Making a Single Case for the Arts: An International Perspective

Exec­u­tive summary

 

In Canada, the cul­tural sec­tor is diver­si­fied and rather frag­mented and, for a vari­ety of rea­sons, it has been impos­si­ble so far to artic­u­late a coher­ent cul­tural pol­icy at the national level. There was a time when the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence for the Arts was the sin­gle, over­ar­ch­ing orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing the inter­ests of all artis­tic dis­ci­plines in all regions. Nowa­days, pro­fes­sional, discipline-specific orga­ni­za­tions have devel­oped to rep­re­sent their own inter­ests. Nev­er­the­less, it remains the CCA’s man­date to “act as the national forum for the artis­tic and cul­tural com­mu­nity in Canada” and artic­u­late poli­cies ensur­ing the growth of the cul­tural sector.

This dou­ble man­date of “think tank” and advo­cate for the cul­tural sec­tor raises a num­ber of ques­tions, par­tic­u­larly in a polit­i­cal con­text where lob­by­ing is viewed with sus­pi­cion. This research report aims at inves­ti­gat­ing how other coun­tries have addressed this issue and suc­ceeded in devel­op­ing a col­lab­o­ra­tive modus operandi among arts orga­ni­za­tions each artic­u­lat­ing cul­tural poli­cies in order to make a sin­gle case for the arts. The report looks at the con­texts which have pro­duced suc­cess­ful arts advo­cacy efforts and looks at for­eign best prac­tices in that respect.

Arts advo­cacy as an emerg­ing phenomenon

Pub­lic fund­ing for the arts and cul­ture is being reor­ga­nized world­wide, as other press­ing con­cerns such as health and edu­ca­tion are mak­ing an increas­ing demand on the taxpayer’s money. To advo­cate for sup­port for the arts, orga­ni­za­tions have dis­cov­ered that it would be in their inter­est to merge and form advo­cacy networks.

Mak­ing the case for the arts

Arts impact research is a pre­req­ui­site in ral­ly­ing arts orga­ni­za­tions to artic­u­late a sin­gle, uni­fied mes­sage before poten­tial fun­ders. It has been vital for the arts sec­tor that arts advo­cates empha­size the instru­men­tal ben­e­fits of the arts. British think-tank Demos has pub­lished sev­eral stud­ies show­ing the need to build a broader basis for pub­lic sup­port for the arts in order to restore the legit­i­macy of cul­ture. In the light of this research, it seems that arts advo­cacy would be most effec­tive by draw­ing on a com­bi­na­tion of intrin­sic, instru­men­tal and insti­tu­tional val­ues cul­ture gen­er­ates and tai­lor­ing its mes­sage to its audiences.

In order to seek par­al­lels from which the Cana­dian cul­tural sec­tor could draw inspi­ra­tion in its quest for a bet­ter posi­tion­ing of arts and cul­ture in pub­lic debate, an analy­sis of other inter­na­tional ‘like’ orga­ni­za­tions was under­taken.  The report high­lights a num­ber of points illus­trat­ing how those orga­ni­za­tions gar­ner con­sen­sus among their con­stituents. Below is a com­piled list of these suc­cess­ful ele­ments from the four orga­ni­za­tions in question.

USA: How AFTA (Amer­i­cans for the Arts) builds consensus:

• It is polit­i­cally inde­pen­dent and thereby totally com­mit­ted to the arts world.
• It keeps an eye on each level of the arts scene—local, state, regional, federal—and facil­i­tates network-building among orga­ni­za­tions faced with com­mon issues.
• It trains advo­cates at each level—from grass­roots to professional—and is con­stantly devel­op­ing the resources it pro­vides each level so that more orga­ni­za­tions are empow­ered to advo­cate for the arts.
• It places con­sen­sus above all par­tic­u­lar inter­ests when it incor­po­rates or works with other networks.
• It includes all mem­bers in the process of defin­ing issue briefs to be advo­cated for dur­ing Arts Advo­cacy Day.
• It favors broad and con­sen­sual causes, ie sup­port­ing increased fund­ing, arts edu­ca­tion or pro-arts legislation
• It pro­duces arts impact research on a con­tin­u­ing basis.
• It has devel­oped web-based tools enabling cit­i­zens to advo­cate for pre-defined causes.
• It involves high-profile speak­ers from the artis­tic com­mu­ni­ties and rewards fun­ders from the pub­lic and the pri­vate sec­tors dur­ing pres­ti­gious events.

Swe­den: How KLYS (Swedish Joint Com­mit­tee for Artis­tic and Lit­er­ary Pro­fes­sion­als) builds consensus:

• It is inde­pen­dent from the State, so it is wholly com­mit­ted to the arts world.
• It can lobby itself.
• It has gained great polit­i­cal clout in suc­cess­ful cases.
• It strongly empha­sizes col­lab­o­ra­tive work, get­ting all stake­hold­ers to “shout from the same spot.”
• Mem­ber­ship in KLYS is ben­e­fi­cial to orga­ni­za­tions, espe­cially small ones as KLYS pro­vides legal services.
• KLYS is per­ceived as being rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the whole cul­tural sector.

 
United King­dom: How NCA (National Cam­paign for the Arts) builds consensus:

• It is inde­pen­dent from the State
• It puts its small struc­ture to effec­tive use
• It places a strong empha­sis on communication
• It has a strong record of suc­cess in achiev­ing its goals

Aus­tralia: How NACA (National Arts & Cul­tural Alliance) builds consensus:

• It arose out of a dif­fi­cult con­text for the arts, secur­ing sup­port for its cause
• It places a wider remit above all par­tic­u­lar interests
• It aims at a wide representation
• It places a strong empha­sis on grass­roots advocacy

Con­clu­sion

Net­works have not been able to extend to the whole coun­try. Since the cre­ation of the CCA, lev­els of arts admin­is­tra­tions have mul­ti­plied but coor­di­na­tion is lack­ing because of sev­eral prob­lems which set Canada apart from the for­eign exam­ples described above:

• Unlike that pre­vail­ing in the other coun­tries exam­ined, the Cana­dian Par­lia­men­tary sys­tem makes it dif­fi­cult to lobby Mem­bers of Parliament.
• Unlike two other English-speaking coun­tries which it emu­lates in other ways, namely the United King­dom and the United States, there are neg­a­tive per­cep­tions of lob­by­ing and advocacy.
• Unlike other coun­tries with Arts Coun­cils, there are no rela­tion­ships between the Cana­dian Arts Coun­cil and arts advocacy.
• Unlike its for­eign coun­ter­parts, CCA is not inde­pen­dent from the State which pro­vides an impor­tant part of its annual budget.
• Unlike that of other coun­tries exam­ined, Cana­dian his­tory has jeop­ar­diz­ing the artic­u­la­tion of a com­mon cul­tural iden­tity which would help to define wider, con­sen­sual remits.

To con­clude, one can say that there is a wealth of arts advo­cacy work and resources in Canada which would gain sig­nif­i­cantly more effec­tive­ness and clout by pool­ing their efforts to bet­ter serve the arts. To reach this objec­tive, it would appear cru­cial to expand the net­work­ing out­side the cul­tural sec­tor as such to other stake­hold­ers in Cana­dian civil soci­ety.

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