In a press release last week, Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Bill Bennett announced that more than 270 artists and cultural organizations in B.C. have been awarded more than $7 million in arts grants, through the B.C. Arts Council.
Of that amount, only $1,000 found its way to the Sunshine Coast; it appeared as if the Coast had been seriously shut out.
The $1,000 went to Halfmoon Bay writer Anthea Penne who had applied for a council travel grant to take up a writer-in-residence position in New Zealand for the month of November. Penne is delighted at the grant, but must raise further funds to pay for her flight to the north island of New Zealand, where she will be part of an Arts Alliance-organized residency program. While there, she will have an opportunity to promote her second and latest book of collected short fiction from Turnstone Press entitled Reckoning and she will also research early settlement stories for a forthcoming non fiction book. The remainder of the $7 million has gone towards other arts and culture organizations, many of them from the Lower Mainland and Victoria, in a range of artistic disciplines, including music, visual arts, literature, theatre and dance. The awards also support public museums and assist individual artists.David Greer, communications manager for the ministry, said the news will get better for the Sunshine Coast. This funding represents only the first round of funding for the fiscal year 2008.
"There will be a second round," he reassured Coast Reporter.
Regional Initiatives awards are made once each fiscal year for the current or future year's activities. Assistance is usually available to regional Arts Councils such as the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, an organization that runs an arts centre and a variety of programs year round.
Marg Penney of the Pender Harbour Music Society said this year, funding has also come from other sources such as the Arts Now program, part of Legacies Now. For example, in January 2008, the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival received $10,960 from Arts Partners in Creative Development (2010 Legacies Now and Province of B.C. are both partners) for the festival's commissioned work to be written by Canadian composer Stephen Chatman. In March 2008, the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival received $2,500 towards this year's event.
The $7 million includes nearly $1 million in additional funding from the BC150 Cultural Fund, a $150-million arts endowment fund created in honour of B.C.'s 150th anniversary. But Penney said a number of arts organizations on the Coast were not able to take advantage of this funding because the deadlines were tight and any project begun under this funding had to be completed within 2008.
