Letter to the Editor

From Tourism and Culture Minister Rodney MacDonald.

In the past few weeks, concerns have been raised about the province's decision to develop a new Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Council. Arts, culture and community leaders will help build the future direction of this new council, which will create an inclusive and supportive environment for Nova Scotia artists and cultural organizations. I welcome this opportunity to share government's perspective.

First, I acknowledge the time and energy spent lobbying and working for the establishment of an arts council for Nova Scotia. I also recognize the contribution the Nova Scotia Arts Council and its members made to the growth of arts in this province.

One significant concern we had with the old council was the cost associated with administering programs. Some say that cost was just over $200,000. In fact, the council's last published report showed the administration costs at over $429,000 to distribute about $1 million in funding. We don't have to do the math. It's too much. Just under a half a million a year to administer programs -- money that could have been in the hands of artists and professional arts organizations.

We will be able to deliver our new model for significantly less, and roughly $270,000 in savings will be redirected into the hands of artists and cultural organizations.

As noted above, we are now beginning to work with arts, culture and community leaders to help build the future direction of the Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Council. This new council will be inclusive with representation from artists, cultural organizations and communities. It will listen to and respond to the needs of the sector and community cultural development. The new council will also go beyond the role of the previous council by providing input into programs delivered by the department's Culture Division in addition to the programs previously administered by the Nova Scotia Arts Council.

There are other matters that have been consistently misunderstood including how, and by whom, decisions on funding will be made. I want to assure Nova Scotians that decisions on artistic merit will be made by peers through the continued use of peer assessment panels. Artistic expression will not be at risk under this new model. Individuals will still be able to compete equally for available funds and will still be judged by an impartial body of peer reviewers.

It's important to clarify that the former arts council did not make decisions on funding for individual artists. Those decisions were made by peer assessors and the former council was bound by them. That will also be the case in the future. The new council will also oversee investments in the cultural activities program and the Nova Scotia Art Bank program that are now delivered through the department. This gives the sector more input than ever before. Until now government employees alone made recommendations to the minister. In the future the community, through representation on the council, will be doing that.

I would also like to touch on two other important points -- the endowment fund and the Arts inFusion program.

The endowment fund started with a significant public contribution

• over $550,000 in taxpayer support. There were smaller private contributions to the fund and it has grown over the years -- mainly investment growth. We will return money to any private investor who requests it, along with accrued interest. As with other public funds, I take my responsibility very seriously. The framework established by the former arts council is the same framework that will govern the future use of this fund.

The Arts inFusion program, which is funded by the McConnell Family Foundation, puts artists in the schools to work with children in arts education. We have been in contact with the McConnell Family Foundation and indicated our support for the continuation of the program.

Before closing, I would also like to note there are many different arts council models in place across this country and we will be looking at all models to help shape one that works for Nova Scotia now and into the future. We continue to support arts and culture in this province. In fact, the department invests over $5 million in cultural programming. Additional provincial resources support cultural tourism and cultural heritage activities throughout the province. We continue to work with arts, culture and community leaders to shape our new model and we will continue to uphold the very principles that shaped the former Nova Scotia Arts Council.

With the introduction of this new, inclusive Nova Scotia Arts and Culture Council, we will continue to support and develop our local talent in each medium and region of the province.