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Poverty of the Soul ~ Canada Without Culture
Canada Arts funding programs under attack ~ Make Art, Not War!
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A decade at war is enough, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said on Wednesday. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)
Harper says 2011 'end date' for Afghanistan mission
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/stor
Le patrimone canadien ~ Canadian Heritage, Strong and Free!
The huge increase in cultural funding that continues to be brought up by the government, is largely accounted for by the monies granted to Quebec for the 400th Birthday Celebration and those given to the Vancouver Olympic 2010 Bid. These are one time only programs with specific end dates and outcomes, not a huge ongoing, overall increase to cultural funding in Canada. With an election campaigning already underway, it is important that Canadians both artists and art patrons, especially those that are supporters of this government, make their concerns with these funding cuts known to their local Member of Parliament.
Culture Canada
http://culturecanada.gc.ca/index_e.cfm
Heritage Canada
http://www.pch.gc.ca/index_e.cfm
Is War Our Heritage? ~ Make Art Not War
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Culture Canada with Ad for Armed Forces... (click on Canada site)
http://www.canada.gc.ca/home.html
Canada Site
http://www.canada.gc.ca/home.html
List of Cultural Programs Cut by Harper Government ~ CARFAC
1) Eculture (Culture.ca and Canadian cultural Observatory, including Culturescope.ca) Budget: $4.36 million
http://www.culturescope.ca/ev_en.ph
2) Trade Routes Program Budget: $9 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/acca/progs/rctr/progs/pcrctrcp/index_e.cfm
3) PromArt (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) Budget: $4.7 million
http://www.international.gc.ca/cult
4) Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund Budget: $1.5 million
http://www.cifvf .ca/
5) National Training Program for the Film and Video sector Budget : $2.5 million
http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/03/311.asp?la
6) Audiovisual Preservation Trust Budget : $150,000
http://avtrust.ca/en_index.htm
7) Canadian culture online (Research and Development Component) Budget : $5.64 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcceccop/progs/mednetnmrd_e.cfm
8) Canadian Memory Fund Budget: $11.57 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcceccop/progs/mem_e.cfm
9) Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Stabilization Project) Budget: $627,000
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcapccahsp/01_e.cfm
10) Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Capacity Building) Budget: was $6.1 million reduced to $4.3 million – reduction of $1.8 million (plus $1 million in salary and internal fees)
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcapccahsp/02_e.cfm
11) Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Endangered arts organizations) Budget: $500,000
12) Canada music Fund (Canadian Music Memories Component) Budget : $150,000
13) Northern Native Broadcast Access Program Budget : $2.1 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/paapp/progs/paanrnnbap/index_e.cfm
14) Book Publishing Industry Development Program Budget : $1 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/acca/progs/padiebpidp/index_e.cfm
15) Canada Magazine Fund Budget : $500,000
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/acca/progs/f cmcmf /index_e.cfm
Total Budget Cuts $46,097,000
List of Cultural Programs Cut Downloadable Document
http://www.ccarts.ca/en/documents/Listo
Culture in 2008. Has Stephen Harper misread it? ~ The Information HIghway
Stephen Harper's dramatic cut to arts funding has provoked a huge backlash within the arts community but in this web 2.0 world, the relationship we have to media and culture has changed dramatically. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the electorate given their new cultural role. Will they have a higher appreciation for art and cultural industries? Will they recognize that huge business success stories like Flickr were originally funded as art projects?
Culture in 2008. Has Stephen Harper misread it?
http://mtippett.wordpress.com/2008/09/0
Form Follows Function Louis Sullivan architect
"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.”
Banque du Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_follo
The Number 1 Reason YOU became a Slave ~ Debt
"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit... all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile" ~ Mackenzie King, 1935
Brent Jessop || December 14, 2005 ~ Five from 1875
http://www.knowledgedrivenrevolution.co
An Arts Report ~ CARFAC Canadian Artists Representation/ Le Front Des Artistes Canadiens (For immediate Release) Arts cuts may force Alberta craft artists to cancel high profile show in Korea
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Edmonton, August 26th, 2008 – The world’s largest exposition of fine crafts has invited Canada, including twenty or more of Alberta’s leading and emerging craft artists, to be the sole guest country for their 2009 Biennale in Korea however, due to recent federal funding cuts, they might not be able to participate. Cancelled programs PromArt and Trade Routes were budgeted to contribute $50,000 to the project - a drop in the bucket for the government but essential for the project’s survival. The Alberta Craft Council and its members have been working toward this project for years. Thirty of Alberta’s leading craft artists were featured at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea last year with the aid of both PromArt and Trade Routes. It was as a result of this positive exposure that Canada was invited to next year’s exposition. Edmonton craft artist Karen Cantine was one of the artists featured at the 2007 Biennale in South Korea. “We are taken more seriously as artists if we have shown internationally,” she said. “Those of us who support ourselves with our art are not expert promoters or international marketers. That is where government support is helpful.” Cantine’s work has been collected by major institutions such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the University of Iowa and has been shown locally at the Peter Robertson Gallery and the Alberta Craft Council. Her commissions include a trophy for the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Chalice that was used by the Pope when he came to Edmonton in 1984. Despite being inducted into Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame, Cantine says she and many artists can struggle to pay the bills. “Most artists feel rewarded if we can pay our rent and put food on the table – we don’t ask for much.” Other communities that were represented in Korea in 2007 include Cochrane, Bragg Creek, Sundre, Black Diamond, Canmore, Ardrossan, Red Deer, Hastings Lake, Medicine Hat, Strathmore, Edmonton and Calgary. South Korea has already committed funding to help the Canadian craft artists participate in the Biennale. Amongst developed countries, Canada ranks near the bottom for support of international cultural marketing. Denmark, France, Great Britain, Australia and Japan are much more involved in international fine craft marketing. The Danish craft organization, for example, is able to invest more national money in a single US trade event than the Canadian government invests in an entire year.
Public arts funding returns at least three times any investment: ~ The ABC's of Culture
Some Benefits of Investment in the Arts:
a.. Cities which have used the arts as part of their revitalization strategies have seen the following benefits:
a.. Increased tourism and other indirect economic activity
b.. Improved quality of life and community engagement
c.. Regeneration of undervalued/underutilized urban real estate
d.. Relocation of business and residents from suburbs to downtown core
a.. (The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada)
a.. CBAC has over 40 active corporate members including BMO, Bell Canada, Ernst & Young, GE Canada, Imperial Oil, Onex Corporation, TELUS, etc.
b.. A healthy artistic community attracts the creative class
a.. This includes scientists, engineers, teachers, designers and knowledge-based professionals
a.. (Richard Florida – The Rise of the Creative Class)
c.. The benefits of art education are recognized by parents:
a.. 85 per cent of parents believe that their child’s creativity is improved by arts programs,
b.. 78 per cent believe that their child’s personal growth is improved,
and
c.. 78 per cent believe the arts enhance their child’s confidence and self-esteem.
a.. (Ipsos-Reid Research for the Department of Canadian Heritage, 2002)
Why artists need public support:
a.. Artists do not equitably share in the wealth that they create
a.. Half of visual artists fall below the poverty line
b.. This is including the second and third jobs they take on in addition to their practice
a.. (Hill Strategies)
b.. Investment in the performing arts (for example) earns a positive return of 200% based on direct and indirect benefits alone.
a.. There is more than a 8X return when induced benefits are included (i.e., multiplier effect on region’s economy)
a.. The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada
Albertans support arts funding:
a.. Nine out of ten Albertans feel it is important that the Government of Alberta continues to fund and support the arts
a.. Annual Survey of Albertans, Research Innovations Inc., 2006
b.. Ninety-four percent of Albertans believe that having a wide variety of cultural activities and events makes Alberta a better place to live
a.. Albertans’ Perceptions of Culture and Quality of Life Survey, IPSOS
REID, 2005
For more information:
Tom McFall
The Alberta Craft Council
780-488-6611
April Britski
CARFAC National
613-233-6161
http://www.carfacontario.ca/about/organ
*p.s. When former premiere Ralph Klien sponsored a tax rebate to Albertans, many of them were seen to donate the return to public programs such as the arts.
