Summer of support: Ticket-buyers ultimately decide future of Winnipeg’s arts scene

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This article was published 05/06/2023 (1175 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There were many reasons to celebrate on June 1 at the Mayor’s Luncheon for the Arts, the annual gathering of Winnipeg’s arts groups, community leaders, business people and political elite.

The award winners — Emily Solstice Tait, Rosanna Deerchild, Alan Greyeyes, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan — received well-earned applause, as did talented performers from the Little Opera Company and the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, who provided the audience a taste of what two of the city’s smaller arts organizations offer.

It was the inaugural luncheon for Scott Gillingham, who won last October’s mayoral election, and he regaled the audience with stories of his dramatic turns in high school, which included performing as Frankenstein’s monster, singing Every Breath You Take, the 1980s Police hit, while the waxy makeup he wore melted under the spotlights.

He said performing before an audience helped him prepare for his earlier career as a Pentecostal pastor and the glare of his present post as mayor, but the story also built a bridge to an audience who are all too familiar with politicians who have little nor no connection to the arts, and likely welcome a civic leader who knows about stage butterflies and the fear of failure.

That fear, sadly, is as present as ever for Winnipeg arts organizations, festivals, musicians, actors, directors, technicians and countless others whose livelihoods depend on the public’s support for their work.

Government funding for the arts often catches people’s attention; Carol Phillips, the executive director of the Winnipeg Arts Council, which hosts the annual luncheon and awards, thanked Gillingham and city council for continuing their support for the upcoming year in her speech.

But it’s the people who click “Buy tickets” on their web browsers to attend a local concert, theatre or comedy performance who will ultimately decide how vibrant the future of the city’s arts scene, and life in Winnipeg in general, will be.

The opportunity to convince more Winnipeggers to spend their entertainment dollars on performances by city groups could make the next few months the most important summer for the arts in recent memory.

Why this year? Simply because people haven’t been attending arts events in the numbers they did before the pandemic.

The shackles of COVID-19 restrictions sapped attendance for many organizations and while numbers are rising, progress is slow, especially compared with the swift removal of pandemic-related support from the federal government that kept arts organizations across Canada afloat when concerts weren’t allowed to be held.

“The problem with a lot of the festivals, and particularly the major arts institutions, is they rely so much on subscriptions, and a lot of people fell out of the habit of buying those subscriptions,” Andrew McLaren, the chairman of the Winnipeg Arts Council, which distributes city funding to the arts, said in an interview after the luncheon.

“Winnipeg is also a very word-of-mouth kind of place. I think as people are starting to connect more, that will help turn the momentum.”

Artists must embrace the challenge, said Spencer Duncanson, the artistic director of the Little Opera Company, past chair of the Winnipeg Arts Council and board member on several other city arts organizations, during his short speech at the luncheon.

He channelled physicist Albert Einstein, a Mozart fan and amateur violinist who famously said, “In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity.”

“Right now is not the time to remain complacent, but the moment to truly focus on who we are and where we want to go without any distraction,” Duncanson said, prior to joining Little Opera Company members in singing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Climb Ev’ry Mountain.

“We know that the road will not be easy, but we also know there is strength in numbers and if we, as a community, come together and commit to climbing that mountain, the future will emerge bright.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall