January 2005

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, the Visual Arts Section of the Canada Council for the Arts is working on its new program of assistance to visual artists. We would like to thank you for having taken the time to provide your feedback and ideas during the latest round of public consultations. The volume of the correspondence we received and the quality of many of the interventions once again highlight the keen interest of Canadian artists in the Council???s programs.

Before giving you an overview of the responses, we would like to reiterate the reasons that we decided to revise our Creation/Production grants to visual artists:

• a significant rise in the number of visual artists over the last decade (15,000 according to Statistics Canada);
• the very low level of annual income received by visual artists despite 45 years of investment on the part of the Council;
• the weakness of the market;
• the financial inability of our program to enable artists to devote most of their time to research and creation, or to provide real support to independent creation in Canada, when the Section receives 2,400 applications each year and can offer only 220 grants.

In light of these findings, we had to redefine the goals and terms of our Creation/Production grants to visual artists. We held a series of discussions in the fall of 2003 with more than 250 artists from across Canada (Phase 1 of the consultations). Following these talks, we developed a proposed program whose main values were:

• The focus must be on long-term professional development.
• Social recognition and greater dissemination of artists and their work must be encouraged.
• Artists should receive more encouragement at key moments in their careers.
• Artists usually work independently, but they also need to maintain close professional ties with organizations.
• A diversity of practices (regional, artistic and cultural) must be respected and encouraged.

We presented our draft program in public consultations held in 13 Canadian cities in the fall of 2004 (Phase 2). We listened to and read attentively the comments and submissions we received from you. The main points expressed were as follows:

• The primary concern deals with our proposal to link our creation grants to a confirmed exhibition. This proposal, which aimed to increase the public presentation of works that had received grants, was judged to be detrimental to the development of independent creation.
• The administrative measures that would impose a waiting period for artists who are not supported after a certain number of applications and which limit eligibility for some applicants were considered by many to be too restrictive.
• Artists support the idea of a ???professional venue??? but hope that the Section would be flexible enough to recognize the presentation of alternative practices that are not exhibited, presented or structured by artist-run centres or galleries.

Other points of our proposal were appreciated:

• Many artists agree that the current program must be revised and that the three categories (emerging, mid-career and established) should be abolished.
• The plan for a multi-year grant was generally supported, although certain people found that the amount offered was too high in comparison to other components of the program.
• Electronic processing of applications was supported, since artists see it as a method of transmission that will eventually be the standard for the presentation of grant applications.

Recognizing the importance of independent creation, the Visual Arts Section will take into account all of the comments it has received in drafting the final version of the program. Naturally, this draft program will respect the fundamental values of the Canada Council, such as excellence and peer assessment.

Our next steps:

• Update our web site with the reports on the consultation meetings of Phase 2 on January 27, 2005.
• A meeting of a Special Advisory Committee composed of artists from the community and officers from the Section in January 2005 to study the new draft of the program.
• Presentation of the final draft to the Board of the Canada Council in March 2005. This will take into consideration the reasons for the revision, the values expressed in Phase 1, the comments received in Phase 2 and the comments of the Advisory Committee.
• Announcement of the new program in the Spring of 2005, upon Board approval.
• The gradual phasing in of the new program starting in September 2005.
• Please note that in the interim, the current program and deadline of April 1, 2005, remain unchanged.

We are confident that we will find a solution that addresses the concerns of the artists as well as the values and constraints of the Council. Thank you once again for your input.

Yours sincerely,

Fran??ois Lachapelle

Head of the Visual Arts Section

Canada Council for the Arts