Take Action on the Arts ~ Election Canada 2008
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
Art Is Not A Luxury ~ Stephen Harper Cuts Cultural Funding By $20 - (50) Million
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
Elections 2008 ~ Americans Vote, Canadians Follow Suit
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper published in Le Devoir this week from playwright Wajdi Mouwad ~ From Wajdi Mouawad, Governor General Award-winning Canadian playwright; Knight of the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres, France; Artistic Director of French Theatre, The National Arts Centre of Canada (translated from the French by John van Burek)
Monsieur le premier ministre,
We are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. You are Prime Minister of the Parliament of Canada and I, across the way, am a writer, theatre director and Artistic Director of the French Theatre at the National Arts Centre (NAC). So, like you, I am an employee of the state, working for the Federal Government; in other words, we are colleagues. Let me take advantage of this unique position, as one functionary to another, to chat with you about the elimination of some federal grants in the field of culture, something that your government recently undertook. Indeed, having followed this matter closely, I have arrived at a few conclusions that I would like to publicly share with you since, as I’m sure you will agree, this debate has become one of public interest.
The Symbolism
Firstly, it seems that you might benefit by surrounding yourself with counsellors who will be attentive to the symbolic aspects of your Government’s actions. I am sure you know this but there is no harm in reminding ourselves that every public action denotes not only what it is but what it symbolizes. For example, a Prime Minister who chooses not attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, claiming his schedule does not permit it, in no way reduces the symbolism which says that his absence might signify something else. This might signify that he wishes to denote that Canada supports the claims of Tibet. Or it might serve as a sign of protest over the way in which Beijing deals with human rights. If the Prime Minister insists that his absence is really just a matter of timing, whether he likes it or not, this will take on symbolic meaning that commits the entire country. The symbolism of a public gesture will always outweigh the technical explanations.
Declaration of war
Last week, your government reaffirmed its manner of governing unilaterally, this time on a domestic issue, in bringing about reductions in granting programs destined for the cultural sector. A mere matter of budgeting, you say, but one which sends shock waves throughout the cultural milieu –rightly or wrongly, as we shall see- for being seen as an expression of your contempt for that sector. The confusion with which your Ministers tried to justify those reductions and their refusal to make public the reports on the eliminated programs, only served to confirm the symbolic significance of that contempt. You have just declared war on the artists. Now, as one functionary to another, this is the second thing that I wanted to tell you: no government, in showing contempt for artists, has ever been able to survive. Not one. One can, of course, ignore them, corrupt them, seduce them, buy them, censor them, kill them, send them to camps, spy on them, but hold them in contempt, no. That is akin to rupturing the strange pact, made millennia ago, between art and politics.
Contempt
Art and politics both hate and envy one another; since time immemorial, they detest each other and they are mutually attracted, and it’s through this dynamic that many a political idea has been born; it is in this dynamic that sometimes, great works of art see the light of day. Your cultural politics, it must be said, provoke only a profound consternation. Neither hate nor detestation, not envy nor attraction, nothing but numbness before the oppressive vacuum that drives your policies. This vacuum which lies between you and the artists of Canada, from a symbolic point of view, signifies that your government, for however long it lasts, will not witness either the birth of a political idea or a masterwork, so firm is your apparent belief in the unworthiness of that for which you show contempt. Contempt is a subterranean sentiment, being a mix of unassimilated jealousy and fear towards that which we despise. Such governments have existed, but not lasted because even the most detestable of governments cannot endure if it hasn’t the courage to affirm what it actually is.
Why is this?
What are the reasons behind these reductions, which are cut from the same cloth as those made last year on the majority of Canadian embassies, who saw their cultural programming reduced, if not eliminated? The economies that you have made are ridiculously small and the votes you might win with them have already been won. For what reason, then, are you so bent on hurting the artists by denying them some of their tools? What are you seeking to extinguish and to gain? Your silence and your actions make one fear the worst for, in the end, we are quite struck by the belief that this contempt, made eloquent by your budget cuts, is very real and that you feel nothing but disgust for these people, these artists, who spend their time by wasting it and in spending the good taxpayers money, he who, rather than doing uplifting work, can only toil. And yet, I still cannot fathom your reasoning. Plenty of politicians, for the past fifty years, have done all they could to depoliticise art, to strip it of its symbolic import. They try the impossible, to untie that knot which binds art to politics. And they almost succeed! Whereas you, in the space of one week, have undone this work of chloroforming, by awakening the cultural milieu, Francophone and Anglophone, and from coast to coast. Even if politically speaking they are marginal and negligible, one must never underestimate intellectuals, never underestimate artists; don’t underestimate their ability to do you harm.
A grain of sand is all-powerful
I believe, my dear colleague, that you yourself have just planted the grain of sand that could derail the entire machine of your electoral campaign. Culture is, in fact, nothing but a grain of sand, but therein lays its power, in its silent front. It operates in the dark. That is its legitimate strength. It is full of people who are incomprehensible but very adept with words. They have voices. They know how to write, to paint, to dance, to sculpt, to sing, and they won’t let up on you. Democratically speaking, they seek to annihilate your policies. They will not give up. How could they? You must understand them: they have not had a clear and common purpose for a very long time, for such a long time that they have no common cause to defend. In one week, by not controlling the symbolic importance of your actions, you have just given them passion, anger, rage.
In the dark
The resistance that will begin today, and to which my letter is added, is but a first manifestation of a movement that you yourself have set in motion: an incalculable number of texts, speeches, acts, assemblies, marches, will now be making themselves heard. They will not be exhausted. Some of these will, perhaps, following my letter, be weakened but within each word, there will be a spark of rage, relit, and it is precisely the addition of these tiny instances of fire that will shape the grain of sand that you will never be able to shake. This will not settle down, the pressure will not be diminished. Monsieur le premier ministre, we are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. There is nothing but the Cenotaph between our offices, and this is as it should be because politics and art have always mirrored one another, each on its own shore, each seeing itself in the other, separated by that river where life and death are weighed at every moment. We have many things in common, but an artist, contrary to a politician, has nothing to lose, because he or she does not make laws; and if it is prime ministers who change the world, it’s the artist who will show this to the world. So do not attempt, through your policies, to blind us, Monsieur le premier ministre; do not ignore that reflection on the opposite shore, do not plunge us further into the dark. Do not diminish us.
