Alliance for Arts and Culture Advocacy Initiatives

Here is a roundup of the advocacy work we've been doing in the last few weeks.

Last Wednesday, our Executive Director, Amir Ali Alibhai, made a presentation to the BCACG (British Columbia Association for Charitable Gaming).

“I believe that BC’s social capital and civil society are threatened if current trends in provincial funding continue unabated. Gaming funds (which have been cut) must be used appropriately and in accordance with the social and moral contract under which British Columbians gave their government the mandate to generate revenues through gambling.  We stand in solidarity with our sister sectors as part of civil society.”

Also last week, Amir and Kevin McKeown, our Director of Communications, met with the GVPTA (Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Association), who continue to work with our Direct Action Committee.  There are some interesting ideas out there about engaging audiences.  We were particularly supportive of the idea or curtain speeches and “speakers corners” in lobbies of performances.  These could start to form a library of video posts of people answering “why culture matters” to them; which can be used to demonstrate the broad support for the arts in our communities.

Here are some of our current initiatives:

We are working with Government Relations specialists in preparation of advocacy tools for our sector and for a range of high level meetings including:

• an HST consultation with the Ministry of Finance on October 9, in Victoria;
• a meeting with Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister Kevin Krueger on October 15, in Vancouver;
• a meeting with the Standing Committee on Finance on October 16, in Surrey.

We will keep you posted on the results of each of these important meetings.