When the earth starts to finally shake off her blanket of snow and crows fly by with nest-building twigs in their beaks as offerings, when the majestic geese rejoin us, marking the skies with their way-finding chevrons, and the ends of the willows suddenly appear as yellow shimmers against the warmer blue skies, then we know it is spring grant-writing season.
While we normally talk about our passion for our work in these letters, the programs we make, and why they matter; as of this writing we just completed our four year plans for both Ross Creek and the theatre, both in spreadsheets and narratives. And we are also heavily involved at the same time in the non-partisan ArtsVote movement across Canada, and in this moment, thought it might be worth explaining what it means and why it is important.
Many people don’t realise the split between public, private and earned revenues which keeps places like the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts and Two Planks and a Passion Theatre alive. Earned revenue is when people pay for programs and spaces, from ticket sales to camps to advertising in our programs – when there is a fee for service, even in non profit charities.
Private revenue is when people, businesses, or foundations make donations, where it is for the greater good and they want to support our work (and get a charitable tax receipt for their contributions).
Public funding is the money we receive from all levels of government if we make compelling arguments and have a strong administrative and programming case for that investment. Special projects sometimes allow some perspective from elected officials, but most of the public funding we receive is actually reviewed and decided on by our colleagues in panels, or juries. They are subject matter experts who understand how our work fits in the provincial or federal context and what is important about our work. At Ross Creek and Two Planks it accounts for about a third of our budget, and we are accountable for every dollar.
Why am I writing this now, and why does it matter?
Because as we are writing about the work we do for our government funders, there is an election campaign on which is existential for Canada. At a time when we are under threat from American tariffs and direct threats (and who knows what else by the time of the next newsletter), I thought it was important to talk about the role that arts and culture play in our communities and the role that public funding plays in making that work happen.
While writing grants can be stressful, it is a time both to reflect and to dream. To reflect on what has worked and what we can do better, what impact we have had, and also the impact we hope to have in the future.
We are rooted here, quite literally. We make our work in and on the land and we serve our community through everything from community art and suppers to workshops for all ages, to plays and performance. We are an economic driver and a tourism draw and we are deeply, deeply, committed to how we can make our programs more accessible, and how to be part of what makes this community work.
There is never enough time or money to do all the things we need to do (we just had to replace our kitchen floor, for example, which had rotted through), but when we have the funds, we spend them in our community. As a non-profit, we reinvest our funds into our work to serve you better.
I don’t write these things to be self congratulatory. I write them because while (of course) we think we are special, this kind of story is recreated across Canada in small towns and large cities, from Coast to Coast to Coast, thanks to public funding. There are 850,000 cultural workers across the country, more than agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas combined. This includes the individual artists, musicians, writers, craftspeople, who each have their unique voices and who make sense of the world and Canada’s place in it through their self-expression. It includes all those who perform, teach, and work at organizations like ours, dedicated to finding ways of connecting artists and community. Public funding for the arts is a vital piece of that puzzle.
At Ross Creek and Two Planks, without public funding for the arts, we simply would not exist. Community suppers, residencies, camps, performances, the Annex. None of it would exist without the baseline (and it is VERY baseline) of public funding that allows us to even start.
Public funding is essential but it is also very limited. Most artists in Canada live in financial precarity, and are subject to the same concerns as our neighbours – housing, food insecurity, transportation, low wages. But at a time when our very sovereignty is at stake, we need our artists more than ever. We also need places to gather and to create, and as the world turns (we hope only briefly) darker, we need to teach the next generation how to be creative thinkers and to gain the skills to express themselves so that they can tell the world what Canada is and who we are together through art.
As you prepare to vote, we are asking people to think about what the arts means to you, to your neighbourhood, to your country. As a member of the steering committee for the The Canadian Arts Coalition, and co-chair of the Coalition’s initiative ArtsVote, we are asking all parties to commit to a minimum 1% of the annual federal budget to be dedicated to the arts. This includes the CBC and also an increase to the Canada Council for the Arts, which helps keep our doors open, and the Department of Heritage which funds festivals and cultural infrastructure (giving us doors to open!). It is also only a 0.06% increase from current levels, but would make the world of difference to organizations like Ross Creek and to thousands like us across the country.
It isn’t enough for us to stop fundraising but it means that we can keep going, and to help Canadians to tell our collective story.
There are easy ways to get involved that are very easy but meaningful: you can use the home election kit and/or contribute a few words about what the arts means to you. You can be part of the debates in your community and ask your candidates to all commit to supporting arts and culture in Canada. You can find out more here.
Most importantly, you can vote on April 28.
We work every day with people who have never been allowed to vote for themselves, and it brings home just how fragile and important voting is. It isn’t the only thing, but it is the most basic and accessible part of our democracy.
No matter how you might think your chosen party might be doing in the polls, polls only reflect what could happen if people vote. This is our democracy, and it only works when we all participate. It belongs to us, all of us, and it matters, whatever your particular passion is.
If you aren’t sure, or need help to know where to vote, check out Elections Canada. If you know someone who isn’t sure how to vote, help them participate.
Every Vote Matters.
(If you want to find out more, I recently did some interviews about ArtsVote: Halifax Examiner, Global news)
With love,
Chris and Ken