Wajdi Mouawad
http://www.thewreckingball.ca/
Yann Martell on Stephen Harper ~ Man Booker Prize-Winning Canadian novelist Yann Martell muses on our Prime Minister’s state of mind, and, to help him out, has vowed to send him a book a week. He will report on what, if anything, he hears back.
Here’s an excerpt from the letter he included with gift book #36 (Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor): I have another matter I would like to raise with you. The cancellation of PromArt was recently announced. The program, administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, helps cover some of the travel costs of Canadian artists and cultural groups going abroad to promote their work. The grants to individuals are small, often between 750 and 1500 dollars. The budget of the entire program is only $4.7 million dollars. That’s about 14 cents a year per Canadian. For that small sum, Canada shows its best, most enduring quality to the nations of the earth. To remind you of what I’m sure you already know, a country cannot be reduced to the corporations it happens to shelter. Businesses come and go, following their own commercial logic. No one feels deep, patriotic feelings for a corporation, certainly not its shareholders. They will vote where the money leads them. So while Canadians can feel proud about such global players as Bombardier and Alcan and hosts of others, we should not pin our identity to them. Canada is a people, not a business. We shine because of our cultural achievements, not our mercantile wealth. So to cut an international arts promotion program is to vow our country to cultural anonymity. It means foreigners will have no impressions of Canada, and so no affection. The PromArt program is a vital part of our foreign policy. I ask you to reconsider the decision to shut it down. The value-added worth of this modest program is akin to, well, to the value-added worth of a paperback.
Yours truly,
Yann Martel”
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
On His Lonely Book Club with Stephen Harper:
About 8 months ago, Martel attended an event for the Canada Council for the Arts in Ottawa, where he said the politicians were largely absent and the artists were waved through the event “like schoolchildren.” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was nowhere to be seen. Harper has cut funding for literary groups and seems to value hockey more than art. In an effort to get Harper to understand the importance of books, Yann Martel now has a Lonely Book Club, in which he sends Harper a book every couple of weeks. Aside from a three-sentence thank you letter after the first book, Harper has not responded. Martel imagines Harper has been so silent “because he hasn’t read a work of art since he was an adolescent.”
On Politics and the Arts:
Martel believes many politicians (and other rationalists, a class of people he finds hard to meet) are suffering from “imaginative atrophy.” We need imagination and literature because it opens our hearts. “We are led by technocrats who reduced our nations to their economic workings.” But culture and language are equally as important. He points out that Calgary in the boom province of Alberta is economically healthy but culturally impoverished. Martel is deadpan on the subject. “If we’re allowed to ask questions about how much money they make and what their moral positions are, why can’t we ask politicians about their imaginations?”
On Atheism:
“This has been the great year of atheists. Scientists have been very impressive with their reasoning.” Martel went on to talk about the brilliance of good arguments, such as those presented by “Ronald” Dawkins (maybe Martel sees a merging of icons: Ronald McDawkins?!). “But where does that leave you at the end of the day when you’re alone with your mortality?” Religion is self-reinforcing because it deals with faith and imagination.
On the New Illustrated Edition of Life of Pi:
From 1600 illustrators who originally submitted to the competition to illustrate the book, narrowed down to a long list of 60, to a short list of six, Tomislav Torjanac was chosen. Martel took us through Tomislav’s illustrations, which are magical (see above and more here).
On the Island:
An audience member invariably asked about the island in Life of Pi and, though Martel was reluctant explain himself, he eventually said, “If you’re going to believe the story with the animals, I wanted you to stop being so reasonable. The island floats just beyond what you can reasonably believe.”
On a Cinematic Version of the Book:
That’s right, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the fabulous director of Amelie, will be directing the movie version of Life of Pi. Martel loves film but cautions that “cinema kidnaps you” in terms of imagination.
On His Newest Work:
A 20th Century Shirt is the title of his newest book, which is actually an essay and a novel in one and will be presented as a flipbook, which is not a gimmick but because they are “genres that are not compatible.” Both are about the Holocaust. “The novel is about a red howler monkey and a donkey that live on a big shirt, which is actually a country. Does that sound interesting?”
Yann Martel: Imaginative Atrophy and Lonely Book Clubs
http://www.terry.ubc.ca/index.php/2
What is Stephen Harper Reading? ~ Book Number 36: Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor...
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"I don't even know what I was running for - I guess I just felt like it." ~ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1
The cancellation of PromArt was recently announced. The program, administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, helps cover some of the travel costs of Canadian artists and cultural groups going abroad to promote their work. The grants to individuals are small, often between 750 and 1500 dollars. The budget of the entire program is only $4.7 million dollars. That’s about 14 cents a year per Canadian. For that small sum, Canada shows its best, most enduring quality to the nations of the earth. To remind you of what I’m sure you already know, a country cannot be reduced to the corporations it happens to shelter. Businesses come and go, following their own commercial logic. No one feels deep, patriotic feelings for a corporation, certainly not its shareholders. They will vote where the money leads them. So while Canadians can feel proud about such global players as Bombardier and Alcan and hosts of others, we should not pin our identity to them. Canada is a people, not a business. We shine because of our cultural achievements, not our mercantile wealth. So to cut an international arts promotion program is to vow our country to cultural anonymity. It means foreigners will have no impressions of Canada, and so no affection. The PromArt program is a vital part of our foreign policy. I ask you to reconsider the decision to shut it down. The value-added worth of this modest program is akin to, well, to the value-added worth of a paperback.
Yours truly,
Yann Martel
encl: one inscribed paperback. Reply: Pending…
Book Number 36: Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
O'connor Wearing a Muskrat Coat ~ Iowa
Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor
http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer
Book Number 36: Introduction to Flannery O'Connor: The Complete Stories
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.o
Book Number 9: Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Márquez
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
Cancellation of cultural program makes us poorer ~ Where Does Culture Come From?
Government no longer supports artists to tell our story abroad. Shortly after the Conservative Party of Canada won its minority government in 2006, Prime Minister Harper dismantled the already-measly $25-million cultural diplomacy program. Under the Liberals, Canada was already spending the least, per capita, among the G8 countries. The remaining fund, a $4.7-million envelope called the PromArt program, was cancelled on Friday. An anonymous Conservative Party source revealed the program was being cut because the money "went to groups that would raise the eyebrows of any typical Canadian." These included the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, The Juno-nominated Gryphon Trio, singer-songwriter Tal Bachman and three internationally acclaimed dance groups from Quebec. Every "great" or even "real" country today, every country that means something beyond borders and currency, engages in cultural diplomacy. That is, it nurtures and encourages its mythmakers -- musicians, filmmakers, poets and novelists, dancers, actors, visual artists -- to tell their stories internally and abroad. To transcend government policy and politics. Every leader of every great or even ambitious country understands that policies and politics are ephemeral. Art lasts forever. Cancelling the cultural diplomacy budgets for ideological and moral reasons is probably the littlest, meanest, most ridiculous and most representative decision Canada's New Government has made. We may be an energy superpower, but natural resources are finite. Once they're sold off, we're hollow. In New York and London and Moscow and New Delhi and Beijing, where the world's most important decisions are being made, Canada is sliding further and further into irrelevancy.
