Alberta: business and culture, two preoccupations of the Redford conservative government
by Tom McFall, Executive Director of the Alberta Craft Council and CCA Board member
The weekend of February 26 may prove to be a turning point for Alberta’s culture sector. That weekend Alberta’s new Premier Alison Redford and Culture and Community Services Minister Heather Klimchuk hosted almost 400 of Alberta’s culture and business leaders at Red Deer College for an important discussion about the future of culture in Alberta.
Culture Forum 2012 gathered a cross-section of culture workers, community leaders, volunteers, civil servants, politicians, funders, volunteers, corporate supporters and others. They were invited for their expertise in the arts, heritage and museums, multicultural activities, creative industries, government and philanthropy. The Forum was billed as “the first-ever, cross-disciplinary gathering of its kind.” We were asked to “help chart a course for our provincial cultural future”.
The Friday evening opening was an intriguing hybrid of political speeches, pecha kucha and performances. Videos of the entire event are available online. The highlight of the evening was a 10-minute speech by Premier Redford setting the tone and agenda for the weekend. I have never heard a more culture-friendly speech by an Alberta premier! Indeed, I don’t recall any speech by any previous Alberta premier dedicated entirely to culture. She talked about “culture as an expression of who we are”… and “intrinsic to everything we do”. She declared culture was “critical to Alberta’s future growth and prosperity”… and explained her belief that “a strong and vibrant culture contributes to the success of other industries”… and “a healthy diversified economy”. The Premier predicted that another 1 million people will move to Alberta in the next 10 years. She speculated that it will be jobs that attract people here, but quality of life and cultural assets that will keep them here.
For the full day of the Culture Forum, the crowd of 400 was split into think-tank sessions of about 20 to 25 individuals. We were deliberately blended to include perspectives from the entire breadth of “culture”, each group mandated to discuss various issues related to the future of “culture”, and to make and prioritize recommendations to the provincial government. Two of the recommendations of my group echoed themes touched upon by CCA National Director during his recent tour of the country, namely:
- the Alberta culture sector needs to invent a super-group that will advocate for the entire sector;
- we need to develop a unified and vocal message to generate more positive public opinion, understanding and support of the broad intrinsic, social and economic benefits of culture.
But, much of the crowd avoided the elephant in the room – the deteriorating provincial support for the culture sector and the increasing political and media antagonism toward the culture sector. More particularly, there was no official or organized conversation about the struggling arts economy or the role of provincial investment of lottery profits into the culture sector. While the Premier stated her government was “proud to maintain current levels of funding for culture”. I don’t know why she or her speech writer would think this comforting for us because the 2009 cuts of 16% to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (and similar cuts to other culture foundations) have not been restored. Neither Premier Redford nor Minster Klimchuk committed to a $5 or $6 million restoration of arts funding (or funding to museums, multi-cultural groups, libraries, and others) or to more investment of lottery profits into the culture sector.
I’ve attended many government-sponsored events that were intended to “consult” on arts and culture. A few have been productive. Some were shallow and some were platitudinous. This Forum seemed different — somewhat more positive, perhaps. Conversations with colleagues at and after the Forum or since suggest that many of us came away from the event with vaguely hopeful thoughts that the Redford government might be interested in our sector. Naturally this led to speculation amongst the Forum attendees about the up-coming provincial election, and whether the culture sector, restored funding or new investment, might become real election issues. Who knows?