Alberta artists say province ignores them

(CBC) - The province of Alberta needs to show more respect to its artists and culture, a group of artists and academics said at a weekend summit in Calgary.

"I think that there's a real reluctance to look at how important the arts are," author Aretha Van Herk told CBC News at a symposium at the University of Calgary focusing on the future of arts.

The most recent statistics from the Canada Council for the Arts show the province lagging behind the rest of the country in arts funding.

Alberta artists received 6.3 per cent of Canada Council funding in 2004-05. By comparison, the province makes up 8.9 per cent of artists and 10 per cent of the population in Canada. Looking at 2003 figures, the study said Alberta had the lowest ratio of government spending to consumer spending on cultural goods.

Film writer and University of Calgary professor George Melnyk said he thinks artists are treated like second-class citizens in the province.

The view in Alberta of artists he said, is that "somehow you are afflicted with either some kind of central Canadian disease or you are a heretical unorthodox human being who doesn't belong here."

Speakers at the three-day conference included Van Herk, the author of Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta, as well as National Post columnist Robert Fulford and playwright Tomson Highway.

While speakers suggest the government has turned its back on local artists, the Canada Council report shows that Albertans themselves care about culture.

On a per capita basis, Alberta's cultural spending is the highest of all the provinces at $838 per resident, the report found.

The university speakers aren't alone in suggesting Alberta needs to do more to encourage the arts. Last Friday the Alberta Film and Development Program called on the province to raise its funding or risk losing the industry to other regions.

© the CBC, 2006