If you’re as outraged as I am about the recent funding cuts to arts and heritage programs in Canada, please attend this meeting on Wednesday, September 3rd at 7:00 PM.
Here’s the email, verbatim:
Valuing Culture: TOWN HALL REGARDING CUTS TO CULTURAL AND HERITAGE GRANTING PROGRAMS
Who should come? Everyone concerned about the Federal Government’s blatant contempt for arts and culture.
Who will be speaking? Representatives from Government, visual arts, film, video, performing arts
What will we be doing? Strategizing on how to get our voices heard in the next election
Why is this important? Because the wave of cuts and policy changes are radically changing Canadian society.
Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 3, 2008 at 7pm.
The Theatre Centre
Wednesday, September 3 2008
1087 Queen Street West, (South East Corner of Queen and Dovercourt)
Since taking power in 2006, the Conservative Government has eliminated over $34 Million from Cultural and Heritage Granting Programs. The programs affected were designed to assist artists, arts institutions and not for profit charitable organizations in the creation, development, promotion and dissemination of Canadian art both nationally and internationally.
The most recent cuts:
• The PromArt Program, $4.7 million (administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs)
• Trade Routes, $9 million, Department of Canadian Heritage
• Stabilization Projects and Capacity Building, of the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program
• Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, $1.5 million
• National Training Program in the Film and Video Sector, $2.5 million
• $300,000 to the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada, for programs archiving important film, television and musical recordings.
With the anticipation of more cuts to be announced next week, we are inviting members of the arts and the broader community, MPs and the media to attend a town hall meeting. This meeting is intended to discuss the funding cuts, the ideological and inappropriate comments made by government about recipients and to brainstorm a plan of action.
For more information or media inquiries contact: info@fusemagazine.org, info@thetheatrecentre.org or heather@torontofreegallery.org.
___________
The latest news (as of this morning): Tories slashing $44.8-million in arts spending [by 2010].
One Trackback
[...] went to the Town Hall Meeting regarding the Tory funding cuts to the arts. My heart was warmed to see so many people there, [...]