What a great evening with SIX parties running candidates in Alberta’s 2012 provincial elections being represented!!

• Alberta Liberals – Laurie Blakeman, running in Edmonton Centre
• Alberta NDP – Nadine Bailey, running in Edmonton Centre
• Alberta Party – John Hudson, running in Edmonton McClung
• Evergreen Party – Trey Capnerhurst, running in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview
• PC Alberta – Heather Klimchuk, running in Edmonton Glenora
• Wildrose Party – Doug Main, Communications Consultant (no candidates were available)

There was much lively discussion on the future of our province’s arts, culture and heritage sector.  Links to photos and recordings of the event are provided below with more to come (Hint:  The most exciting (and revealing) parts start around the middle of the forum):

PACEdmonton YouTube Channel featuring 23 videos from our Edmonton Arts Forum on April 20, 2012.  WARNING:  Our Coordinator filmed these so they are VERY amateur, but at least you can follow what happened.

• Video 1                                                                      Video 13
• Video 2                                                                      Video 14
• Video 3                                                                      Video 15
• Video 4                                                                      Video 16
• Video 5                                                                      Video 17
• Video 6                                                                      Video 18
• Video 7                                                                      Video 19
• Video 8                                                                      Video 20
• Video 9                                                                      Video 21
• Video 10                                                                    Video 22
• Video 11                                                                    Video 23
• Video 12

Come to Edmonton’s Only Arts Forum

Have a heart-to-heart chat with Alberta election candidates about their parties’ visions for arts, culture and heritage in our province.

PACE is organizing an Arts Forum for this Friday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Jefferson Room at the Prince of Wales Armouries, 10440 – 108 Avenue.

Bring your arts, culture and heritage questions with notebooks  and pencils to the Prince of Wales Armouries this Friday.  Tell all your professional artist and arts supporters friends to come, too.  Let’s impress upon all these candidates how important arts, culture and heritage is to all Albertans.

Party representatives confirmed so far:

• Alberta Liberals – Laurie Blakeman
• Alberta NDP – Nadine Bailey
• Alberta Party – John Hudson
• PC Alberta – Heather Klimchuk
• Wildrose Party – TBA

Again, here are the details on our upcoming Edmonton ARTS FORUM:

Date:  Friday, April 20, 2012

Time:   7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Place:  Jefferson Room, Prince of Wales Armouries, 10440 – 108 Avenue

Want to know where the different parties stand on arts and culture issues in the province of Alberta?  PACE recently sent the following information and questions to the leaders of every party running candidates in the current election.

PACE is starting to receive responses to the “ask” it sent to all political leaders running in the 2012 Alberta provincial election.  We have heard back from the Alberta NDP and the PC Alberta leaders so far.  Click here to see the answers they gave to the questions we asked on behalf of Alberta’s arts and culture sector.

In the meantime, we encourage members of the arts community and all their supporters to pose these same questions to candidates at forums and on the doorstep.  We need to impress upon them that the Alberta arts sector is vital to our province and we are taking an active role in the outcome of this election.

What you need to know about arts and culture in Alberta before you answer our questions:

• 91% of Albertans feel art activities are important in contributing to the overall quality of life in their community. Source:  Annual Survey of Albertans, Resinnova Research & Consulting Inc. 2010
• Albertans receive a 12:1 return on every dollar spent on the arts. Source: Summary of the Economic Impact of the Arts in Alberta,Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 2005.
• 88% of Albertans feel it is important that the Government of Alberta continues to fund and support the arts. Source: Culture and Community Services Annual Survey of Albertans on Culture, Leger Marketing, 2011
• All three levels of government receive tax revenue through the arts sector.  A total of 67.9 million in taxes is collected (in Alberta) through taxation systems each year.  Source Culture and Community Spirit Department Fact and Figures 2010

Please give us your position on the following:

1.  Do you support a restoration of the 2010 16 per cent cut to the AFA?

2.  If elected to serve the people of Alberta in the next Legislature, will you work towards immediately increasing lottery money investment to arts, culture and heritage by 25%?

Here are the arts and culture platforms put out so far.  We will post more as they become available.  Check out what these parties have to say on our future:

• Alberta Liberal Party: http://www.albertaliberal.com/files/Yes%20-%202012%20Election%20Platform.pdf (p.22 – includes sports)
• Alberta New Democratic Party: http://albertandp.ca/wherewestand/details/supporting_the_arts
• Alberta Party: http://www.albertaparty.ca/creative_industries
• PC Alberta Party:  http://www.votepc.ca/public/data/documents/AlbertaByDesign-DraftV5-04-12-12.pdf (p. 31)
• Wildrose Party:  http://www.wildrose.ca/media/2012/04/Pledge.pdf (p. 19)

Click here for some interesting comparison information provided to us by our friends at the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations.

