To Save the Arts, Blow Up the Old Ways

Here’s a thought experiment.

You’re an artist or an arts organization that depends on government grant money to survive.

In the next federal election, the Canadian body politic becomes fatally infected by the poisonous principles behind the infamous U.S. cluster-munition called Project 2025. Pierre Poilievre is elected, the CBC is eliminated as he promised, and all subsidies for the arts are cut off. In addition, there’s a hard swing to the right across provincial governments that has the same result.

No more Canada Council for the Arts, no more Department of Canadian Heritage. No more BC Arts Council.

What do you do? Do you fold? Or do you get out there and fight for your life?

These are hardly hypothetical questions, given the way the world is going — and they’re sharpened by the prospect of the crushing effect that could come from the tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump is currently tossing about like a drunk at a fairground ring-the-bottle stall.

If history is any indicator, those tariffs could metastasize into a full-scale attempt to dismantle the protections Canadian cultural industries enjoy under current trade agreements — and an inevitable crumpling of the Canadian cultural community.

So I offer this thought experiment as a wake-up call.

I believe we need to blow up the outdated, embedded public stereotypes of art and culture, and fashion a wholesale public reimagining of what the sector can really do.

And this is the perfect time to do it.

A complex problem, and a simple task

We have been deluged in recent years and months with news items and editorials lamenting the state of the Canadian cultural sector.

Audiences are falling away (and staying away); organizations are having trouble keeping the lights on; artists are struggling to put food on the table.

Over the past 18 months we’ve seen the publication, in Canada alone, of no fewer than four books addressing the topic (one of them by me).

Lots of earnest and well-intentioned lobbying happens behind the scenes.

It sometimes seems that what-can-we-do cultural conferences are staged more often than performances of The Nutcracker.

The Banff Forum, for instance, annually brings together up to 200 thought leaders shaping Canada’s future — and invites members of the artistic community to contribute their perspectives to policy discussions around how to make Canada better.

In Toronto, the Public Imagination Network brings artmakers and cultural leaders from across artistic disciplines together to imagine ways to apply creative tools and processes to transformational systems change.

And attempts to strengthen the sector are always being made. In Quebec, former Canada Council director Simon Brault is winning support for his calls for a national summit on the future of the arts and culture sector.

Calls have even been made recently for a new royal commission on culture, on the scale of the 1951 Massey report, to bring cultural policy in line with today’s (and tomorrow’s) realities: fix the inequities, deal with the new realities in copyright and broadcasting, refocus the CBC.

But no real change is going to happen until our politicians see a solid public demand.

Right now, the cultural sector is cheered on loudly by its own devoted choir.

But there’s a whole other audience of Canadians — that broad silent majority that is just trying to get by in an unstable, increasingly unaffordable world — that the cultural folks are not reaching, and perhaps never have.

Few of the respondents to a recent Nanos survey said that arts and cultural institutions in Canada were doing a very good (13 per cent) or good (34 per cent) job in creating experiences that are welcoming to a diversity of Canadians.

In business, numbers like that would be seen as an existential challenge.

In the words of Kelly Wilhelm, head of the Cultural Policy Hub at Ontario College of Art and Design University, “it is clear that the arts and culture are seen [as] an exclusive realm only for progressive elites.”

The French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine was even more candid: people are fed up with the arts sector, she said, “with our helplessness, our fears, our narcissism, our sectarianism, our denials.”

So the task facing the cultural sector is simple. It must make itself indispensable.

And becoming indispensable means a lot more than putting up posters in bus shelters.

Art for everyone’s sake

Michelle Chawla, the director of the Canada Council for the Arts, recently told Canada’s arts community it’s time to stop whining about the “crisis” it’s in and tell its “impact story”: the economic impact ($60 billion toward Canada’s gross domestic product, 850,000 people in cultural jobs) plus the way the arts significantly benefit health and education and help develop a more collaborative and accepting society.

Kelly Langgard, director and CEO of the Toronto Arts Foundation and Toronto Arts Council, recently took to Maclean’s magazine to plead with Canada “to take the arts seriously as an industry” and for governments at all levels “to step up with increased funding.”

It’s crucial, she said, “that Canadians show up — to attend events and advocate for the value of culture in our everyday lives.”

Well, yes. But, well, no. Rather than blaming the customer for choosing not to buy its wares or act as its door-to-door salesperson, it’s time for the sector to let those people know what’s rightfully theirs — and rally them round to protect it.

It’s time for a sustained communications campaign that shows people that art and culture matter — to the individual, to human flourishing and to the well-being of communities — as much as health, education and the environment.

A campaign that makes everyone sit up, take notice and demand the chance to grab their share of the cultural riches.

And the growing and potentially viral “Buy Canadian” movement that the tariff threat has provoked is the perfect vehicle to which the cultural sector can hitch its wagon.

Canadian art not for art’s sake, but for every Canadian’s sake.

We must reimagine the arts. Here’s how

It’s hardly a new idea. Performing arts groups on the Prairies banded together last fall to launch a half-million-dollar “Got Milk?”-style campaign to sing the glories of the arts and hype their struggling businesses. They were bankrolled by PrairiesCan, a branch of a federal agency that supports economic diversification and growth.

