Advocating for arts regionally and locally...

Cash could assist artists

March 26, 2008

Vicki Sanders takes in an exhibit by Angela Wyatt at the art gallery in the Cedar Hill Rec Centre.

Don Denton/News staff

Regional funds target lesser-known artists

Finding ways to promote and fund community artists poses a challenge for municipalities, says Vicki Sanders.

As a member of the Capital Regional District’s arts committee, Sanders said guilds and large organizations of artists are easier to find, but smaller groupings need help too.

The regional arts committee put together a plan for a three-year pilot project for community arts funding that would give community organizations the financial assistance they might need to get ahead.

“The individual artists don’t have the ability to do large funding themselves,” Sanders said.

The arts committee’s funding (the amount hasn’t been worked out yet) would be directed at all types of artists, from painters to sculptors to filmmakers and actors.

Paul Scrivener, executive director of the Victoria-based Community Arts Council, said he’d like to see that money put toward space to exhibit local artists’ work.

“In terms of funding, the city and the municipalities certainly lack facilities,” Scrivener said. “We (would like to give more) visibility to community artists as well as emerging artists.”

The council represents more than 900 artists in Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt and Oak Bay.

“A lot of (current funding) goes toward more professional artists, but what we’re finding on the grassroots level is there’s thousands of people who participate.”

Seven municipalities in the region will contribute to the funding pot when it’s set up sometime this year, Sanders said.

Currently, the CRD’s arts budget for promoting regional arts is just shy of $2 million.

“We haven’t ironed out the details, but the concept’s there,” Sanders said. “Nothing coming out of the CRD is happening overnight.

“There’s been rumblings out in the (arts) community that nothing’s happening, (but) Saanich is encouraging these community artists. This is a first step for this program to take place.”