Impact of the Arts on Our Community

From Arts in Guelph- March/April, 2005

EDITOR'S NOTE: During the recent City Council budget deliberations, the entire community grants budget line was presented as one of the cost-saving cuts. To help persuade the Mayor and Councillors to put these monies back into the budget, Guelph Arts Council sent the following letter outlining some of the benefits that these organizations bring to the community.

As the co-ordinating body for the arts in this area, Guelph Arts Council has spent the last 30 years working to encourage and stimulate the development of arts, culture and heritage in this community. The result of these efforts and those of hundreds of others has been the emergence of Guelph as a city that is known across Canada for its vibrant cultural life. Today, at the core of this cultural scene are the very community groups whose modest grants the 2005 budget proposes to cut off entirely.

Collectively, these community groups are a tremendous asset to the City of Guelph. Not only do their festivals, performances and exhibitions provide first-rate, live entertainment and enrichment options for our citizens and visitors (audiences totalling 157,000 individuals); they also bring significant economic benefits to our community, especially in attracting visitors. For example, Ontario Arts Council figures show that for every dollar a visitor spends at the box office, another $7 is spent elsewhere in the community (restaurants, gas, hotels, shops, etc.); and even for residents, the figure is $2 to $2.50 additional spending for every box office dollar. So the annual box office total of close to $650,000 for groups recommended for 2005 arts and culture funding translates into B at the very least B $1.5 million of additional spending in our community, and even more when you add in visitor spending.

These groups also attract dollars to our community by way of grants or funding from other levels of government or from foundations, corporate sponsors and numerous individuals. Those groups recommended for 2005 arts and culture funding brought in $2.4 million of funding from these other sources. But it is a well-known fact that most of these funders / supporters look for evidence that the groups they assist are supported by their own municipal government. Without such evidence, this area of funding is jeopardized.

Volunteers are the lifeblood and backbone of all these community organizations. Volunteers ensure that organizations operate with a mind to fiscal responsibility and respect to the funders. Among the groups recommended for arts and culture funding for 2005, some 3,000 individuals give 124,000 hours of time a year which (at the very modest rate of $12 an hour, the figure used by the Trillium Foundation for volunteer time) represents close to $1.5 million of free labour. And, for the volunteers themselves, there is a sense of accomplishment, often of learning and growing, of giving, and of being part of this great community.

Virtually every one of the municipally-funded arts and culture community groups plays an important role in offering arts experiences to our young people. Cutbacks in arts programming in the school system have made this all the more important in giving our youth an opportunity to appreciate and participate in the arts. In this sense, while providing excellent learning opportunities for young people, our groups are also grooming the audiences and the artists of tomorrow.

Overall, the City's investment in community grants is very small for the enormous benefits that accrue to the City as a result of these groups' activities. For the arts and culture sector, the $55,000 that was recommended in 2004 generated over $3 million of additional revenues. Or to put it another way, for every dollar that the City spent supporting these arts and culture community groups, another $55 was raised by these groups for activities that benefit our citizens, attract visitors and indeed define Guelph as a centre of cultural activity.

Indeed, the panel that reviewed the arts and culture grants noted in its report to Community Services Committee that the $55,000 recommended did not come close to reflecting the real needs of the arts community. For 2005, the total amount requested was almost $250,000.

Guelph Arts Council also has a concern about the long-lasting and far-reaching ramifications that the proposed grant cuts would have on our community organizations and our community as a whole. Volunteers would be called upon to give even more of their time and energy to compensate for the lack of funding, and city businesses and corporations, who already receive hundreds of requests for funding each year, would more and more be called upon to shore up the voluntary sector. The future of this sector, especially in relation to arts and culture, would certainly be called into question in the City of Guelph.

In conclusion, Guelph Arts Council implores Council members to revisit this budget line, and reinstate the entire $175,000 grants amount for arts and culture, health and social services, and civic and special events B for the health and well-being of our community.

POSTSCRIPT: On February 14, 2005, after hearing 40 speakers address issues related to the proposed cuts, Guelph City Council voted to restore the 2005 community grants budget line.