But it has never been done on the scale that’s needed now. So — without wanting to sound prescriptive — here are some suggestions.

Put some social marketing experts and hard-nosed business brains in a room with a group of arts policy wonks and let them mind-storm a big, sweeping national campaign that articulates — as clearly and simply as any commercial might — the central message that culture has benefits for everyone. And that we should buy the Canadian version.

If it’s done properly, it won’t be cheap. The cash-strapped feds might help, but ideally, some deep-pocketed philanthropist with a penchant for the arts — Canada has several foundations that already give significant support to cultural sector research — would provide the offices and the financing.

Socially aware titans from sectors like business, health, science, sport, education and the media industries might consider chipping in. Human flourishing and the well-being of communities — what’s not to like?

One of the reasons why art and culture have been seen as “an exclusive realm only for progressive elites” for so long has been our insistence in the Euro-civilized West on treating art in a Eurocentric manner: putting it on a pedestal, worshipping it for its inherent “greatness,” treating its availability and experience as some abstract, precious privilege.

It’s not. Art has always been integral to the way we human beings examine and explain and celebrate our existence.

The campaign I’m envisioning here would take culture out of the cloisters and into the sunlight — with the aim of bringing about a fundamental change in public and political understanding of culture and the arts as a central pivot of creativity and human thriving.

Give art its rightful role at the centre of things

Some people might say that what I’m proposing is putting the arts at the service of goals that have nothing to do with artmaking — turning culture into an instrument of government policy. They’d be wrong.

Because to recognize and celebrate art as an essential element of the life we have, at the same level of value and importance as health and education and the environment, is to flip instrumentalism on its head.

It gives art and culture its rightful role at the very centre of things, as an essential constituent of the body social, linked to all the underpinning fabric of a healthy society as a means to find shared joy, belonging and fulfilment through activating our instincts for generosity, compassion and creative expression.

It’s a means to help us find common ground and reimagine the systems that have brought us to the state we’re in.

It’s a means to foster a sense of engagement and connection that makes people say: “This stuff belongs to me, and no one is going to take it away.”

Let’s open ourselves up to surprise

Studies show that Canadians are deeply motivated to have conversations about issues that affect their lives — but feel excluded and disengaged from the important conversations.

So the arts and culture campaign’s planners would probably want to get out and do some serious listening. Not telling people “This is what you need,” but asking them “What do you want and how can we use our skills to provide it?”

After all, the financial support that comes from the tax-funded public purse — which the culture sector has come to expect almost as a right — presupposes an obligation to provide something that delivers benefits to the people paying the taxes.

They might find some surprising things. For instance, when the 2024 Nanos survey asked people to rank the most important benefits that motivated them to attend arts or cultural events, culture-goers most frequently ranked first socializing with friends or family (18 per cent) and learning new things (18 per cent).

The U.S.-based Advisory Board for the Arts, a cultural sector consultancy, recently conducted a survey of arts audiences based on a simple question: What is the job you want the arts experience to do?

The responses ranged widely. From “See art performed at the highest level” and “Experience a spectacle” to “See someone famous” and “Dress up/feel lavish.”

From “Challenge myself” and “Experience something new” to “Identify as cultured” and “Show friends I’m unique.” From “Share a passion with like-minded friends” and “Get out of a rut” to “Keep the arts healthy in my region” and “Continue/pass on a tradition.”

Sniff all you like, but it’s vital that the sector establishes new relationships across the breadth of modern society, in all its diversity of interests and political persuasion.

To point up its messages, the campaign would probably want to focus on stories that show the value of arts engagement in ways that people might not have thought about before — compelling human stories that ring a bell of recognition with those who hear them and show how entwined the arts are with the other things that matter.

Sometimes it’s as simple as just letting people know places exist. How can you expect people to be interested in the stuff in an art gallery if they don’t know the gallery is there?

And because every human being is an individual, it probably wouldn’t be a one-and-done message. Some stories would have more appeal in certain sectors than others.

The solutions are already here. Let’s find more

Some people, for instance, will have a special interest in stories about art’s effect on health.

When Joni Mitchell had a stroke in 2015, it left her helpless. She couldn’t walk or talk. Doctors thought she might never sing or write again. But her neuroscientist friend at McGill University, Daniel Levitin, designed a music therapy program for her, built around a CD of her favourite music that he had created for her years before.

And he’s convinced that it was music — along with speech and movement therapy — that helped her recover her identity.

Who should tell these stories? It might be a good idea to recruit informed and friendly faces from outside the cultural sector’s disaster-obsessed bubble — from all the areas where art and culture play an important and underappreciated role, like business, health, science, education.

Maybe find a plain-speaking neuroscientist (no jargon, no exclusiveness) to tell the world about the neuroscience studies that suggest that even occasional involvement in arts events can bring “significant” health benefits — in areas of cognitive decline, mental illness, pain, stress, loneliness and the management of neurological disorders and end-of-life care — and potentially save society billions in health-care costs.

Get an architect or a planner to talk about how good architecture that incorporates elements of the natural world can help alleviate Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, depression and anxiety.

