Andrea Schmidt works on a painting during the Art Walk on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton on July 12, 2014.
Imagine Alberta with no arts and culture. You live in a square box made of concrete bricks, and your furniture is blocks of wood and foam in no particular shape. Your office is in another box of blocks, and you sit at a desk made of a piece of plywood across two sawhorses.
Your clothes are shapeless bags, your shoes are uncomfortable boxes of leather, and you wear no jewellery. You return from a long day, turn on the TV and there are only 24-hour news channels, all the presenters are dressed in grey, there’s no music to introduce them and no flashy graphics to accompany the stories they present.
You turn on your radio, there’s no music. You go to read a book, there are none on your shelf. There are no museums, no theatre, no colourful sporting events, no concert halls, no dance recitals. Even your favourite cereal comes from a blank white box.
This is the arts-free Alberta the UCP government seems to want. An Alberta where the quality of life is sacrificed to the quantity of profit. An Alberta where people are consumers, not human beings. An Alberta where the arts are an easy target for meaningless cuts. The recent and expected cuts to the arts sector, including a 50-per-cent reduction to the film industry, five per cent of the budget of the Alberta Foundation of the Arts, and the closure of the Alberta Branded gallery are, we believe, just the beginning. Unless we speak up, cuts will continue and they will get deeper and deeper.
Alberta Branded has been a cultural destination under the umbrella of the Legislative Assembly Office for almost two decades. It has provided visitors with an opportunity to experience and purchase visual arts created by Albertan artists. These artworks are carefully curated by experienced staff to express Alberta’s unique landscape, culture and history.
Speaker Nathan Cooper has used unsubstantiated numbers to make a claim that Alberta Branded has been a drain on the public purse. The line “fiscally irresponsible” is overused, but the more telling statement is, “The arts simply aren’t in our mandate.”
Yet a government’s mandate is to ensure the quality of life for all citizens. The arts are as much a public utility as roads, infrastructure, and other public services. Mr. Cooper declined to consult staff, artists, or arts organizations. In fact, there was only 24 minutes of discussion in the Special Standing Committee on Members’ Services meeting of Nov. 27. Twenty-four minutes to decide on the fate of five staff members, the store itself (which was designed specifically for that space in the Federal Building), and the impact on the practice of 120 represented artists.
Between Nov. 27 and Jan. 20, there has been a huge response to this closure with letters of concern from artists and many, many Albertans who support the arts. Albertans offered a variety of creative ideas for a new Alberta Branded that would easily satisfy the need to move Alberta Branded to a retail model.
Those letters and calls for a delay in closure to allow proper and respectful consultation were ignored. The UCP government claims to support all types of business but has refused to explore ways to make Alberta Branded more viable. Is this kind of Alberta we want to live in? Do we want tourists and visiting dignitaries to visit our provincial visitor centre and be confronted with empty spaces and “For Lease” signs?
As artists, we speak up for the arts, yes, but we also stand by others affected by austerity politics. We understand that Alberta is the sum of all its people and all its arts, industries, and services. History has shown that artists are powerful when they come together and we are coming together. Alberta arts matter.
Karen Bishop is an Edmonton-based watercolour artist and a member of the Alberta Arts Matter Coalition. The group was formed in response to UCP cuts to the arts industry, including Alberta Branded, and currently has around 1,500 members.
