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Research Unit / Unité De Recherche the Canada Council for the Arts / Le Conseil Des Arts Du Canada August 2003 / Août 2003 Funding to British Columbia, 2002-2003

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Research Unit / Unité De Recherche the Canada Council for the Arts / Le Conseil Des Arts Du Canada August 2003 / Août 2003 Funding to British Columbia, 2002-2003 Provincial and Territorial Profiles, 2002-2003 / Profils provinciaux et territoriaux, 2002-2003 GRANTS TO BRITISH COLUMBIA / SUBVENTIONS À LA COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE Research Unit / Unité de recherche The Canada Council for the Arts / Le Conseil des Arts du Canada August 2003 / août 2003 Funding to British Columbia, 2002-2003 • In 2002-2003, the Canada Council for the Arts provided grants worth $18.6 million to artists and arts organizations in British Columbia. • In addition to grants, $1.2 million in payments was provided to 2,000 authors through the Public Lending Right Program in 2002-20031. This brings total Canada Council funding to British Columbia to $19.8 million. The number of authors in B.C. receiving a payment through the Public Lending Right Program increased by 100, or 5%, between 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. • The Council awarded $3.6 million in grants to 375 artists and $15.1 million to approximately 337 British Columbia arts organizations in 2002-2003. • Grants were awarded to artists and arts organizations in British Columbia in all disciplines - dance, interdisciplinary and performance art, music, media arts, theatre, visual arts and writing and publishing. In 2002-2003, the largest amount of funding went to music ($4.2 million). Writing and publishing received the second largest amount of funding ($2.9 million). • Funding to artists and arts organizations in Vancouver totaled $13.5 million, comprising 73% of the total funding going to British Columbia. The city of Victoria received $1.8 million in funds, representing 10% of total funding. A total of 78 additional communities in British Columbia received $3.3 million, or 18% of all funding to the province in 2002-2003. • 101 British Columbia artists and arts professionals served as peer assessors in 2002-2003, making up 15.5% of all peer assessors. • Over 2,200 applications from British Columbia artists and arts organizations were assessed in 2002-2003, representing 16% of the total number of assessed applications. The number of applications to British Columbia remained stable between 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. • British Columbia artists and arts organizations received 14% of Canada Council funding in 2002-2003. In comparison, British Columbia makes up 18.7% of artists, and represents 13.1% of the total population of Canada. 1 The Public Lending Right Program provides payments to authors whose books are held in selected Canadian libraries. 2 Aide attribuée à la Colombie-Britannique, 2002-2003 • En 2002-2003, le Conseil des Arts du Canada a accordé 18,6 millions de dollars aux arts de la Colombie-Britannique. • Un montant de 1,2 million de dollars a en outre été payé à 2,000 écrivains et écrivaines de la Colombie-Britannique dans le cadre du Programme du droit de prêt public2 en 2002-2003, ce qui porte à 19,8 millions de dollars l’aide attribuée à la Colombie- Britannique. De 2001-2002 à 2002-2003, le nombre d’auteurs en C.-B. qui ont reçu un paiement par l’entremise du programme du Droit de prêt public a augmenté de 5 p. 100, c.-à-d. 100 personnes de plus. • Le Conseil a accordé 3,6 millions de dollars en subventions à 375 artistes de la Colombie-Britannique, ainsi que 15,1 millions de dollars à environ 337 organismes artistiques de cette province. • L’aide du Conseil a touché toutes les disciplines - danse, musique, théâtre, arts visuels, arts médiatiques, lettres et édition et art interdisciplinaire. Le plus gros pourcentage de l’aide est allé à la musique (4,2 millions de dollars), puis aux lettres et édition (2,9 millions de dollars). • Des subventions de 13,5 millions de dollars ont été accordées aux artistes et organismes artistiques de Vancouver, ce qui représente 73 p. 100 de l’aide à la province. La ville de Victoria a reçu 1,8 million de dollars (10 p. 100 du total). Les 78 autres collectivités de la Colombie-Britannique ont reçu en total 3,3 millions de dollars (18 p. 100 du total). • 101 artistes et professionnels des arts ont été engagés comme membres de jurys, évaluateurs et conseillers en 2002-2003, ce qui répresente 15,5 p. 100 de tous les membres de jurys auxquels le Conseil fait appel. • 2,200 demandes d’appui présentées par des artistes et des organismes artistiques de la Colombie-Britannique ont été évaluées en 2002-2003, ce qui représente 16 p. 100 du total des demandes évaluées. Le nombre de demandes provenant de la Colombie- Britannique a demeuré stable entre 2001-2002 et 2002-2003. • Les artistes et organismes artistiques de la Colombie-Britannique ont reçu 14 p. 100 des subventions du Conseil des Arts du Canada en 2002-2003. Pour fins de comparaison, la province compte 18,7 p. 100 de tous les artistes au pays, et 13,1 p. 100 de la population canadienne. 