Question 3 – audiences
Throughout the city, many arts and culture organizations host festivals and public events that broaden visibility for the arts, create partnerships among diverse communities, offer learning opportunities and improve quality of life for audiences and participants.
What specific initiatives will your party implement to support, acknowledge, diversify and enhance public participation in the arts, in keeping with the efforts of local organizations?
We have collected the following responses from COPE, the Green Party, the NPA and Vision Vancouver:
COPE
COPE will work with partners in the local community, including arts organizations and community organizations, to expand and enhance art and culture programs, and to ensure there is greater public access to culture. Much of this depends on identifying and strengthening the community’s own initiatives. Instead of trying to create culture through city initiatives, we will honour and respect the expertise, hard work, resourcefulness, and long experience found in arts organizations and community organizations, and build new initiatives to respond to community needs and goals.
In addition, we will preserve heritage buildings and viewscapes; advocate on behalf of the arts, film, culture and tourism to other levels of government; and create new positions in new media, visual art, dance, theatre and music that are like the current Poet Laureate. Our goal is to acknowledge the importance of art and culture in our city, and to create an environment where artists are valued and audiences have access to the art and culture that is being produced in their city.
Green Party
We will work collaboratively with local organizations, artists and communities to create a long term vision for Vancouver 2050 as a city of culture: protecting and enhancing arts and culture organizations; prioritizing local arts procurement and hiring; ensuring accessible studio, workshop and gallery space.
Non-Partisan Association
In addition to the introduction of the Cultural Multipass, the NPA will restore funding to the 2015 Cultural Grants budget, which has fallen under Vision Vancouver’s leadership. We are also committed to advocating for new financial partnership from the provincial and federal governments for the new Vancouver Art Gallery. We believe the art gallery will be an economic driver for downtown Vancouver, ensuring continued access for Vancouver tourists and residents to one of North America’s pre-eminent cultural institutions in a central location and at an affordable price.
Vision Vancouver
Many of the initiatives outlined in response to the question about venues/space [question 1] also serve to support, diversify and enhance public participation in the arts.