On Friday, we became $4.7 million poorer.
tbabiak@thejournal.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/n
The Story Behind What Is Stephen Harper Reading? ~ About
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The Power of Now ~ by Eckhart Tolle, A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment ~ Literate Hilton
Yan himself admits, "I, for example, was 1991, the year I received a Canada Council B grant that allowed me to write my first novel. I was 27 years old and the money was manna from heaven. I made those $18,000 last a year and a half (and compared to the income tax I have paid since then, an exponential return on Canadian taxpayers’ investment, I assure you)." Just so that you know: the parliamentary appropriation this year for the Canada Council for the Arts is $173 million. Next year it will be $182 million. Does that sound like a lot? Let me put it into perspective. A budget of $182 million translates to $5.50 per Canadian per year. Most Canadians I know spend more than that in a week on parking, some in a day on coffee. Sure, the federal government supports the arts in other ways, too, through industry-support grants and the funding of cultural agencies such as the CBC, the National Gallery, the Museum of Civilization, the National Arts Centre, Telefilm Canada, and so on, but these are institutional venues. Only the Canada Council for the Arts sustains our living arts of today and tomorrow where it really counts, at the level of the individual artist. And they’re supposed to do that on $5.50 a year per Canadian.
The Story Behind What Is Stephen Harper Reading?
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
I Would Venture To Say, This Is Where Stephen Harper Is Coming From ~ More Quotes From Catcher In The Rye
"It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road." ~ Chapter 1
"People always think something's all true." ~ Chapter 2
"People never notice anything."? ~ Chapter 2
More Quotes From Catcher In The Rye
http://www.quotegarden.com/bk-cr.ht
Art Is Not A Luxury ~ Stephen Harper Cuts Cultural Funding By $20 - (50) Million
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
A Grass Roots Approach? ~ Surrey Cultural Capital of Canada 2008/ Receiving Awards For Effort!
Please note that neither Stephen Harper, nor Russ Hiebert were present at the 2008 Surrey Civic Treasure Awards. Smart Cities are doing it for themselves...
Surrey Canada Day has grown to become the largest Canada Day event in Western Canada with attendance in 2007 reaching 90,000 people garnering near legendary status as one of the biggest outdoor shows ever staged in BC. This year’s main stage presented by Chevron boasts another stellar line up featuring multi-platinum rock legends, Loverboy and Vancouver’s ground-breaking 80’s hero’s The Payola$ for an excellent classic rock double bill. In addition, the main stage will feature performances by Rymes with Orange, Wil, Elise Estrada, Five Alarm Funk, Tracey Chamberlain, and Josee Allard. Add a special children’s matinee with magicians, jugglers, dancers and songsters and the Chevron Main Stage will be a wonderful place to celebrate being Canadian on July 1st. Other attractions include Shooting Star Amusement Rides featuring the Gravitron and the Zipper, plus a full range of family-oriented games, interactive gaming, and bouncy castles will ensure that there is lots to do for the kids and the young-at-heart. This action zone will feature seven huge inflatables and ten new midway rides and games. Seniors can look forward to an impressive gathering for the Strawberry Tea; and a special Tribute to Quebec’s 400th Anniversary is also being planned in conjunction with BC 150 Celebrations, so watch for multiple birthday cakes to be served by Mayor and Council this year. (was attended by Gordon Campbell willing to cut the cake...)
2008 SURREY CANADA DAY! Western Canada's Largest July 1st Celebration
http://www.canadaday.surrey.ca/defa
Surrey Fusion Festival
Surrey’s largest 3-day multicultural celebration with 40 international pavilions celebrating music, food and culture. 5 stages of entertainment with headline performers on the World Music Stage and the Celebrations dance stage, all this in a brand new beautiful urban park. Surrey Fusion Festival will feature over 60 international pavilions and exhibitors showcasing food, music, dance, arts and crafts. The following cultural groups will all be represented: Armenia, Mexico, China, Palestine, El Salvador, Persia, First Nations, Philippines, Greece, Portugal, Hong Kong, Poland, India, Peru, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jamaica, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea... Canada ~ truly rich in multi-cultural heritage.
The Chieftians with the Cottars - Photo by Rick Chapman
Surrey Fusion Festival July 18 to 20, 2008
http://www.fusionfestival.surrey.ca/def
New Media is In The News ~ Surrey Art Gallery's Glocal Project
Surrey Art Gallery's Glocal is an interactive screen and online artwork now in production by a team of local artists: Sylvia Grace Borda, M Simon Levin, and Jer Thorp. Jeremy Turner is acting as the Project Coordinator. They have envisioned building a massive community media experience that will challenge perceptions about the city of Surrey, Canada's fastest growing metropolis. With the use of digital cameras and motion capture, audiences will witness how speed, size, density and diversity have enabled Surrey to exist in local and global (Glocal) consciousness. All the content produced under the banner of the Glocal project will form a large relational artwork in which ‘moving’ images of Surrey will become a central point of exploration. This interaction will then be repeated internationally through community workshops and public exhibitions. When realized, audiences will be able to compare, contrast and examine the world from all points of the globe – and experience (1) how we all share the same horizons … and (2) how we have a lot in common with others, wherever you are!
Local goes global with new digital art project!
http://blog.glocal.ca/
Surrey Civic Treasures ~ People Making a Difference
When painter Jim Adams suggested there were individuals in Surrey who could be recognized as ‘Civic Treasures’ he didn’t dream that he’d be one of the first award recipients. Others feted for their contributions to culture, as part of the federally funded Cultural Capital program, will include South Surrey figures Robert Davidson, Steven Chitty, Stan Clarke, Stephen Horning, Mary Mikelson and Lorne Pearson. Also on the list are painter and photographer Jarnail Singh, First Nations drumming program advocate Nadine Gagné, Dance West founder Dawn Govier, cultural event organizer Carol Girardi and arts educator Marc Pelech.
Jewels of the city
http://www.bclocalnews.com/entertainmen
Names to treasure ~ A dozen Surreyites will be honoured with an inaugural award
http://www.canada.com/surreynow/news/wh
About the CCC Award ~ WHAT IS THE CULTURAL CAPITALS OF CANADA PROGRAM?
http://www.chautauquaspirit.com/theawar
Garnet Rogers performing on Major Hill's Park for Canada day 2008
White Rock Sea Festival Returns ~ 2008, A Year To Celebrate!
After almost 20 years of the newly wed and nearly dead, White Rock BC has come alive with crustacious creatures washed up on the beaches during the summer sand castle building contest. The first year back played to huge crowds (10,000 est.) with musical acts and fireworks filling out the weekend.
White Rock Sandcastle Competition 2009/ 2008
http://www.wrsandcastle.com/
Elections 2008 ~ Americans Vote, Canadians Follow Suit
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
*Yes, Stephen, There is Culture in Canada...
