#3 Artists’ Council of British Columbia

a. The Committee recornmends that the province immediately establish an independent,
' arm's length arts council to administer arts funding through a system of peer jury
evaluation. The Committee further recommends that the council be called the “Artists?
Council of British Columbia” and be established by legislation prefaced with a statement

of principle recognizing the role and importance of artists to the culture and society of
the province. ,

The board of the Artists’ Council of British Columbia must be comprised primarily of practising
artists including men and women representing the’ various disciplines, regions and the
racial/ethnic communities of the province. The Council should be empowered to hire its own
executive director, to raise and borrow monies and to act as an advocate for artists’ rights
within government, the province amd the country. It should also be required to keep
administration costs to 10 percent of its budget, to limit arts officers to five year terms of
employment, and, in the spirit of sharing resources with the communities they serve, to align
senior staff salaries with the senior most grants to practising artists. The Committee believes
tnat the fortunes of those administering art should be more closely tied to the fortunes of
those making it.

b. The Committee recommends that the Artists’ Council of British Columbia draft policies

governing the distribution of funds to the arts which will give primary. place to the
funding of artists, and ensure that all grants are juried.

The Council's policies and procedures must be developed in conjunction with recognized
representatives of the arts communities, and artists participating in policy formulation and
evaluation should be adequately and professionally paid. The relationship of First Nations and
aboriginal artists to the Artists’ Council must be developed on the advice of those communities

combining approaches which would integrate First Nations arts into general programs and
provide dedicated support at the same time.

It will obviously also be necessary for the new Council to formulate an approach to racial
equity in the arts, and to develop strategies to redress imbalances and remove cultural barriers
such as language. "When | write in Punjabi { do not exist as an artist in British Columbia; only’

when | write in English do | exist,” poet Sadhu Binning cold the Committee. Again, these policies
must be developed in conjunction with these communities.

The Committee notes that a total of $419,082 was allocated by the Cultural Services Branch
(CSB) to granting programs for individual artists -- writers, visual artists, film and video artists -- |
in 1992/93. Another $120,500 was provided to performing arts organizations to create new
_works. This compares to the budgets for what is called Professional Arts . Development
(operating and project grants for performing arts companies, galleries and ‘museurns),
Community Arts Development and Touring programs which stood at $8.8 million, $849,008.
and $404,638 respectively in 1992/93. Grants to individuals, thus, ‘represented just 3.2% of
_ CSB's total grants expenditure of $12.7 million that year.

In’setting up a new council, the province has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from
experience and to get things right from the start. Policies and programs can, and muse, be artist
- driven; they can and must be created with-imetysivenessand equity in mind, :