Partnership creates $6M arts fund

Will provide financial support to professional artists

Elizabeth Withey
edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON - Alberta artists will soon have access to a new grant fund announced today.

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts have joined forces to create a $6-million program called the Alberta Creative Development Initiative.

Each funding agency will contribute $1 million per year over the next three years to the program.

"We think that it's a tremendously exciting initiative," AFA executive director Jeffrey Anderson said. "Partnerships have been on the AFA's strategic agenda for a couple years now. It's going to be groundbreaking, in terms of us working together, pooling resources."

The Alberta Creative Development Initiative will provide financial support to professional artists and arts organizations, including those that have not previously accessed funding from the AFA or the Canada Council. Special attention will be given to applications that demonstrate an original voice.

The initiative stems in part from the fact that fewer Canada Council applications come from Alberta than other parts of the country.

"I hope at the end of the day that Alberta's artists and arts organizations feel more comfortable about throwing a Canada Council application in," Anderson said, stressing that the program will not exclude those who already have Canada Council or AFA funding.

Details of who is eligible and how the funds will be allocated will be finalized this summer and announced in early September, Anderson said.

The AFA's yearly contribution will come from the $4.5-million budget increase the provincial arts agency received in the 2007-8 provincial budget in April. The AFA's annual budget is now $27.3 million.

Edmonton Arts Council executive director John Mahon applauded the funding partnership because different levels of government are collaborating, and seeking local advice from organizations like the EAC.

"We think it will be an effective grant program," Mahon said.

The EAC and Calgary Arts Development will both serve on the committee charged with outlining details of the grant program. Mahon said the EAC will contribute expertise but not municipal funds because that money would not necessarily go to Edmonton artists.

On Monday, Minister Hector Goudreau attended the EAC's annual general meeting. Mahon said the minister was well-received by the arts community.

"We invited him and he came, so good on him," Mahon said. "I think people are recognizing that he (Goudreau) doesn't mean any harm. You have to work with someone who means well."