Here at home, the BC Alliance for Arts + Culture is collaborating with artists, cultural organizations, and researchers from Simon Fraser University’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative and the University of British Columbia’s school of population and public health on a program exploring “social prescribing” — connecting doctors with arts groups and other community resources to address non-clinical but time-consuming patient concerns while alleviating pressures on limited health resources. Show us how that works.

Go visit the new Centre for Music Therapy and Wellness at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, home of one of Canada’s largest and most effective programs of music therapy, and check out its new toys: a “multi-sensory studio” with laser lighting and “vibro-acoustic” seating, and a touch-free device that uses sensors to translate body movement into music and sound — making it possible for people with physical disabilities to make music and build social connection.

Get a doctor to talk about the Shaw Festival Theatre’s Theatre of Medicine course, developed in partnership with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Outcomes include improvements in physician well-being and interpersonal skills, and better patient care.

Get teachers talking about all the things we lose when we build an education system based primarily on STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Educators have long known that when the arts are part of the school curriculum — adding A for “art” to turn STEM into STEAM — you get smarter, more open, more imaginative students: precisely the kind of people we need to deal with the challenges the future holds.

Get scientists to talk about how deeply artists are engaged with the environment and climate change.

Talk about the social-glue aspect of arts engagement. Beyond the music and the theatre and the paintings and the dancing and the books, the sector offers succour, hope, connection, collaboration, comfort.

That makes artists and arts organizations not just providers of experiences but part of a community’s life, strengthening our capacity to handle the challenges life throws at us.

In a climate of austerity and short-term thinking, that’s not an easy argument to make, I know.

As the U.S. cultural historian Joseph Horowitz recently put it, “The moral function of art — its capacity to engender fellowship, deep feeling, high purpose — no longer seems a necessary function.”

But I’d argue that it’s as essential an argument as any.

So show us places where art offers a sense of community and continuity and helps people feel they belong. ArtSpring, for instance, the community cultural hub on Saltspring Island.

Yes, the island is exceptional: it’s self-contained (around 12,000 people on an island just under 200 square kilometres in size) and its ratio of artists to general population is among the highest in Canada. But ArtSpring is a miraculous refuge from commercialism and one-size-fits-all thinking.

Its 300-events-a-year program mixes shows by touring and local artists with community art activities ranging from a weavers and spinners show to classes in writing, face and body art, and parenting, as well as seasonal parades and celebrations.

It’s not surprising, says director Howard Jang, to see goats and sheep wandering around the room where a weaving class is in progress.

Meet people where they are, and help them make art

What’s as vital as the message is the sector’s willingness to swim in the same pool as its audiences. Digital platforms and non-traditional media have modified many of our concepts of what constitutes artistic expression. Consumption of arts via digital media far exceeds in-person attendance, and surveys show more people make art than attend in-person events.

So foster involvement. Make it possible online and in person for artmakers to share their work, exchange ideas and collaborate. That means an interactive website, or websites, obviously. Social media presence. Podcasts, webinars, town halls.

An example of the kind of artist-government overlap that can raise public awareness both of art and of issues that matter to the general public is Calgary’s Watershed+ program.

Initiated by the city’s utilities and environmental protection program, it merges art, architecture, geography and water engineering to create public art — like fire hydrants sprouting drinking fountains, glass sculptures of water-based micro-organisms, a blue, 70-foot-tall sculpture of a splash of water in a plaza at Stampede Park — that encourages sustainability and environmental awareness.

Calgary is also home to the Arts Commons cultural centre, where ground was recently broken on a $660-million expansion that backers claim will fundamentally change “the way people perceive, experience and talk about the arts.”

In Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow has unveiled a 10-year cultural plan for Toronto that aims to bring cultural events to all corners of the city, with development of one million square feet of new cultural space and access for every resident to at least one free cultural experience in their neighbourhood each month.

In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts supports many projects that integrate arts activities into community issues like social connection, belonging and mental health.

In Minneapolis, planners are turning to the arts community to encourage public involvement in policy-making — through creative approaches like bus and train wraps. One bus displayed a QR code and a prompt for people to submit their own ideas about the region’s water policies.

Another program invited people to write love letters to regional parks.

Maybe take a cue from Amnesty International, which has collaborated with the virtual-universe platform Roblox to create an escape game built on the real-life experience of refugees.

Or what about Hello Lamp Post? Turns out most of the world’s street furniture has a unique code for maintenance purposes, and the Hello Lamp Post program adapts those codes to allow people to have a conversation with familiar street furniture via the texting app on their mobile phones, enabling passersby to have their say about, well, just about anything.

Obviously, there are a thousand different ways to build a campaign of this kind. Other people may have entirely alternative ideas and propositions, and I’d love to hear them.

The bigger question is this. Can the cultural sector’s battered warriors summon the necessary will and conviction to take on what may be the most existential challenge of all: the creation of a sense of ownership and pride in the heart of every Canadian?

It seems to me that they have no option. They certainly shouldn’t sit around and wait for someone else to bail them out, because that isn’t going to happen.

Right now, no one cares enough.

How can we make the arts matter to more people? Share your thoughts in the comments.