Talking about the Arts

Today, on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”, Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee (R) was speaking about the importance of the arts in terms of “music and the arts in the curriculum” and “developing the both left and right sides of the brain”.

Now, there are things about Governor Huckabee platformthat I’m not fond of, we differ on some issues, but I’m not American, I don’t live in Arkansas, and we’ll probably never have a conversation in my whole entire life so I won’t dwell on those - but it absolutely blew me away that he brought up the arts at all – Republican (read “conservative”) presidential candidate. This led me to consider the impending provincial and national elections (both not yet announced). Who’s talking about the arts (in politics)? Provincially, nobody. Nationally, nobody. I stand ready to be corrected.

This only serves to point out that politicians speak to and take action on the issues that they perceive to be issues, the issues their constituents believe to be issues, and the issues that are made to be issues by interest groups etc. Case in point. The Environment. It’s not as if the environment took a sudden turn for the worse in the last few months. And yet, the environment has become a top issue – to the point where the federal Conservatives have launched a set of attack ads on the federal Liberals on that very topic. So what changed? Perception.

How does this matter to the arts? How does this matter here? Perception. Want something to be an issue – make it an issue. If we want the arts to be an issue, we must make it an issue. How? Phone, fax, emails, letters and conversations. I received an invitation from my MLA Richard Brown, asking for my input on his platform. I’ll write back, and stress the arts, and arts funding, in my letter. According to the stats on this blog, there are a hundred or so Island readers who, I assume, have some affinity for the arts. One hundred letters, or calls, emails, faxes, or other conversations, can have a difference. Who is your MLA? Check here, or, here.

…and I’ll also miss Suzuki

As if to add insult to injury, this strep throat will also mean I miss the chance to speak for a few minutes as Dr. David Suzuki’s “If YOU were Prime Minister” event this weekend.

David Suzuki was a childhood hero of sorts to me. The Nature of Things was a staple in our household and much of my love for the outdoors was fostered there then encouraged by my parents. Can there be a better way to spend a warm summer day than out in the wood flipping old logs in a search for red spotted newts? I was really looking forward to meeting him.

Event wise, I’d been writing my short speech for about two weeks. The speech itself focused on how experiences in the arts, particularly as children, lead to deeper understandings of our physical world. These understandings help to inform our adult imaginations and our ability to consider the environment in past, current, and future tenses, but also allow greater freedom in also imagining future consequences and solutions. These skills, when fostered in a generation of children, cannot but help to make for a better world.

Perhaps I’ll finish the speech anyway, and post it here for anyone who might have been interested to here it at UPEI on Saturday.

Breaks will be enforced…

The “dragging” feeling that has persisted through the week has, it turns out, its root in a case of strep throat. So, penicillin in hand, here’s a brief update on the week whilst I recuperate in the company of my 1 and 3 and a half year old children.

The week began with my MLA consultation with Premier Binns in his constituency office out in Monatgue. The Premier did answer my questions – so the goals was met. I don’t really know how to comment on the meeting itself. I suppose I’d hoped for more engagement and the meeting was rather low-key. Perhaps the meeting was informed by the impending release of the Conflict of Interest Commissioners report.

The highlight of the week was a meeting with the Southern Kings Arts Council, one of the provincial regional arts councils. The group of five met with Barb Wynne and I. The meeting was very engaging, full of open dialogue, some professional difference of opinion, and, all-in-all, great.

Certainly, I left the room quite enthused. The more of the conversations we have, the more connections we make, the more hope I have for the future and for growing collaborations. Barb will has summarized that meeting with the following points:

• The Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts could work to improve linkages between arts and culture, and other sectors, in particular with the tourism sector.
• The province is in need of an inventory, or an ‘inventory of inventories’, of arts and culture organizations to build connections, networks and opportunities for collaboration.
• The opportunity exists to increase publicity of Southern King’s cultural events such as the Montague High School drama productions, through the Island Arts Newsletter, a free weekly electronic publication.
• The Southern Kings region needs adequate spaces for art to happen, particularly the visual arts which require adequate space and lighting. Combined venues and adequate facilities do not currently exist in the region and the Southern Kings Arts Council is having difficulty finding an appropriate space for the Spring Festival.
• To increase understanding of the peer assessment review process used in the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts grant adjudication, the Southern Kings Arts Council was invited to have an observer at the next adjudication.

We’ll be, formally, sening these points back to the SKAC in a letter for their review and comment. With two regional arts council’s left, we’re nearing the end of this faze of the pre-plan consultations and we’re pretty pleased with the level of cooperation and honest sharing we’ve seen. I look forward to the report on these consultations as much as I did the public set.