.
. A decade at war is enough, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said on Wednesday. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)
Harper says 2011 'end date' for Afghanistan mission
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/stor
Le patrimone canadien ~ Canadian Heritage, Strong and Free!
The huge increase in cultural funding that continues to be brought up by the government, is largely accounted for by the monies granted to Quebec for the 400th Birthday Celebration and those given to the Vancouver Olympic 2010 Bid. These are one time only programs with specific end dates and outcomes, not a huge ongoing, overall increase to cultural funding in Canada. With an election campaigning already underway, it is important that Canadians both artists and art patrons, especially those that are supporters of this government, make their concerns with these funding cuts known to their local Member of Parliament.
Culture Canada
http://culturecanada.gc.ca/index_e.cfm
Heritage Canada
http://www.pch.gc.ca/index_e.cfm
Is War Our Heritage? ~ Make Art Not War
. Culture Canada with Ad for Armed Forces... (click on Canada site)
http://www.canada.gc.ca/home.html
Canada Site
http://www.canada.gc.ca/home.html
List of Cultural Programs Cut by Harper Government ~ CARFAC
1) Eculture (Culture.ca and Canadian cultural Observatory, including Culturescope.ca) Budget: $4.36 million
http://www.culturescope.ca/ev_en.ph
2) Trade Routes Program Budget: $9 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/acca/progs/rctr/progs/pcrctrcp/index_e.cfm
3) PromArt (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) Budget: $4.7 million
http://www.international.gc.ca/cult
4) Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund Budget: $1.5 million
http://www.cifvf .ca/
5) National Training Program for the Film and Video sector Budget : $2.5 million
http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/03/311.asp?la
6) Audiovisual Preservation Trust Budget : $150,000
http://avtrust.ca/en_index.htm
7) Canadian culture online (Research and Development Component) Budget : $5.64 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcceccop/progs/mednetnmrd_e.cfm
8) Canadian Memory Fund Budget: $11.57 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcceccop/progs/mem_e.cfm
9) Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Stabilization Project) Budget: $627,000
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcapccahsp/01_e.cfm
10) Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Capacity Building) Budget: was $6.1 million reduced to $4.3 million – reduction of $1.8 million (plus $1 million in salary and internal fees)
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcapccahsp/02_e.cfm
11) Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program (Endangered arts organizations) Budget: $500,000
12) Canada music Fund (Canadian Music Memories Component) Budget : $150,000
13) Northern Native Broadcast Access Program Budget : $2.1 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/paapp/progs/paanrnnbap/index_e.cfm
14) Book Publishing Industry Development Program Budget : $1 million
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/acca/progs/padiebpidp/index_e.cfm
15) Canada Magazine Fund Budget : $500,000
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/acca/progs/f cmcmf /index_e.cfm
Total Budget Cuts $46,097,000
List of Cultural Programs Cut Downloadable Document
http://www.ccarts.ca/en/documents/Listo
Culture in 2008. Has Stephen Harper misread it? ~ The Information HIghway
Stephen Harper's dramatic cut to arts funding has provoked a huge backlash within the arts community but in this web 2.0 world, the relationship we have to media and culture has changed dramatically. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the electorate given their new cultural role. Will they have a higher appreciation for art and cultural industries? Will they recognize that huge business success stories like Flickr were originally funded as art projects?
Culture in 2008. Has Stephen Harper misread it?
http://mtippett.wordpress.com/2008/09/0
Form Follows Function Louis Sullivan architect
"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.”
Banque du Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_follo
The Number 1 Reason YOU became a Slave ~ Debt
"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit... all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile" ~ Mackenzie King, 1935
Brent Jessop || December 14, 2005 ~ Five from 1875
http://www.knowledgedrivenrevolution.co
An Arts Report ~ CARFAC Canadian Artists Representation/ Le Front Des Artistes Canadiens (For immediate Release) Arts cuts may force Alberta craft artists to cancel high profile show in Korea
. Edmonton, August 26th, 2008 – The world’s largest exposition of fine crafts has invited Canada, including twenty or more of Alberta’s leading and emerging craft artists, to be the sole guest country for their 2009 Biennale in Korea however, due to recent federal funding cuts, they might not be able to participate. Cancelled programs PromArt and Trade Routes were budgeted to contribute $50,000 to the project - a drop in the bucket for the government but essential for the project’s survival. The Alberta Craft Council and its members have been working toward this project for years. Thirty of Alberta’s leading craft artists were featured at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea last year with the aid of both PromArt and Trade Routes. It was as a result of this positive exposure that Canada was invited to next year’s exposition. Edmonton craft artist Karen Cantine was one of the artists featured at the 2007 Biennale in South Korea. “We are taken more seriously as artists if we have shown internationally,” she said. “Those of us who support ourselves with our art are not expert promoters or international marketers. That is where government support is helpful.” Cantine’s work has been collected by major institutions such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the University of Iowa and has been shown locally at the Peter Robertson Gallery and the Alberta Craft Council. Her commissions include a trophy for the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Chalice that was used by the Pope when he came to Edmonton in 1984. Despite being inducted into Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame, Cantine says she and many artists can struggle to pay the bills. “Most artists feel rewarded if we can pay our rent and put food on the table – we don’t ask for much.” Other communities that were represented in Korea in 2007 include Cochrane, Bragg Creek, Sundre, Black Diamond, Canmore, Ardrossan, Red Deer, Hastings Lake, Medicine Hat, Strathmore, Edmonton and Calgary. South Korea has already committed funding to help the Canadian craft artists participate in the Biennale. Amongst developed countries, Canada ranks near the bottom for support of international cultural marketing. Denmark, France, Great Britain, Australia and Japan are much more involved in international fine craft marketing. The Danish craft organization, for example, is able to invest more national money in a single US trade event than the Canadian government invests in an entire year.
Public arts funding returns at least three times any investment: ~ The ABC's of Culture
Some Benefits of Investment in the Arts:
a.. Cities which have used the arts as part of their revitalization strategies have seen the following benefits:
a.. Increased tourism and other indirect economic activity
b.. Improved quality of life and community engagement
c.. Regeneration of undervalued/underutilized urban real estate
d.. Relocation of business and residents from suburbs to downtown core
a.. (The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada)
a.. CBAC has over 40 active corporate members including BMO, Bell Canada, Ernst & Young, GE Canada, Imperial Oil, Onex Corporation, TELUS, etc.
b.. A healthy artistic community attracts the creative class
a.. This includes scientists, engineers, teachers, designers and knowledge-based professionals
a.. (Richard Florida – The Rise of the Creative Class)
c.. The benefits of art education are recognized by parents:
a.. 85 per cent of parents believe that their child’s creativity is improved by arts programs,
b.. 78 per cent believe that their child’s personal growth is improved,
and
c.. 78 per cent believe the arts enhance their child’s confidence and self-esteem.
a.. (Ipsos-Reid Research for the Department of Canadian Heritage, 2002)
Why artists need public support:
a.. Artists do not equitably share in the wealth that they create
a.. Half of visual artists fall below the poverty line
b.. This is including the second and third jobs they take on in addition to their practice
a.. (Hill Strategies)
b.. Investment in the performing arts (for example) earns a positive return of 200% based on direct and indirect benefits alone.
a.. There is more than a 8X return when induced benefits are included (i.e., multiplier effect on region’s economy)
a.. The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada
Albertans support arts funding:
a.. Nine out of ten Albertans feel it is important that the Government of Alberta continues to fund and support the arts
a.. Annual Survey of Albertans, Research Innovations Inc., 2006
b.. Ninety-four percent of Albertans believe that having a wide variety of cultural activities and events makes Alberta a better place to live
a.. Albertans’ Perceptions of Culture and Quality of Life Survey, IPSOS
REID, 2005
For more information:
Tom McFall
The Alberta Craft Council
780-488-6611
April Britski
CARFAC National
613-233-6161
http://www.carfacontario.ca/about/organ
*p.s. When former premiere Ralph Klien sponsored a tax rebate to Albertans, many of them were seen to donate the return to public programs such as the arts.
