We’d like to be consulted, we’d like to be positive and constructive, to help ensure that there are no problems.”