Halifax needs more funding for the arts, especially for renovating the galleries, theatres and buildings that house them. According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, Nova Scotia does not receive any steady funding for maintaining or improving these buildings, from either the provincial or federal government. The data shows there was no money provided to support these buildings since 2005.
These buildings, theatres and galleries are actually few and far between in Halifax. They would include spaces like the Dalhousie Arts Centre, Neptune Theatre, Alderney Landing Theatre, The Veith Street Gallery, The Khyber Art Gallery, and several other smaller venues. These facilities are specifically for visual, literary and performing arts activities.
The map below shows the different spaces in Halifax used for arts and culture activities and details about them.
Lack of funding, lack of clarity
The municipal government does not provide any money for these venues either, according to Dawn Sloane, Councillor for District 12 Halifax Downtown. Sloane is focusing her campaign for the 2012 municipal election on the need to improve the arts and culture sector in Halifax, and she says a lot of problems are generated by not having appropriate space for arts activities.
“The structures that we have right now are very limiting,” she says. “It needs to change to reflect how other cities support the arts.”
Sloane explains that the spaces currently being used for large performances and arts shows aren’t actually arts venues by definition. She lists the Halifax Metro Centre and Halifax’s Grand Parade Square as examples of this. These venues are often host to large concerts, shows and various types of performances but one is actually a civic entertainment centre and the other is a historic parade square.
“It just doesn’t work that way in other cities,” says Sloane. “They have the appropriate spaces for each event.
Councilor Sloane is not the only one pushing for more government focus on space for arts and culture activities. A report that was produced in 2007 shows Nova Scotia needs to improve its arts and culture venues on every level, according to the respondents of the survey. It explains that even the policies, inventories, and programs that focus on these buildings for the arts are only vague at best.
The report is called The State of Cultural Infrastructure in the Atlantic Region and it is the most recent report available that focuses specifically on arts venues. The report was produced by researcher Keith McPhail for the Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities at Simon Fraser University.
The author of the study surveyed all people who are responsible for running and operating the arts and culture buildings, both government and non-government. According to the author, the responses show a serious lack of organization and a need for more information.
The author explains that non-government respondents of the survey said securing funding for these buildings and spaces has been a challenge.According to the report, these respondents felt that arts venues in Halifax “did not usually receive the same support as multi-purpose spaces, indicating that non-cultural reasons for support are more heavily favoured.”
The lack of funding is the only other problem in the report presented as being more serious than the lack of knowledge. According to the report, “a number of government respondents and reports did suggest that facilities were underfunded and it was at, or becoming, a critical situation.”
The possibility of public support
The Bella Rose Arts Centre in Halifax West High School is mentioned in the report as an example of a publicly funded arts centre. Despite the fact that the venue has seen funding from all levels of government in the past, it currently runs its own fundraising campaign to be able to cover maintenance and equipment costs that are necessary for completing the space. As a result of this process, the centre has taken years to develop, according to the report.
Despite this example, the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is still pushing for more publicly funded arts venues. The independent research organization released an alternative municipal budget on August 28th, in which they discuss their own priorities for the city of Halifax.
The budget recommends Halifax invest in more community-owned and operated arts buildings. According to the organization, “Better interpretation of public art and art institutions and practices would encourage the public to engage and participate, generating an engaged, active and safe community.”
Public funding is only one possible approach to the money problems. As Sloane mentions, Halifax could benefit from just a clearer understanding of which particular buildings are for the arts, what their policies are, who is responsible for sustaining them and who is responsible for securing their funding.
Small steps towards improvement
These points are also raised in a more recent report, a Cultural Framework that was produced in 2011. This Cultural Framework is a study that seeks to analyze the arts and culture sector as a whole, and identify where its strengths and weaknesses are in hopes of improving. The framework was produced by a Kelco Consulting Ltd. for the Communities, Culture and Heritage Department of the provincial government.
This framework, though released five years after the infrastructure report, talks about the same problems. According to the framework, Nova Scotia still needs to determine the availability and the roles of infrastructure for its arts and culture sector.
Sloane also says that these problems are still not being discussed, and she blames some of it on a lack of participation from the local government.
“There are ways the municipality could be helping (to improve arts venues) but they just don’t,” she says. “If one of these suggestions comes up, we’ll stifle it. We turn it into a complex rubix cube that no one can solve.”
Sloane’s recommendations for improving the situation are based on making small changes. She suggests making improvements and renovations to the existing arts buildings, and keeping the discussion alive.
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