Pick Your Battles
Your humble scribe was featured semi-prominently in today's Mississauga News (including a picture of me looking Tucker Carlson-esque in a green polka-dot bow tie). Here's the article, which appears to pit me at odds with City Council:
THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
City, Arts Council butt heads
Dispersal of grants a sore point
Joseph Chin
Feb 21, 2007
The stage appears set for a potentially nasty spat between the City and the Mississauga Arts Council (MAC) over how grants to art groups should be handled.
At last week's City Council meeting, Ward 3 councillor Maja Prentice and Mayor Hazel McCallion took turns blasting MAC for daring to question their request for more information regarding the process.
"I take great exception. It's clearly directed to Council, and not for the first time," said Prentice. "I've had it...I'm really angry at this attitude."
McCallion shared her sentiments.
"That kind of attitude is going to be eliminated. It hurts our image..." she said.
Among other responsibilities, MAC doles out City money, $389,700 this year, to arts organizations.
According to Prentice, a former MAC director, councillors merely wanted to know "who got what, and why?"
The information came back with a covering letter from president Ben Thornton explaining why his organization doesn't customarily divulge group-by-group recommendations to politicians.
"We believe it to be universally understood in the North American arts sector that governmental funding of the arts must be at 'arm's length' - that is, that the political body (in this case Council) should let specific funding decisions be left to an independent body," said Thornton.
"Politicians have an obligation to spend their constituents' money wisely, and therefore hold the responsibility of determining the total monies available to the arts, but their involvement with specific, group-by-group, project-by-project allocations leaves the artistic process vulnerable to interference, censorship, pandering, and political gamesmanship, or at the very least, the appearance or suggestion thereof."
"It was accusatory in tone, inferring we wanted to interfere in the process," an indignant Prentice told The News. "But we weren't trying to be in their face. When residents see their taxes going up, they often ask why we're giving money to groups such as those involved with sports and arts. It has to be under scrutiny."
Prentice said she understood why MAC would be sensitive: two years ago, a task force recommended that the allocating of arts grants be transferred to the recently-established Office of the Arts.
Contacted by The News, Thornton stuck to his guns. As long as his organization is responsible for disbursing the grants, he said MAC should remain autonomous in its decision making as much as possible.
"We weren't trying to be secretive or confrontational, just responsible," said Thornton.
"I don't want to start going down the road of councillors looking at individual grants. We've been doing it for a long time, and the City has always found we spent wisely."
Established in 1981, MAC is a non-profit organization governed by a board of directors. Its events include the annual Mississauga Arts Awards, workshops and Artfully Yours, a gathering for artists to meet and network. It's the most comprehensive resource for arts and entertainment information in the city, supporting and promoting the activities of over 215 arts organizations representing more than 23,000 artists.
Thornton said he isn't overly concerned with the possibility of his organization being stripped of granting responsibilities.
"It's a small part of what we do. We're very much in touch with the community. The task force itself said we could serve a grassroots role," he said.
Before the City does anything, though, Thornton hopes it would look at how the process works in other jurisdictions.
"To our knowledge, no elected or provincial representative is involved in any specific granting decisions made by their respective granting bodies (such as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, or the Trillium Foundation)."
Still, Thornton has no problem with a peer review group providing input to the City who would take over the role (as recommended by the arts review task force) - "as long as it is meaningful, not something for the City to hide behind.
"The process must be transparent," he insisted.
Prentice said Office of the Arts director Zainub Verjee, who assumed the new position on Jan. 15, will be recommending on the granting process to Council.
"A decision will be made before next year's budget," Prentice said.
Thornton said he doesn't want bad feelings between MAC and the City.
"The City has made a big commitment to the arts by setting up the Office of the Arts and hiring a director; it has increased funding in the last two years...it's going in the right direction," he said.
In truth, there was no suggestion of wrongdoing or interference. Rather, I was intending to clarify a point of policy in the funding body/government relationship. Since the question had been asked, and since current practices are under review, it seemed as good a time as any to explain the underlying philosophy.
The irony is that by publicly reacting so strongly, some members of City Council created a polarizing focal point which prompted the Mississauga News to follow up the article above with an editorial entitled "Let MAC decide where funds go" citing some of the very examples of successful independent funding organizations (Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Trillium Foundation) I offered to support our position.
