Canada Council’s diversity focus brings new opportunities, challenges

Ironic that this story comes out the week of the #OscarsSoWhite nominations. And interesting that this initiative dates from the Harper government, not the new government’s diversity and inclusion agenda:

The Canada Council for the Arts is getting a new funding model in April of 2017 – a total rethink of the Ottawa-based granting council that reduces its number of programs from 148 to a streamlined six.

As details of this shift have started to emerge in recent weeks, however, the most striking change may be the direct tying of diversity to funding for large arts organizations for the first time since the Canada Council was established in 1957. It’s not just the diversity of art and artists that will come under scrutiny in the future at institutions with revenue of more than $2-million. If the administration or backstage crew at your opera or ballet company, or the audience for your symphony or theatre company, or the board of directors of your art gallery, does not demonstrate a “commitment to reflecting the diversity of your organization’s geographic community or region,” this will now affect the size of grant received from the federal arts council.

“It’s clearly an assessment criteria – it’s no longer a wish,” says Simon Brault, appointed the director and CEO of the Canada Council in 2014 for a five-year term. “The companies that are performing the most will get more money – it’s a real incentive.”

With the Canada Council’s budget expected to double over the next two years – from $180-million to $360-million, if the Liberal government keeps its campaign promise – Brault will actually have the new funds needed to achieve his objectives. “We want to make sure [the doubled budget] is not a money pit – to make sure that we are advancing the quality of production and the progression of diversity.”

With this move, the Canada Council finds itself in line with current thinking in other multicultural countries. Just over a year ago, for example, Arts Council England (ACE) shifted its priorities – announcing that arts organizations that did not show progress in diversifying their programming and audiences could see their grants cut. And results are already being seen, with Black and Minority Ethnic (a British term) representation in the arts work force supported by ACE increasing from 13 to 13.7 per cent – the equivalent of an additional 576 jobs.

Judging by conversations with many of the artistic directors, executive directors and administrators at Canada’s top theatre and dance companies and orchestras this week, the initial reaction to the Canada Council’s new assessment criteria – where diversity is second only to artistic excellence – has been overwhelmingly positive, even if these arts heads eagerly await more concrete details on how it will work.

Source: Canada Council’s diversity focus brings new opportunities, challenges – The Globe and Mail