Making the case for supporting the arts

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This article was published 02/03/2020 (2164 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Quick: what’s an “arts person”?

Is it a season ticket holder who takes in everything from theatre to ballet to opera? Is it someone who believes public art makes a city richer? Is it someone who books off the second weekend in July, every year, to discover new music under the stars at Birds Hill Park?

Or perhaps it’s someone who makes art — as a profession or a hobby, for others or for themselves.

If one looks at the responses of more than 1,000 Manitobans surveyed by Probe Research as part of a new social and economic impact study of the arts, which was commissioned by the Winnipeg Arts Council, one might reasonably conclude that Winnipeg is an arts city populated by arts people.

Eight in 10 Winnipeggers attended at least one major cultural event in 2019. Strikingly, attendance numbers didn’t vary much across the city’s neighbourhoods; downtown residents were just as likely as suburban residents to take in a cultural event or festival. Eighty-four per cent believe the arts are important to the city’s overall economy. The average Winnipeg parent spends $900 on arts and culture classes each year.

And yet, despite beliefs and habits suggesting the opposite, 52 per cent said they would not describe themselves as an “arts person.” Thirty per cent, meanwhile, believe the arts are for wealthy elites.

This is the third economic impact study the Winnipeg Arts Council has released over the past 15 years. Talking about the arts in terms of cost/benefit is important, especially as municipal budget day draws near. And the report has no shortage of numbers and dollar signs measuring economic impact of the arts: the $105 million in economic growth, the $71 million in wages and the nearly 2,000 jobs directly related to programs supported by the arts council. Art and culture are worthy dollars-and-cents investments.

What’s harder to measure is the social impact of art. Notably, this is the first economic-impact study to include public attitudes about the arts, revealing a bit of a gap between Winnipeggers’ perception of themselves and the reality. One doesn’t need to own a beret or have strong opinions about postmodernism to be an “arts person.” Do you believe that the arts make our city a better place to live? Congratulations, you’re an arts person.

The WAC receives about $4.5 million from the city each year and is hoping, according to an interview earlier this week with the Free Press, for “status quo” this year. Considering the 30 per cent who believe arts are mostly for the wealthy, one of the most vital things the arts council does is make art accessible.

Its public art programs, in particular, not only make our city beautiful, they put art in public spaces so that everyone and anyone can see, for example, the work of the Indigenous artists who turned Air Canada Park into This Place. Or the work of the artists who are transforming an asphalt-grey commute into a colourful and thought-provoking gallery along the Southwest Transitway. These artists are telling the stories of our city.

Art can absolutely be free to enjoy, but it almost always costs money to make. We can only be an arts city if art remains accessible.

As WAC executive director Carol Phillips told the Free Press last year, “It’s not just giving out grants. It’s making sure that all Winnipeggers can have choices, and anyone who is curious and wants to engage with the arts is able to.”

That’s how you make arts people.