Take Action on the Arts ~ Election Canada 2008
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
Art Is Not A Luxury ~ Stephen Harper Cuts Cultural Funding By $20 - (50) Million
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
Elections 2008 ~ Americans Vote, Canadians Follow Suit
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper published in Le Devoir this week from playwright Wajdi Mouwad ~ From Wajdi Mouawad, Governor General Award-winning Canadian playwright; Knight of the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres, France; Artistic Director of French Theatre, The National Arts Centre of Canada (translated from the French by John van Burek)
Monsieur le premier ministre,
We are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. You are Prime Minister of the Parliament of Canada and I, across the way, am a writer, theatre director and Artistic Director of the French Theatre at the National Arts Centre (NAC). So, like you, I am an employee of the state, working for the Federal Government; in other words, we are colleagues. Let me take advantage of this unique position, as one functionary to another, to chat with you about the elimination of some federal grants in the field of culture, something that your government recently undertook. Indeed, having followed this matter closely, I have arrived at a few conclusions that I would like to publicly share with you since, as I’m sure you will agree, this debate has become one of public interest.
The Symbolism
Firstly, it seems that you might benefit by surrounding yourself with counsellors who will be attentive to the symbolic aspects of your Government’s actions. I am sure you know this but there is no harm in reminding ourselves that every public action denotes not only what it is but what it symbolizes. For example, a Prime Minister who chooses not attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, claiming his schedule does not permit it, in no way reduces the symbolism which says that his absence might signify something else. This might signify that he wishes to denote that Canada supports the claims of Tibet. Or it might serve as a sign of protest over the way in which Beijing deals with human rights. If the Prime Minister insists that his absence is really just a matter of timing, whether he likes it or not, this will take on symbolic meaning that commits the entire country. The symbolism of a public gesture will always outweigh the technical explanations.
Declaration of war
Last week, your government reaffirmed its manner of governing unilaterally, this time on a domestic issue, in bringing about reductions in granting programs destined for the cultural sector. A mere matter of budgeting, you say, but one which sends shock waves throughout the cultural milieu –rightly or wrongly, as we shall see- for being seen as an expression of your contempt for that sector. The confusion with which your Ministers tried to justify those reductions and their refusal to make public the reports on the eliminated programs, only served to confirm the symbolic significance of that contempt. You have just declared war on the artists. Now, as one functionary to another, this is the second thing that I wanted to tell you: no government, in showing contempt for artists, has ever been able to survive. Not one. One can, of course, ignore them, corrupt them, seduce them, buy them, censor them, kill them, send them to camps, spy on them, but hold them in contempt, no. That is akin to rupturing the strange pact, made millennia ago, between art and politics.
Contempt
Art and politics both hate and envy one another; since time immemorial, they detest each other and they are mutually attracted, and it’s through this dynamic that many a political idea has been born; it is in this dynamic that sometimes, great works of art see the light of day. Your cultural politics, it must be said, provoke only a profound consternation. Neither hate nor detestation, not envy nor attraction, nothing but numbness before the oppressive vacuum that drives your policies. This vacuum which lies between you and the artists of Canada, from a symbolic point of view, signifies that your government, for however long it lasts, will not witness either the birth of a political idea or a masterwork, so firm is your apparent belief in the unworthiness of that for which you show contempt. Contempt is a subterranean sentiment, being a mix of unassimilated jealousy and fear towards that which we despise. Such governments have existed, but not lasted because even the most detestable of governments cannot endure if it hasn’t the courage to affirm what it actually is.
Why is this?
What are the reasons behind these reductions, which are cut from the same cloth as those made last year on the majority of Canadian embassies, who saw their cultural programming reduced, if not eliminated? The economies that you have made are ridiculously small and the votes you might win with them have already been won. For what reason, then, are you so bent on hurting the artists by denying them some of their tools? What are you seeking to extinguish and to gain? Your silence and your actions make one fear the worst for, in the end, we are quite struck by the belief that this contempt, made eloquent by your budget cuts, is very real and that you feel nothing but disgust for these people, these artists, who spend their time by wasting it and in spending the good taxpayers money, he who, rather than doing uplifting work, can only toil. And yet, I still cannot fathom your reasoning. Plenty of politicians, for the past fifty years, have done all they could to depoliticise art, to strip it of its symbolic import. They try the impossible, to untie that knot which binds art to politics. And they almost succeed! Whereas you, in the space of one week, have undone this work of chloroforming, by awakening the cultural milieu, Francophone and Anglophone, and from coast to coast. Even if politically speaking they are marginal and negligible, one must never underestimate intellectuals, never underestimate artists; don’t underestimate their ability to do you harm.
A grain of sand is all-powerful
I believe, my dear colleague, that you yourself have just planted the grain of sand that could derail the entire machine of your electoral campaign. Culture is, in fact, nothing but a grain of sand, but therein lays its power, in its silent front. It operates in the dark. That is its legitimate strength. It is full of people who are incomprehensible but very adept with words. They have voices. They know how to write, to paint, to dance, to sculpt, to sing, and they won’t let up on you. Democratically speaking, they seek to annihilate your policies. They will not give up. How could they? You must understand them: they have not had a clear and common purpose for a very long time, for such a long time that they have no common cause to defend. In one week, by not controlling the symbolic importance of your actions, you have just given them passion, anger, rage.
In the dark
The resistance that will begin today, and to which my letter is added, is but a first manifestation of a movement that you yourself have set in motion: an incalculable number of texts, speeches, acts, assemblies, marches, will now be making themselves heard. They will not be exhausted. Some of these will, perhaps, following my letter, be weakened but within each word, there will be a spark of rage, relit, and it is precisely the addition of these tiny instances of fire that will shape the grain of sand that you will never be able to shake. This will not settle down, the pressure will not be diminished. Monsieur le premier ministre, we are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. There is nothing but the Cenotaph between our offices, and this is as it should be because politics and art have always mirrored one another, each on its own shore, each seeing itself in the other, separated by that river where life and death are weighed at every moment. We have many things in common, but an artist, contrary to a politician, has nothing to lose, because he or she does not make laws; and if it is prime ministers who change the world, it’s the artist who will show this to the world. So do not attempt, through your policies, to blind us, Monsieur le premier ministre; do not ignore that reflection on the opposite shore, do not plunge us further into the dark. Do not diminish us.