And check out the following links:

• http://www.albertaviews.ab.ca/2012/04/04/the-value-of-your-vote-march-2010/
• http://changealberta.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/some-surprising-numbers-we-can-change-alberta-by-tom-priestly/

Also, have a look at the great campaign ArtsVote Calgary has been doing!  Click here to view coverage on the arts forum they hosted in Calgary.

General provincial advocacy information is available at the Public Interest Alberta website.

PC Alberta Leadership Candidates

Saturday, September 17 marks the beginning of the leadership convention for Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives.  Arts advocates in Calgary (through Calgary ArtsVote) and Edmonton (through PACE’s Arts Advocacy Steering Committee) have met with four of the six conservative leadership candidates.  Gary Mar was the first candidate to sit down with us and in recent days we had conversations with three more candidates.  Here is a synopsis of what those candidates, in alphabetical order based on surname, had to say on the arts:

Doug Griffiths

• Doug commented on the work Save Our Fine Arts (SOFA) has been doing and said he sees arts and culture as separate entities.
• Doug sees education, healthcare, jobs/economy, and artistic endeavours as the four pillars of community development.  Without that fourth pillar, he contends communities devolve into nothing more than work camps.
• He said we need to develop the full range of talent we have available to develop.  We need more arts teachers to incorporate fine arts into education programs.
• Doug said the $11 million AFA lost would be regarded as simply a rounding error in the health ministry.
• He talked about Saskatchewan  pairing arts groups with businesses so the organizations eventually becomes self-funded.  People need to understand that artistic creativity drives industry.
• Doug said if the government funds and promotes the arts, that will help attract businesses to follow suit.

Gary Mar

• Gary said he always has time to meet with arts professionals.
• Gary pointed out he had been minister responsible for culture and so can speak about the arts from an intrinsic perspective as well as economic.
• He talked about the benefit of fine arts in the schools.  Arts and culture can teach empathy, give us pride as Albertans.
• Gary noted that every dollar invested in the arts, yields $8 to $10 back.  He looks at investment in the arts not as a cost, but as a value.
• Gary said his commitment is not to permit any more cuts to the arts and to meet with arts groups to see what they need to make arts and culture flourish in Alberta.
• He considers supporting arts and culture as higher priority than sports, for instance, and talked about how the creative class can drive a knowledge-based economy.
• Gary remarked that the amount going to the arts isn’t even the equivalent to a rounding error in health care.  He vowed he would not stop support for the AFA.

Rick Orman

• Rick expressed concern about gaming proceeds going into government’s general revenue instead of being treated separately, saying this could mean the end of arts and culture funding.
• Rick proposed to add to add another 100 million dollars on top of the 148 million now coming from gaming as funding for art, culture and community management.
• He contended the government should use people that understand user groups to decide where the money should go, giving the example of how the Wild Rose Foundation worked.
• Rick said there is a business model component to his plan.   In terms of where we want Alberta to be in the next 10 years, we have to offer arts, culture, recreation and sport.
• Rick proposed putting a branch campus of Alberta College of Art and Design up north.  His northern policy also includes a tourism strategy to address the needs of aboriginal peoples, using their culture to attract visitors.
• He said he’d  minimize duplication of boards and foundations supporting the arts.
• Rick said the private sector needs to be involved.  He sees this as an economic strategy and believed that a signal from government would spur it, saying lottery dollars could cover what  private sector doesn’t support.

Alison Redford

• Alison said she supports the ArtsVote mandate of education, celebration and advocacy.
• She said she believes in a holistic and integrated approach to developing arts and culture in the province - an appreciation for arts and culture should be built into the fabric of our society.
• Alison indicated she would support a dedicated ministry if that was the best solution to the current challenges facing the arts in Alberta.
• Alison stated she strongly believes arts appreciation starts at a young age and getting funding for artists to work in schools is essential.
• As Premier Alison promised to  bring attention to the importance of arts funding, saying we cannot and should not assume businesses and individuals will fund the arts.
• She said she would be looking to partner with groups who demonstrate that they have the support of stakeholders and that they have a plan.
• She explained that she believes that arts and culture leaders from our province are internationally recognized and could play a huge part in telling our story and raising the profile of the values that Albertans espouse and hold dear.