|
|
|||||
|
|||||
| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Funder Focus : Article |
This is an archive of CharityVillage NewsWeek. To find a word on the page,
use your browser's "find" feature (CTRL-F or CMD-F). Please note: While we ensure that all links and e-mail addresses are accurate
at their publishing date, the quick-changing nature of the web means that some
links to other web sites and e-mail addresses may no longer be accurate.
To view other articles in the archive, use our Chronological Index.
Funder Focus: Jeffrey Anderson and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
By Elisa Birnbaum
November 6, 2006
This month in our Funder Focus we feature the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, a crown agency of the Government of Alberta and a beneficiary of the province’s Lottery Fund proceeds. Formed in 1991, its mission is to enhance the quality of life of Albertans through participation in the arts. CharityVillage spoke with executive director Jeffrey Anderson about how the foundation supports individual artists and arts organizations in the visual, performing, and literary arts and cultural industries.
CharityVillage: What’s the mission of the foundation and what makes it so distinctive?
Jeffrey Anderson: We provide funding to the arts and it’s also important for us to encourage the growth and development of the arts sector in Alberta. We do that through encouraging participation in the arts. There are four program areas: we actively promote the arts; we support creation and production in the arts; and also the collection and display of the arts.
The unique role that the foundation plays and one that I’m quite proud of personally is we fund established and emerging arts organizations and artists that are both professional and amateur. The big distinction is that every other arts funding agency in this country only funds professional artists and organizations.
In addition, we collect and display visual art. One of the functions of the foundation is to manage the collection of over 5,000 pieces of art. And almost half of that collection is in circulation at any given time across the province, free of charge to any public space that wants to display art.
CV: How did your mandate evolve to focus on the general arts community?
JA: Well, when it was created in 1991, it was an amalgamation of three pre-existing foundations: a performing arts foundation, a visual arts foundation, and a literary arts foundation. Once that occurred, one of the first things that the foundation undertook over the long term and through the 1990s was the need to take a clear look at whether we were addressing all sectors equitably. “Are the resources flowing to performing arts in the same proportion as they are to literary arts and media arts or visual arts?”
CV: What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of being closely linked to the government?
JA: I have to say I only view it as an advantageous position for an arts-funding agency because it allows the foundation to be aware of, communicate, and influence government policy that may affect, for instance, not-for-profit funding.
I actually play a dual role. In addition to being the executive director, I’m also the director of the arts branch, which is on the more government side of things. So I’m part of a federal, provincial and territorial network of directors of culture and heritage. I think it allows me to be even more involved and it broadens my perspective and allows me to understand issues from many different points.
CV: It seems as though the Alberta arts sector is quite strong; does it have any pressing concerns?
JA: Yes, it’s very healthy. And the foundation is on the leading edge of understanding the importance of good governance for arts organizations. Alberta has been a bit of a thought leader in terms of policy and procedure and in terms of providing tools for arts organizations to understand the elements of good governance. That has a very positive effect on the sustainability of arts in the province. We have much work to do in that regard. You can always be doing more in terms of providing useful capacity-building tools for your stakeholders.
I think the challenges that artists and arts organizations in Alberta face are similar to those faced by arts organizations in other jurisdictions. Often it’s two-pronged: how do I create and deliver so that I’m connecting to my community? Across Canada we have a rapidly changing demographic and in Alberta we’re very conscious of the cultural diversity of the province. The foundation actively encourages organizations and artists to continue to find new ways to connect with the changing communities. We believe that community connection is fundamental to the success of arts organizations.
We also recognize that, in our situation, in the province of Alberta, the population continues to expand and that means there are more artists and more arts organizations coming to the province. That places an increased demand on the resources that the foundation has to distribute. I don’t think there’s any situation - in any jurisdiction - where groups that are supported feel they have enough funding; I would say that’s certainly true in Alberta. My perspective is that arts organizations in Alberta, relative to many other jurisdictions in this country, do have the benefit of excellent provincial support. Our foundation had almost a 15% increase in what it was able to distribute beginning this fiscal year.
CV: Do you foresee your funding capacity continuing in that upwards direction?
JA: Yes, our total budget up until this year was $19 million. This year it’s at $22.6 million, beginning April 1, 2006. I think the positive note to make here is that the funding for the foundation has never been reduced since it was formed in the 1990s. There have never been any cuts, unlike many other agencies in the provinces. On the other hand, perhaps the increase is required to keep pace with growth and new emerging art forms, which, maybe has not been what it should be. It’s good that there have been incremental increases in the last several years but there can always be more.
CV: How many artists and organizations, on average, receive funding per year and how are those decisions determined?
JA: It goes up and down. We fund through peer reviews, through a jury process, and we fund over 600 individuals a year. We run juries in about 11 different disciplined categories annually. And then we have operating funding for organizations, whether they are community support organizations or professional organizations. We fund an equal number of organizations - approximately 600 a year. But less than 10% of funds go to individuals.
And, again, this is something unique to Alberta. Those grants are awarded based on eligibility. So you don’t have to pass the muster of a jury in order to qualify for operating funding or project funding. You qualify if you are incorporated and your business meets the needs of your stakeholders. That means you become eligible for a portion of funding.
There are some operating programs and grant programs that do have to be reviewed by a jury. For example, we award a little over a million a year for arts and education programs at schools. They make submissions and a jury assesses those submissions once a year and awards grants to schools to bring in artists. We have over 30 different programs and there are criteria for each of them.
CV: Has the foundation made any steps toward helping arts organizations become more self-sustaining?
JA: Part of our five-year goal is to establish tools to promote and support healthy arts organizations. So we actually are developing something called a Healthy Agencies Toolkit that has several components, some to do with governance, some to do with fiscal responsibility and other things. The other important part is being there in terms of being able to provide capacity to assist organizations if they do have trouble. This is a very important role for my staff.
CV: How does the foundation ensure it is fulfilling its stated missions and goals?
JA: Well, we are undertaking a pretty important piece now. We are just at the beginning stages of a comprehensive evaluation of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Program. This will be a very thorough two to three-year review where we connect with our stakeholders, our clients and Albertans in general. We want to make sure that the foundation is using its resources in the widest manner possible. We recognize that the demands on the funds of the foundation will always likely exceed the resources available, but we need to address some questions. For example, how do we meet the needs of emerging arts organizations and new forms of art that weren’t here ten years ago?
The board has directed that the process take place. We have a steering committee in place; we’re beginning in earnest to start formal research in order to find answers to some of these questions. And we’re sharing info on our website about this evaluation process.
CV: What are the issues in the arts sector that the foundation feels the need to address in the next five to ten years?
JA: It is important to continue to communicate about how the arts contribute to Alberta’s culture and the impact that the arts have on the quality of life. This is very important to us, as is the need to continue to build capacity in the arts sector.
We really recognize and want to communicate about the value of the arts in people’s lives, how the arts contribute to the quality of life of being an Albertan. We did a little bit of an economic impact study just on that side of things a couple of years ago and found that, for every dollar that the foundation invests in arts organizations, it returns $12 to the economy of Alberta.
A professional trumpet player with Bachelor, Masters and Doctorate degrees in music, Jeffrey Anderson’s background has undoubtedly come in handy in his present position. When he wasn’t busy performing recitals in the community and across Western Canada, he spent 20 years teaching music, working in arts administration and volunteering in musical organizations. In 1997, Anderson joined the ensemble called Alberta Foundation for the Arts and became its executive director in 2004. For more information about the foundation, visit: www.cd.gov.ab.ca/all_about_us/commissions/arts.
Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance print and broadcast journalist living in Toronto.
|
|||
