Increased gov't support for arts still an unfinished canvas

21-per-cent hike generally seen as step in right direction

Elizabeth Withey
The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - The arts community was both disappointed and relieved Thursday after the government announced a marginal increase to provincial arts funding.

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts will receive $27.3 million in the 2007-2008 budget, a 21-per-cent increase from the last year's $22.6 million. Most of that revenue comes from lottery funds.

Hector Goudreau, the minister responsible for tourism, parks, recreation and culture, called the AFA funding increase significant but critics argue Alberta's arts scene is still playing catch-up after so many years of getting nothing.

"It's more than a little disappointing," Faye Boer of the Alberta Book Publishers' Association said Thursday. "Stelmach said arts and culture are the soul of our society. He's not coming up to the plate. I'm a little stunned."

The province has already lost six publishers, Boer said, and is in danger of losing another one. And only 10 of the 30 publishers who remain received funding last year from the AFA, a provincial agency that doles out grants to hundreds of arts organizations and individual artists. Even with the budget increase, Boer said "in the end, it's spread out pretty thin."

Goudreau said the province supports the arts beyond the AFA, including funding for post-secondary arts and renovation projects like the Art Gallery of

Alberta."We need to get away from the dollars and cents that's given to the AFA," he said. "There's a lot more we do for the arts community."

AFA chairwoman Audrey Luft thinks the budget increase is a step in the right direction. The boost is small, she said, but will mean more "long-deserved" funding for performing-arts organizations, and more support for individual and emerging artists.

"It signals that this government is moving in the right direction and values the arts and the quality of life," Luft said Thursday.

The ministry has a total budget of $756 million, an increase of 57 per cent from last year. Of that, $60 million goes to culture, including the AFA and other initiatives and programs.

One of them is the Alberta Film Development Program, which will receive $18.3 million in the new budget. That's a 24-per cent hike from last year's $14.8 million, and does not include the $12.5-million emergency boost government gave the provincial film fund last year to help it clear a two-year funding backlog.

Alan Brooks, executive director the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association, said the boost shows the government has faith in Alberta's film industry.

"That's superb," Brooks said Thursday. "It's much more than we expected. It's a very good start."

Tax-credit increases for charitable donations will also benefit arts and culture groups. Individual tax credits have been raised to 21 per cent from 12.75 per cent on donations totalling more than $200.

© The Edmonton Journal 2007