Ottawa, September 22, 2005 - Karen Kain, who was appointed last year as Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, says the budget of Canada's national arts funding agency has failed to keep up with the enormous growth in the arts that has taken place over the past 10 years.
The Canada Council was created by Parliament in 1957 with a mandate to foster and promote the arts across Canada. It will officially turn 50 on March 28, 2007.
In her introduction to the Canada Council's 2004-2005 Annual Report, which was released today, Ms. Kain said the Council must respond to the very real explosion in the arts in the last decade, as well as to the changing needs of a rapidly changing population. It must do all of this with a budget that hasn't kept up with the demand
There is not enough money to do the things that need to be done to give Canadians the artistic choices they want.
Ms. Kain said the recent renewal of funding under the federal government's Tomorrow Starts Today initiative - which provided an additional $25 million a year to the Canada Council - is a good start in addressing the long-term needs of the arts in Canada. She said the Council will work together with the arts community and the government to put us firmly in the ranks of those countries that know the arts are not a diversion from life, but rather an essential part of life. As necessary to communities as pavement and pipes.
In 2004-2005, the fiscal year covered by the Annual Report, the Canada Council awarded just over $132 million in grants, prizes and payments to Canadian artists and arts organizations. Canada Council grants were awarded to some 6,100 artists and arts organizations, including theatre, dance and opera companies, art galleries and museums, film co-operatives and book publishers. In addition, 14,441 Canadian authors received support through the Public Lending Right Commission, which provides payments to authors for the presence of their books in Canadian libraries.
The full text of the Annual Report, as well as more detailed information by province or territory and a searchable database of grants awarded in 2004-2005, are available by clicking on Annual Reports.
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