On the Recent Canadian Arts Funding Cuts

In the last few weeks, the Conservative government in Canada has announced some fairly substantial cuts to arts programs in a possible effort to bolster sports funding for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. From a press release sent out earlier today by the Toronto Arts Coalition:

Over the past two weeks, the arts and culture sector has learned almost daily that certain cultural programs have been cut or completely cancelled. By many estimates, the program cuts now add up to a loss of more than $ 46 millions in support of the arts and culture. Within Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the $4.7-million foreign travel grants program PromArt has been eliminated. Department of Canadian Heritage announced it is discontinuing the $9-million Trade Routes in addition to cancelling a number of other programs, such as $1.5-million Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund and $3.5 million to the Stabilization Project and Capacity Building within the Canadian Arts and Heritage Sustainability Program.

The Canadian Conference of the Arts has compiled a complete list of affected programs.


Globe and Mail article by James Bradshaw
Globe and mail editorial
CBC.ca article
CBC.ca article by Richard Handler
Toronto Star editorial
Another Toronto Star editorial

What you can do

If your work is directly affected by these cuts, email the Toronto Arts Coalition at coalition [at] torontoartscouncil dot org and tell them about it.

If you live close to Toronto, you can also make your voice heard at a town hall meeting scheduled for 7pm on September 3 in the Theatre Center at 1087 Queen Street West, hosted by Fuse Magazine.

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A quick clarification for those new to the (proudly Canadian) Collaborative Piano Blog:

Although you'll see a lot of Canadian content here, I receive no federal, provincial, or municipal funding for running this blog, and it is not affected by any of these cuts. The work I do here on CPB is monetized by Google AdSense units and affiliate links, as well as teaching, lecturing, and performing work I get through the publicity generated by this website.