One of the many promises Justin Trudeau made during the election was to provide more funding for the arts.
Now that he has won, the art community in Canada is watching to see if he’ll keep his word. The arts need to be prioritized and increasingly funded.
Under the Harper government, the arts community has seen a lot of seesawing. Back in 2008, they made $45 million in cuts to arts and culture funding. Then in 2012, the Canadian Heritage department saw $46.2 million in cuts.
But, the Conservatives financed select projects such as the National Arts Centre’s $110-million renovation.
In September, a month before the federal election, the Canadian Conference of the Arts, the Canadian Arts Coalition, and the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance came out with a 2015 federal budget analysis. The document shows that funding levels have remained steady since the 2012 cuts but says, “the arts and culture do not appear to be a key priority for the government.”
The Liberals’ exact promise was to double the federal funding for the Canada Council of the Arts from $180 million to $360 million and to invest $25 million a year in Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board.
Peter Honeywell, executive director of the Ottawa Arts Council, says he has high hopes. He says Trudeau understands the need for art because of his background in literature and teaching.
Trudeau has a bachelor of arts from McGill University and was both a language and drama teacher before entering politics.
“I feel this government is not going to renege on a promise that was that significant to the cultural community,” says Honeywell. “We have pretty much been flat lined for the last 10 years. We haven’t seen huge increases to the arts and so a decade of pent-up need is there.”
Funding to the arts falls under the ministry of Canadian Heritage, whose newly appointed minister is Montreal MP, Mélanie Joly.
After being sworn in on Nov.4, Joly said that one of her top priorities was to increase the budget for both the Canada Council for the Arts and the CBC. She hasn’t yet put her words into action.
However, local organizations like the Ottawa Arts Council get funding municipally and provincially. But, if the federal government takes action it will set an example for the provincial and municipal tiers.
There are many reasons why art, in all forms, is important to our society.
On a social level, it brings people together and builds communities. This can be seen in the latest trend taking over Ottawa pubs, Paint Nite, where amateur artists can get together to drink, socialize and learn to paint.
“There’s also an economic benefit to the arts,” he says. “Every time an artist does a project or an arts group puts on a presentation, there’s a ripple effect throughout the community.”
The executive director also goes on to say that the art sector is a significant employer. According to the Canada Council of the Arts, 671, 000 Canadians were employed by arts and culture organizations. This is based off of Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey.
Art is also therapeutic. There’s clinical art therapy that’s based on Margaret Naumburg’s theory of therapeutic release through artistic expression – mainly fine arts.
Then, there’s music therapy that uses music to reach out to ill patients who don’t respond to anything else, like Alzheimer’s disease patients.
In the book, Music Therapy: An art beyond words, music therapy professors Leslie Bunt and Brynjulf Stige write that music has been used to boost the morale of patients since the late 1800s.
This is yet another reason why it’s important for the Trudeau government to keep their promise to the art community.
By funding the arts and helping it prosper, the government will also be helping their citizens’ mental health.
Like any other budget change, it won’t happen over night and the new government has four years ahead of them to accomplish their art-related goals, but they should act soon.
Art allows us to express ourselves, to be creative and sometimes even escape from our troubles. As Honeywell puts it “art is intrinsic to our lives.”