Wajdi Mouawad
http://www.thewreckingball.ca/
Yann Martell on Stephen Harper ~ Man Booker Prize-Winning Canadian novelist Yann Martell muses on our Prime Minister’s state of mind, and, to help him out, has vowed to send him a book a week. He will report on what, if anything, he hears back.
Here’s an excerpt from the letter he included with gift book #36 (Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor): I have another matter I would like to raise with you. The cancellation of PromArt was recently announced. The program, administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, helps cover some of the travel costs of Canadian artists and cultural groups going abroad to promote their work. The grants to individuals are small, often between 750 and 1500 dollars. The budget of the entire program is only $4.7 million dollars. That’s about 14 cents a year per Canadian. For that small sum, Canada shows its best, most enduring quality to the nations of the earth. To remind you of what I’m sure you already know, a country cannot be reduced to the corporations it happens to shelter. Businesses come and go, following their own commercial logic. No one feels deep, patriotic feelings for a corporation, certainly not its shareholders. They will vote where the money leads them. So while Canadians can feel proud about such global players as Bombardier and Alcan and hosts of others, we should not pin our identity to them. Canada is a people, not a business. We shine because of our cultural achievements, not our mercantile wealth. So to cut an international arts promotion program is to vow our country to cultural anonymity. It means foreigners will have no impressions of Canada, and so no affection. The PromArt program is a vital part of our foreign policy. I ask you to reconsider the decision to shut it down. The value-added worth of this modest program is akin to, well, to the value-added worth of a paperback.
Yours truly,
Yann Martel”
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
On His Lonely Book Club with Stephen Harper:
About 8 months ago, Martel attended an event for the Canada Council for the Arts in Ottawa, where he said the politicians were largely absent and the artists were waved through the event “like schoolchildren.” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was nowhere to be seen. Harper has cut funding for literary groups and seems to value hockey more than art. In an effort to get Harper to understand the importance of books, Yann Martel now has a Lonely Book Club, in which he sends Harper a book every couple of weeks. Aside from a three-sentence thank you letter after the first book, Harper has not responded. Martel imagines Harper has been so silent “because he hasn’t read a work of art since he was an adolescent.”
On Politics and the Arts:
Martel believes many politicians (and other rationalists, a class of people he finds hard to meet) are suffering from “imaginative atrophy.” We need imagination and literature because it opens our hearts. “We are led by technocrats who reduced our nations to their economic workings.” But culture and language are equally as important. He points out that Calgary in the boom province of Alberta is economically healthy but culturally impoverished. Martel is deadpan on the subject. “If we’re allowed to ask questions about how much money they make and what their moral positions are, why can’t we ask politicians about their imaginations?”
On Atheism:
“This has been the great year of atheists. Scientists have been very impressive with their reasoning.” Martel went on to talk about the brilliance of good arguments, such as those presented by “Ronald” Dawkins (maybe Martel sees a merging of icons: Ronald McDawkins?!). “But where does that leave you at the end of the day when you’re alone with your mortality?” Religion is self-reinforcing because it deals with faith and imagination.
On the New Illustrated Edition of Life of Pi:
From 1600 illustrators who originally submitted to the competition to illustrate the book, narrowed down to a long list of 60, to a short list of six, Tomislav Torjanac was chosen. Martel took us through Tomislav’s illustrations, which are magical (see above and more here).
On the Island:
An audience member invariably asked about the island in Life of Pi and, though Martel was reluctant explain himself, he eventually said, “If you’re going to believe the story with the animals, I wanted you to stop being so reasonable. The island floats just beyond what you can reasonably believe.”
On a Cinematic Version of the Book:
That’s right, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the fabulous director of Amelie, will be directing the movie version of Life of Pi. Martel loves film but cautions that “cinema kidnaps you” in terms of imagination.
On His Newest Work:
A 20th Century Shirt is the title of his newest book, which is actually an essay and a novel in one and will be presented as a flipbook, which is not a gimmick but because they are “genres that are not compatible.” Both are about the Holocaust. “The novel is about a red howler monkey and a donkey that live on a big shirt, which is actually a country. Does that sound interesting?”
Yann Martel: Imaginative Atrophy and Lonely Book Clubs
http://www.terry.ubc.ca/index.php/2
What is Stephen Harper Reading? ~ Book Number 36: Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor...
. "I don't even know what I was running for - I guess I just felt like it." ~ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1
The cancellation of PromArt was recently announced. The program, administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs, helps cover some of the travel costs of Canadian artists and cultural groups going abroad to promote their work. The grants to individuals are small, often between 750 and 1500 dollars. The budget of the entire program is only $4.7 million dollars. That’s about 14 cents a year per Canadian. For that small sum, Canada shows its best, most enduring quality to the nations of the earth. To remind you of what I’m sure you already know, a country cannot be reduced to the corporations it happens to shelter. Businesses come and go, following their own commercial logic. No one feels deep, patriotic feelings for a corporation, certainly not its shareholders. They will vote where the money leads them. So while Canadians can feel proud about such global players as Bombardier and Alcan and hosts of others, we should not pin our identity to them. Canada is a people, not a business. We shine because of our cultural achievements, not our mercantile wealth. So to cut an international arts promotion program is to vow our country to cultural anonymity. It means foreigners will have no impressions of Canada, and so no affection. The PromArt program is a vital part of our foreign policy. I ask you to reconsider the decision to shut it down. The value-added worth of this modest program is akin to, well, to the value-added worth of a paperback.
Yours truly,
Yann Martel
encl: one inscribed paperback. Reply: Pending…
Book Number 36: Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
O'connor Wearing a Muskrat Coat ~ Iowa
Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor
http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer
Book Number 36: Introduction to Flannery O'Connor: The Complete Stories
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.o
Book Number 9: Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel García Márquez
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
Cancellation of cultural program makes us poorer ~ Where Does Culture Come From?
Government no longer supports artists to tell our story abroad. Shortly after the Conservative Party of Canada won its minority government in 2006, Prime Minister Harper dismantled the already-measly $25-million cultural diplomacy program. Under the Liberals, Canada was already spending the least, per capita, among the G8 countries. The remaining fund, a $4.7-million envelope called the PromArt program, was cancelled on Friday. An anonymous Conservative Party source revealed the program was being cut because the money "went to groups that would raise the eyebrows of any typical Canadian." These included the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, The Juno-nominated Gryphon Trio, singer-songwriter Tal Bachman and three internationally acclaimed dance groups from Quebec. Every "great" or even "real" country today, every country that means something beyond borders and currency, engages in cultural diplomacy. That is, it nurtures and encourages its mythmakers -- musicians, filmmakers, poets and novelists, dancers, actors, visual artists -- to tell their stories internally and abroad. To transcend government policy and politics. Every leader of every great or even ambitious country understands that policies and politics are ephemeral. Art lasts forever. Cancelling the cultural diplomacy budgets for ideological and moral reasons is probably the littlest, meanest, most ridiculous and most representative decision Canada's New Government has made. We may be an energy superpower, but natural resources are finite. Once they're sold off, we're hollow. In New York and London and Moscow and New Delhi and Beijing, where the world's most important decisions are being made, Canada is sliding further and further into irrelevancy.
