"As the new Minister of Culture, I can assure you that the Ontario government believes that the arts and culture matter to Ontario. They matter because they play key roles in, and are essential components of, our quality of life. Arts and culture matter because they enrich our lives and contribute to our prosperity. They matter because we can’t have a strong economy or thriving communities without them."
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Cultural Community
Meets New Minister By Paul Couillard On November 20th, the OAC hosted a reception at Dancemakers studio in Toronto for the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur, Ontario's new Minister of Culture, to meet the arts community. Several ARCCO Board members past and present were on hand, as well as our Executive Director, Jewell Goodwyn. The new Minister, who has also been given the portfolio of Francophone Affairs, spoke eloquently of her passion for the arts. As a prelude to her official remarks, she noted that when she was asked by friends what Cabinet position she would most like to have if given the chance, her immediate answer was Culture. Based in Ottawa, Ms Meilleur has a served on the board of Opera Lyra and has an obvious familiarity with institutions such as the Ontario Arts Council. This is significant considering her well-rounded background in law, nursing and social causes. Let us hope that her Francophone perspective will translate into strong and effective advocacy for culture around the budget table. In her speech, Ms Meilleur spoke in broad strokes of her government's goals in the area of Culture: stable funding for organizations, a Minister's Advisory Council for Arts and Culture, establishing a Premier's Medal for Excellence in the Arts to honour individuals or organizations, and "promoting the role of artists in our society and the importance of the arts in every Ontario city and town." We do not yet know how these general goals will translate into specific support for our sector, but I was impressed by her thoughtfulness in acknowledging and congratulating the role of peer assessment at the OAC. If nothing else, her overall tone of appreciation for the OAC seems to signal a change in attitude from the previous regime. I spoke to her very briefly after her speech, and discovered that she does not yet demonstrate an understanding of artist-run culture or of the independent visual and media arts sector. (She did not seem to know, for example, of SAW or 101). Time for our Ottawa-based organizations to make sure she is on their mailing lists! EXCERPTS FROM MINISTER'S REMARKS "I have been given a strong mandate from the Premier to work with you in a variety of new ways to show the people of Ontario how much arts and culture do matter." "We will be establishing a Minister's Advisory Council for Arts and Culture to create an open and ongoing forum for discussion." "We will establish the Premier’s Medal for Excellence in the Arts to honour individuals or organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to arts and culture in Ontario." "And we will work with the Ontario Arts Council to support the creation of art to benefit and enrich the lives of all Ontarians. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ARCCO members please forward this to your membership! ARCCO P.O. Box 44026, Market Tower Lane Postal Outlet 141 Dundas Street, London, Ontario N6A 5S5 email: jewel.goodwyn@sympatico.ca
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