2Le Programme du droit de prêt public accorde des paiements aux auteurs dont les livres font partie des collections d’un échantillon de bibliothèques canadiennes. 3 British Columbia Artists and Arts Organizations Funded by the Canada Council, 2002-2003 The Vancouver Chamber Choir was awarded a total of $190,050 in grants through the Council’s Professional Choir Program and Music Touring Program in 2002-2003. Council funds enabled the Vancouver Chamber Choir to promote their music with concerts and workshops in Atlantic Canada during February and March 2003. The Vancouver Chamber Choir’s dedication to their music is clearly indicated in their ambitious efforts to produce a concert while braving an ice storm during the Halifax leg of the tour. One of Canada’s only professional choirs, the Vancouver Chamber Choir has also achieved international recognition: at a performance at the Taipei International Choral Festival, the choir was warmly welcomed with gifts, flowers and demands for autographs from young choralists! Merritt’s Red Roots Theatre Group was awarded $5,000 in funds through the Aboriginal People’s Collaborative Exchange and the Development Support to Aboriginal Theatre Organizations programs in 2002-2003. Since the Red Roots Theatre Group is based in a small town on the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada Council funds enabled the group to obtain their initial exposure at a major festival. The Red Roots Theatre Group’s opportunity to perform at Vancouver’s Talking Stick Festival helped realize some of the goals of this small theatre troupe. The Red Roots Theatre Group plays an educational role in Merritt, as their plays deal with Aboriginal issues such as residential schools, and drugs and alcohol. The company encourages young and aspiring theatre afficianados to receive training in theatre production. Vancouver fiction writer and essayist Lynn Coady received a $20,000 grant through the Council’s Grants for Professional Writers – Creative and Author Residences program to write her upcoming novel Mean Boy. Lynn Coady’s love of writing human characters in the process of shedding their psychological insecurities is evident in her award-winning first novel Strange Heaven, and continues in her new work. A native of Cape Breton, Coady is currently editing an anthology of new writing from Canada’s East Coast called ‘Victory Meat: New Fiction from Atlantic Canada.’ In 2002-2003, the Uzume Taiko Ensemble of Vancouver received a $4,500 grant through the Music Festivals Travel Grants program to perform at the Festival d’été in Quebec City in July 2002. The festival marked the first time that the Uzume Taiko Ensemble had ever performed in Northern Quebec. The Uzume Taiko Ensemble incorporates drumming, dance and martial arts choreography into hypnotic taiko drum, percussion, bagpipe and saxophone melodies. Taiko drums are traditional Japanese instruments and the name Uzume Taiko derives from the Japanese phrases for ‘big drum’, and ‘the goddess of laughter’. In 2002, two Vancouver writers were honoured with Governor General’s Literary Awards in their respective categories. Well-known Canadian poet and academic Roy Miki received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry (English), for his anthology on Japanese- Canadian history in the 1940s, Surrender, while in the English Drama category, playwright Kevin Kerr’s work Unity (1918) was honored. Unity (1918) centers on the flu epidemic that plagued Canada at the end of World War I, but has taken on a contemporary 4 significance given recent worldwide health crises. The award-winning drama is playing on many stages: a French version was performed as part of the National Arts Centre’s 2002-2003 theatre series, and the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa will stage its production of Unity (1918) in September 2003. In 2002-2003, Dr. Jeni LeGon of Vancouver was awarded a $10,000 grant through the Canada Council’s Grants to Established Dance Professionals program to write her autobiography. Dr. LeGon is a well-known artist who has worked in many disciplines, including acting, writing, jazz, tap, and dance for over five decades. With the assistance of Canada Council funds, Dr. LeGon was able to travel to places where her career developed: several cities in the States and London, England. The autobiography is a special project according to Dr. LeGon as “it is a document of the life of a successful Afro- American/Canadian dancer who was a pioneer in achieving a measure of equality during a time in American history when it was a popular concept.” 3 The Vancouver organization Art Starts in Schools received a $30,000 grant in 2002-2003 through the Artist and Community Collaboration Fund towards their Art Starts With Youth project. Council funds will enable elementary and secondary school students in the Okanagan Valley, BC, to be exposed to art from different cultures through guest speakers and to explore human rights, environmental, literacy, and social justice issues.
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