City of Vancouver reviews funding approach for grants

Is Vancouver is poised to be a world leader for arts and culture, or, just like everyone else will it keep plodding along at the usual speed? Which will it be? Don't get me wrong, I am for funding reviews. Who doesn't like time to reflect, review and respond to current opportunities? Thought the last - about responding - is the clincher. The Creative City Conversation that happened in Vancouver on April 23rd wasn't the response I was looking for when all the promo material focused on contributing my point of view as an arts worker living here. I spent the whole day listening to other people: people on stage, people who were facilitating, people who felt more entitled to interject... I barely got a word in edgewise. To my mind, a review should host many views, it should consult by listening with an ear open to multiple perspectives, it should take into account (and in order to take into account, it needs to encourage) others' innovative ideas in transforming the way things are now into *the way things could be*.

That's not even taking into consideration the fact that the Creative City Conversation was predominantly foolscap white... in this day and age, this makes me ask how the event was marketed and, because of this, who was excluded. We all missed out big time.

Okay, so the Creative City Conversation has nothing really to do with the funding review. The only thing is, it occurs around the same time, things are interlaced in time, and a pattern is being woven.

Here's the blurb from the Alliance for Arts and Culture - for the original click here.

"On April 3, Vancouver City Council unamiously supported a motion brought forward by Councillor Elizabeth Ball that will have city staff report back to council in three months with plans to develop a collaborative, comprehensive, streamlined and multi-year funding approach for grants that will include:

• Consultation with Corporate Services (Budgets/Finance) and Law to review the city’s legislative framework and budgetary process;
• Review of funding models and cycles utilized by other funding organizations, both public and private, in the non-profit sector;
• Consultation with community groups and other funders;
• Cost/benefit analysis;
• Development of funding guidelines;
• Potential alignment or augmentation of existing evaluation and monitoring mechanisms;
• Identifying any additional resource requirements to conduct the above noted work."
...
"At the April 17 Vancouver City Council meeting, Ference Weicker & Company were awarded the contract to provide consulting services for a comprehensive review of the city’s current arts and cultural grants and support programs administered through the Office of Cultural Affairs, at an estimated cost of $75,000 plus GST, with funding to be provided by the 2007 cultural budget."