Show your support for arts and culture in the 2014 CRD Municipal elections
#ArtsVoteYYJ
- The arts create jobs
- The arts enhance our quality of life
- The arts attract tourism
- The arts draw businesses to cities
- The arts enhance our lives
- The arts improve children’s education
- Government funding for the arts leverages private support
ProArt Toolkit for 2014 elections
Welcome to the advocacy toolkit, these pages are designed to help your organization clearly demonstrate the value of public investment in arts and culture. You can use the information to:
- build a relationship with your Municipal Councillors to explain why it’s essential to invest in arts and culture, and how this applies to your organization
- tell your stakeholders and social networking followers why we need public investment in arts and culture, and encourage them to make the case to their Municipal councillors
- update your website with content on the benefits of public investment in arts and culture
- develop key messages on public investment in arts and culture for your press releases and media activity.
The Capital Regional District
In November, Capital Regional District residents will elect new city councils. We believe that residents in the region support a healthy arts and culture sector, enjoying the benefits of attending festivals, concerts, theatre, dance performances, exhibitions and more, and that the public and the region as a whole reap the benefits of the economic impact of the arts.
We encourage all residents of the Capital Region to contact their mayors, councillors and regional directors sharing their support for the arts prior to the November elections.
The CRD Service was established in 2001 to provide assistance for arts and culture to benefit the community. The CRD Arts Committee oversees policy and the programs, and is composed of one city councillor from each municipality that contributes funding. Currently the arts funding programs are supported financially by 8 of the 13 CRD municipalities: Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, View Royal, Sidney, Metchosin and View Royal.
Grants to arts organizations are adjudicated by volunteer members of the Arts Advisory Council, appointed by the Arts Committee. The grants are given out under three different programs: operating grants, project grants, and IDEA grants for innovative arts related projects from non-arts organizations.
The CRD Arts Development Service has one full time manager, and a part time administrative assistant, and in addition to managing the grant service, the Service provides info on the programs, liaises with other levels of government, NGOs and the public, including maintaining a website on public art in the region: www.landmarkspublicart.ca
Why arts and culture are good value:
The following points sum up in the simplest and most direct terms why public investment in arts and culture is important; you can use and adapt these bullets at every opportunity:
- The region’s cultural sector has boomed after sustained CRD investment in the arts began in 2001, together, we have created world-class work, landmark institutions and quality education programmes
- cultural events bring communities together and make our lives richer; we see this with festivals, concerts, performances and exhibitions in the CRD, all of which draw on talent fostered by public investment
- the cultural sector stimulates economic growth and jobs; it is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the economy
- continued public funding is vital to the whole sector, giving confidence to sponsors and private investors
- arts and culture are relatively inexpensive to support, and bring big returns. The current investment of $2,030,610 represents 10 cents per person per week! The total amount is equal to less than 1% of total government spending.
Economic contribution
For some key facts and figures: download The Greater Victoria Arts and Culture Economic Activity Study, done in 2012 by a Professor Dr. Brock Smith from the University of Victoria. We’ve also produced several infographics to show key facts and figures about how the investment in the arts and culture impacts employment and the economy and the benefits it brings to audiences. Copy and share them now!
We want to make sure that the toolkit assets are as useful to you in your work as possible, so we expect to evolve and develop the content over time with important input from the cultural sector. Share your feedback on the current content.
Arts Vote 2014 Candidate Survey
ProArt has distributed a survey to Candidates asking them to share their perspectives on the following statement and questions. Results will be posted on our Arts Vote 2014 Candidate Survey page.
The Professional Arts Alliance of Greater Victoria is an advocacy group that represents 20 Professional Arts organizations operating in the Capital Regional District.
“… total economic activity generated by the Greater Victoria arts and culture sector in 2012 was $177 million in net income (GDP) activity, supporting the equivalent of more than 4,347 person years of employment, and almost $17 million in property tax revenue (Table 1).” *
* Please see the attached copy of the 2012 Greater Victoria Arts And Culture Sector Economic Activity Study, conducted by Dr. Brock Smith of the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria at the request of the Victoria Foundation, the CRD Arts Development Service, and supported by ProArt and other stakeholders.We are providing this document at this time to support further understanding of how the Arts continue to make significant contributions to health and welfare of the constituents of all of the Municipalities that make of the CRD.To help us better understand how you can contribute to the future development of the Arts in this region, please answer the following questions, and return to this email address. We will be posting your responses on our website and passing along the information to our member organizations and their networks.
ProArt 2014 Candidate Survey
Candidate name:
Candidate for: Mayor or CouncillorQuestions:
1. What is your previous experience with the Arts?
2. Will you support increased investment in the Arts? And if so, how?
3. What does your campaign propose for the future of the Arts in the CRD?
Responses to the ProArt Candidate survey can be viewed here:
More info: www.proartalliance.ca
ProArt Alliance of Greater Victoria 