Surely if the Mississauga News editorial board tells you you're right, it must be true.
Right?
THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
City, Arts Council butt heads
Dispersal of grants a sore point
Joseph Chin
Feb 21, 2007
The stage appears set for a potentially nasty spat between the City and the Mississauga Arts Council (MAC) over how grants to art groups should be handled.
At last week's City Council meeting, Ward 3 councillor Maja Prentice and Mayor Hazel McCallion took turns blasting MAC for daring to question their request for more information regarding the process.
"I take great exception. It's clearly directed to Council, and not for the first time," said Prentice. "I've had it...I'm really angry at this attitude."
McCallion shared her sentiments.
"That kind of attitude is going to be eliminated. It hurts our image..." she said.
Among other responsibilities, MAC doles out City money, $389,700 this year, to arts organizations.
According to Prentice, a former MAC director, councillors merely wanted to know "who got what, and why?"
The information came back with a covering letter from president Ben Thornton explaining why his organization doesn't customarily divulge group-by-group recommendations to politicians.
"We believe it to be universally understood in the North American arts sector that governmental funding of the arts must be at 'arm's length' - that is, that the political body (in this case Council) should let specific funding decisions be left to an independent body," said Thornton.
"Politicians have an obligation to spend their constituents' money wisely, and therefore hold the responsibility of determining the total monies available to the arts, but their involvement with specific, group-by-group, project-by-project allocations leaves the artistic process vulnerable to interference, censorship, pandering, and political gamesmanship, or at the very least, the appearance or suggestion thereof."
"It was accusatory in tone, inferring we wanted to interfere in the process," an indignant Prentice told The News. "But we weren't trying to be in their face. When residents see their taxes going up, they often ask why we're giving money to groups such as those involved with sports and arts. It has to be under scrutiny."
Prentice said she understood why MAC would be sensitive: two years ago, a task force recommended that the allocating of arts grants be transferred to the recently-established Office of the Arts.
Contacted by The News, Thornton stuck to his guns. As long as his organization is responsible for disbursing the grants, he said MAC should remain autonomous in its decision making as much as possible.
"We weren't trying to be secretive or confrontational, just responsible," said Thornton.
"I don't want to start going down the road of councillors looking at individual grants. We've been doing it for a long time, and the City has always found we spent wisely."
Established in 1981, MAC is a non-profit organization governed by a board of directors. Its events include the annual Mississauga Arts Awards, workshops and Artfully Yours, a gathering for artists to meet and network. It's the most comprehensive resource for arts and entertainment information in the city, supporting and promoting the activities of over 215 arts organizations representing more than 23,000 artists.
Thornton said he isn't overly concerned with the possibility of his organization being stripped of granting responsibilities.
"It's a small part of what we do. We're very much in touch with the community. The task force itself said we could serve a grassroots role," he said.
Before the City does anything, though, Thornton hopes it would look at how the process works in other jurisdictions.
"To our knowledge, no elected or provincial representative is involved in any specific granting decisions made by their respective granting bodies (such as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, or the Trillium Foundation)."
Still, Thornton has no problem with a peer review group providing input to the City who would take over the role (as recommended by the arts review task force) - "as long as it is meaningful, not something for the City to hide behind.
"The process must be transparent," he insisted.
Prentice said Office of the Arts director Zainub Verjee, who assumed the new position on Jan. 15, will be recommending on the granting process to Council.
"A decision will be made before next year's budget," Prentice said.
Thornton said he doesn't want bad feelings between MAC and the City.
"The City has made a big commitment to the arts by setting up the Office of the Arts and hiring a director; it has increased funding in the last two years...it's going in the right direction," he said.
In truth, there was no suggestion of wrongdoing or interference. Rather, I was intending to clarify a point of policy in the funding body/government relationship. Since the question had been asked, and since current practices are under review, it seemed as good a time as any to explain the underlying philosophy.
The irony is that by publicly reacting so strongly, some members of City Council created a polarizing focal point which prompted the Mississauga News to follow up the article above with an editorial entitled "Let MAC decide where funds go" citing some of the very examples of successful independent funding organizations (Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Trillium Foundation) I offered to support our position.
Surely if the Mississauga News editorial board tells you you're right, it must be true.
Right?
posted by Benjamin Thornton at 9:24 p.m.
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