Canadian Conference of the Arts

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Shaping a vibrant future for Canada’s Arts and Culture

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CCA Publishes its 2012–2013 Analyses of Provincial and Territorial Budgets

Letter from the President

The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) is happy to meet its commitment to publish its Analyses of the Provincial and Territorial 2012-13 Budgets from the perspective of arts, culture and heritage.

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CCA : Call for interest

Last Friday, we put in place a caretaker Board of Governors. We will gladly receive and consider any serious offer to reactivate the activities of the CCA.

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Senate of Canada, Senator James S. Cowan on the Closure of the Canadian Conference of the Arts
Why did the government not at least provide a reasonable period of time to allow the Canadian Conference of the Arts to transition to a new funding model? October 31st, 2012 Hon. James S. Cowan (Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question is also for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Yesterday, the Canadian Conference of the Arts, the largest national alliance of the arts, culture and heritage sector in Canada, announced that it will be shutting its doors after 67 years. Since 1965, that organization has received a portion of its funding from Canadian Heritage, but the Harper government has decided to terminate and eliminate its funding. The CCA made what seemed to most people to be a reasonable request for time to transition to self-financing; they asked for two years. They began to work on a plan to become self-financing within that time. However, in April the government announced its decision to cut off funding after six months. After 67 years, the government has decided that six months is all that is required for that organization to retool its financing. In Budget 2012, the government said: The Government believes that supporting the arts is essential to[.....]
http://ccarts.ca/resources/on-the-hill/senate-of-canada-senator-james-s-cowan-on-the-closure-of-the-canadian-conference-of-the-arts/#comments

House of Commons, MP Andrew Cash on the Canadian Conference of the Arts
Andrew Cash’s Question on the Closure of the Canadian Conference of the Arts and the Nature of Cultural Funding October 30th, 2012 Mr. Andrew Cash (Davenport, NDP): Mr. Speaker, there are two sets of rules governing arts and culture: one if the artists are liked by the Conservatives, and one if they are not. The Canadian Conference of the Arts is the latest example. When the minister does not like an art exhibit or an organization or the name of a rock band, an unmistakeable chill gets sent out across the land. Canada is big, complex and diverse. Do we really want to have our arts and culture sector governed out of the office of one politician in this country? Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, CPC): Mr. Speaker, as I said with respect to this organization, after 35 years it is still receiving some 60% of its budget from hard-working taxpayers. It is time it moved to a different system of financing, one where it asks the people who support it, the stakeholders, to contribute a little more. This government is making a lot of investments in arts and culture. The NDP continues to[.....]
http://ccarts.ca/resources/on-the-hill/house-of-commons-andrew-cash-on-the-canadian-conference-of-the-arts/#comments

House of Commons, MP Pierre Nantel on the Canadian Conference of the Arts
Pierre Nantel’s Question in the House of Commons on the Closure of the Canadian Conference of the Arts October 30th, 2012 Mr. Pierre Nantel (Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the demise of the Canadian Conference of the Arts is directly related to its critical opinion of the controversial copyright reform. When the organization shared the concerns of artists from across the country, it suddenly lost its funding. The transitional assistance provided and the time allocated for the transition were insufficient, which was fatal for the organization. The Canadian Conference of the Arts lost its funding because it expressed a dissenting opinion. The minister had a choice between spending $25 million to rename a museum or spending less than $400,000 to save an organization that helps hundreds of thousands of artists. How can the minister justify his choice? [English] Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, CPC): Mr. Speaker, after 35 years, this organization is still receiving some 60% of its operating funding from the hard-working taxpayers of this country. We did provide some transition funding for this organization this year, so that it could actually go to a new system of financing and ask its stakeholders and the[.....]
http://ccarts.ca/resources/on-the-hill/house-of-commons-pierre-nantel-on-the-canadian-conference-of-the-arts/#comments

National Director’s Blog
This morning the CCA issued a press release titled, The Canadian Conference of the Arts closes its doors after 67 years. I don’t need to tell you how difficult it has been to write those words down and how we have tried our best not to express them. But there comes a moment when reality stares down the most hopeful outlook on things. It is seven years to the day that I was given the job of National Director of the CCA. During these years I have developed the greatest of respect for this organization and the incredible contribution it has made to the development of cultural policies at the federal level. How many times, particularly over the past two years, have I heard people say that if we did not have the CCA, we would have to invent it? Over the last 18 months we have enthusiastically embraced the challenge set before us by the government’s decision to put an end to 47 years of funding. We attempted to reinvent the organisation as an autonomous body, but as our Chair Kathleen Sharpe says in her letter, we would have needed two years of funding to transition to this new[.....]
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The Canadian Conference of the Arts to Close Doors after 67 Years
Press Release The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), the largest national alliance of the arts, culture and heritage sector across Canada, announces that it will begin winding down its operations immediately. Founded in 1945 by a group of eminent artists, including painters Lawren S. Harris, of the Group of Seven, and André Biéler, the CCA has the unique mandate in the Canadian cultural sector of promoting the interests of Canadian artists and of the cultural sector at large at the federal level, and of providing a national forum where issues of common interest can be discussed and pursued. The name of the CCA has been associated with all major cultural policy developments at the federal level, from the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts in 1957 to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in 2005. A year and a half ago, the CCA became aware of the Harper government’s intention to put an end to 47 years of funding. The CCA informed the Department of Canadian Heritage right from the beginning that it embraced the challenge of making the CCA financially autonomous, but that in order to do[.....]
http://ccarts.ca/front-page-slider/the-canadian-conference-of-the-arts-to-close-doors-after-67-years/#comments

Letter From the Chair

It is with great sadness that the Board of Governors of the CCA came to the conclusion last week that we have to shut down operations immediately. I can tell you that the decision announced today, while not a surprise given the known challenges we were facing, was most difficult to take...

http://ccarts.ca/front-page-slider/kathleens-letter-to-members/#comments

Testimonials

Everybody’s talking about us! And this is what they are saying . . .

“The Culture Office of the City of London belongs to the Canadian Conference for the Arts because it helps us to continue to be informed about arts and cultural issues which are happening at the national level which provides us with a context for issues that are affecting our municipality and local cultural community.” - Robin Armistead, Culture Manager, City of London

Letter from the President

Everybody’s talking about us! And this is what they are saying . . .

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