On Friday, we became $4.7 million poorer.
tbabiak@thejournal.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/n
The Story Behind What Is Stephen Harper Reading? ~ About
. The Power of Now ~ by Eckhart Tolle, A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment ~ Literate Hilton
Yan himself admits, "I, for example, was 1991, the year I received a Canada Council B grant that allowed me to write my first novel. I was 27 years old and the money was manna from heaven. I made those $18,000 last a year and a half (and compared to the income tax I have paid since then, an exponential return on Canadian taxpayers’ investment, I assure you)." Just so that you know: the parliamentary appropriation this year for the Canada Council for the Arts is $173 million. Next year it will be $182 million. Does that sound like a lot? Let me put it into perspective. A budget of $182 million translates to $5.50 per Canadian per year. Most Canadians I know spend more than that in a week on parking, some in a day on coffee. Sure, the federal government supports the arts in other ways, too, through industry-support grants and the funding of cultural agencies such as the CBC, the National Gallery, the Museum of Civilization, the National Arts Centre, Telefilm Canada, and so on, but these are institutional venues. Only the Canada Council for the Arts sustains our living arts of today and tomorrow where it really counts, at the level of the individual artist. And they’re supposed to do that on $5.50 a year per Canadian.
The Story Behind What Is Stephen Harper Reading?
http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.c
I Would Venture To Say, This Is Where Stephen Harper Is Coming From ~ More Quotes From Catcher In The Rye
"It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road." ~ Chapter 1
"People always think something's all true." ~ Chapter 2
"People never notice anything."? ~ Chapter 2
More Quotes From Catcher In The Rye
http://www.quotegarden.com/bk-cr.ht
Art Is Not A Luxury ~ Stephen Harper Cuts Cultural Funding By $20 - (50) Million
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
A Grass Roots Approach? ~ Surrey Cultural Capital of Canada 2008/ Receiving Awards For Effort!
Please note that neither Stephen Harper, nor Russ Hiebert were present at the 2008 Surrey Civic Treasure Awards. Smart Cities are doing it for themselves...
Surrey Canada Day has grown to become the largest Canada Day event in Western Canada with attendance in 2007 reaching 90,000 people garnering near legendary status as one of the biggest outdoor shows ever staged in BC. This year’s main stage presented by Chevron boasts another stellar line up featuring multi-platinum rock legends, Loverboy and Vancouver’s ground-breaking 80’s hero’s The Payola$ for an excellent classic rock double bill. In addition, the main stage will feature performances by Rymes with Orange, Wil, Elise Estrada, Five Alarm Funk, Tracey Chamberlain, and Josee Allard. Add a special children’s matinee with magicians, jugglers, dancers and songsters and the Chevron Main Stage will be a wonderful place to celebrate being Canadian on July 1st. Other attractions include Shooting Star Amusement Rides featuring the Gravitron and the Zipper, plus a full range of family-oriented games, interactive gaming, and bouncy castles will ensure that there is lots to do for the kids and the young-at-heart. This action zone will feature seven huge inflatables and ten new midway rides and games. Seniors can look forward to an impressive gathering for the Strawberry Tea; and a special Tribute to Quebec’s 400th Anniversary is also being planned in conjunction with BC 150 Celebrations, so watch for multiple birthday cakes to be served by Mayor and Council this year. (was attended by Gordon Campbell willing to cut the cake...)
2008 SURREY CANADA DAY! Western Canada's Largest July 1st Celebration
http://www.canadaday.surrey.ca/defa
Surrey Fusion Festival
Surrey’s largest 3-day multicultural celebration with 40 international pavilions celebrating music, food and culture. 5 stages of entertainment with headline performers on the World Music Stage and the Celebrations dance stage, all this in a brand new beautiful urban park. Surrey Fusion Festival will feature over 60 international pavilions and exhibitors showcasing food, music, dance, arts and crafts. The following cultural groups will all be represented: Armenia, Mexico, China, Palestine, El Salvador, Persia, First Nations, Philippines, Greece, Portugal, Hong Kong, Poland, India, Peru, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jamaica, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea... Canada ~ truly rich in multi-cultural heritage.
The Chieftians with the Cottars - Photo by Rick Chapman
Surrey Fusion Festival July 18 to 20, 2008
http://www.fusionfestival.surrey.ca/def
New Media is In The News ~ Surrey Art Gallery's Glocal Project
Surrey Art Gallery's Glocal is an interactive screen and online artwork now in production by a team of local artists: Sylvia Grace Borda, M Simon Levin, and Jer Thorp. Jeremy Turner is acting as the Project Coordinator. They have envisioned building a massive community media experience that will challenge perceptions about the city of Surrey, Canada's fastest growing metropolis. With the use of digital cameras and motion capture, audiences will witness how speed, size, density and diversity have enabled Surrey to exist in local and global (Glocal) consciousness. All the content produced under the banner of the Glocal project will form a large relational artwork in which ‘moving’ images of Surrey will become a central point of exploration. This interaction will then be repeated internationally through community workshops and public exhibitions. When realized, audiences will be able to compare, contrast and examine the world from all points of the globe – and experience (1) how we all share the same horizons … and (2) how we have a lot in common with others, wherever you are!
Local goes global with new digital art project!
http://blog.glocal.ca/
Surrey Civic Treasures ~ People Making a Difference
When painter Jim Adams suggested there were individuals in Surrey who could be recognized as ‘Civic Treasures’ he didn’t dream that he’d be one of the first award recipients. Others feted for their contributions to culture, as part of the federally funded Cultural Capital program, will include South Surrey figures Robert Davidson, Steven Chitty, Stan Clarke, Stephen Horning, Mary Mikelson and Lorne Pearson. Also on the list are painter and photographer Jarnail Singh, First Nations drumming program advocate Nadine Gagné, Dance West founder Dawn Govier, cultural event organizer Carol Girardi and arts educator Marc Pelech.
Jewels of the city
http://www.bclocalnews.com/entertainmen
Names to treasure ~ A dozen Surreyites will be honoured with an inaugural award
http://www.canada.com/surreynow/news/wh
About the CCC Award ~ WHAT IS THE CULTURAL CAPITALS OF CANADA PROGRAM?
http://www.chautauquaspirit.com/theawar
Garnet Rogers performing on Major Hill's Park for Canada day 2008
White Rock Sea Festival Returns ~ 2008, A Year To Celebrate!
After almost 20 years of the newly wed and nearly dead, White Rock BC has come alive with crustacious creatures washed up on the beaches during the summer sand castle building contest. The first year back played to huge crowds (10,000 est.) with musical acts and fireworks filling out the weekend.
White Rock Sandcastle Competition 2009/ 2008
http://www.wrsandcastle.com/
Elections 2008 ~ Americans Vote, Canadians Follow Suit
http://putyourendtowar.livejournal.c
*Yes, Stephen, There is Culture in Canada...
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