By Neil Faba
The future of Ottawa’s local arts scene rests on the shoulders of people like John Criswick.
This summer, Criswick became a silent partner in the Mercury Lounge.
With Criswick’s help, the previously failing Byward Market bar has become one of downtown’s hottest night spots, providing a venue for area DJs and showcasing local artists’ paintings on its walls.
The story of Criswick and the Mercury Lounge is a prime example of the positive effect Ottawa’s expanding crop of young, hip and wealthy high-tech players can have on the city.
Criswick’s Beduin Communications, which was bought two years ago by California’s Sun Microsystems, was among the first of a growing number of high-tech start-ups eschewing the uncool, corporate Kanata business parks, to set up shop in the heart of the city.
They come to the area for its fashionable environment, and new employees are drawn by the idea they can go for a pint and some tunes, or catch a play after work.
But even as the local arts scene is helping draw technical minds to the city, government cutbacks threaten the future of the artists responsible for this vibrancy. The transition board’s decision to overturn $500,000 in regional arts funding is only the latest example illustrating this point. That snub alone left 113 local arts organizations searching for other sources to help pay for their projects.
While arts advocates fight to have the missing money put back into Ottawa’s arts coffers, it only makes sense for individuals such as the high-tech entrepreneurs, who benefit most from a thriving local scene, to step in and save the day.
Independent filmmaker Josephine MacFadden is one person attempting to put that sentiment into action.
She’s appealing to local high-tech companies to buy “shares” in her film, The Water Man, so she can finally afford to get it into production. MacFadden’s plight is well known. The movie, based on the life of Colonel John By, is a story that begs to be told. And her plan would allow the sector that fuels Ottawa’s economy to become the city’s white knight by saving its cultural future.
There is money out there for Canadian arts.
Funding from all levels of government has increased about 20 per cent over the past three years.
The problem is this is still just enough money to sustain an industry that one of Canada’s fastest growing.
Compounding that, if you’re a struggling locally-based artist, is that much of the cash being doled out under the arts umbrella is finding its way into the wallets of national venues like the NAC.
It doesn’t leave much for the local little guys, who are often the ones responsible for the city’s greatest arts treasures.
It only makes sense for downtown high-tech businesses to be the ones who prop up the aspects of this city that continue to draw the best and brightest minds to it.
If Josephine MacFadden’s idea flies, perhaps it will spearhead a movement toward greater business investment in Ottawa’s local arts scene.
If it doesn’t work, downtown high-tech firms could be left with cool, hip work environments, but nowhere to go when it’s time to punch out.
And where’s the drawing power in that?