Letter: Should Taxpayer Funds Support Competition with Local Arts Groups and Non-Profits?
The Georgian Bay School for the Arts (GBArts) raises concerns over competition created by a city-funded arts camp and new fundraising staff, questioning the impact on local organizations.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The Georgian Bay School for the Arts (GBArts) was created to fill a need in our region for access to specialized arts studios and education in the fine arts & crafts, heritage crafts, and Indigenous arts. Conceived in 2017 and opened 2018 in the old Bingo Hall in downtown Owen Sound, GBArts has grown into a regional arts hub and an access point for youth, hobbyists, and professional artists.
Throughout the years, we have partnered with, supported, and otherwise collaborated with most other local cultural and social service organizations.
GB Arts was designed to be self-supporting. Since this community not-for-profit began, it has paid out over $500,000 to local artist instructors and the wages, taxes, utilities, insurance, permits, supplies, and ongoing expenses for our 6500 sq foot space.
It is clear that the arts can be economically viable and a financial plus for our community, even while weathering a global pandemic.
We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of competing directly with a city-owned, tax-payer-funded arts organization. The Tom Thomson Gallery, which is an arts exhibition space, has started a youth summer arts camp in direct competition to our own. This seems inconceivable, especially since GBArts has included The Tom in its own camp curriculum for years, helping to increase the flagging engagement numbers of this city-run department.
The GBArts Summer Camp hires instructors from the local community with decades of experience and provides camp leaders with accredited arts training to provide top-tier arts experiences for youth in our region. We are now being undercut by an “arts camp” run by summer students at a vastly cheaper cost, which is being underwritten by the very taxes that GBArts and the community pay.
How is this possible?
In addition, it appears that the City has added a new staff person to investigate and apply for grants for The Tom, thereby competing directly with local non-profits who are applying for some of the same grants.
Arts organizations work within unbelievably small margins with very precarious finances. Will GBArts continue to grow, thrive, and deliver quality experiences, or will it struggle and close? Who knows what might happen in the future if the City nurtured all cultural organizations instead of competing with them and excluding them from critical decision-making?
I believe the arts have a vital role to play in the success of the local economy and cultural landscape. My efforts to contact city councillors and staff about this matter have gone unheard.
Sincerely,
Alan McIntosh
Georgian Bay School for the Arts
Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of The Owen Sound Current and its editor or publisher.
Related:
The strength of GBArts is the hands-on experience offered in a satisfying space with no relative restrictions usually associated with many somewhat messy media. Expanding the experience with direct association and awareness of representative artworks such as those afforded by the Tom Thomson Gallery and its staff and collection and exhibitions can only enrich GBArts participants and our community. I very much like the image of two pieces of a puzzle benefiting and fitting together.