In Anticipation of Arts Access 40th Anniversary, October 2013

For more on this topic, please refer to Chris Tyrell's September 2010 opinion piece, "New Policies, Not Restored Funding".

Background – The last years of the Social Credit Government under W.A.C. Bennett

In 1967 W.A.C. Bennett created the “B.C. Centennial Cultural Fund”. The interest from the $5 million principal was directed to “major” arts organizations and to all others through their local community arts councils, a decision that stimulated the growth of community arts councils. In 1968 the first Centennial Cultural Fund grants were made, including $190,000 to some major professional groups, per capital amounts to community arts councils and one scholarship to an individual. In 1969 the Centennial Cultural Fund was increased to $10 million and again in 1972 to $15 million. A grass roots initiative In support of the arts was beginning with British Columbia Arts Councils conferences in 1968 and 1969 (in Penticton). In 1971 the provincial government commissioned Ontario consultant D. Paul Schafer to make recommendations on cultural policy; his report A Cultural Survey of British Columbia was released in 1972 by the new NDP Government.

Impetus for Arts Access

The election of the NDP Government under David Barrett on August 30, 1972 coincided with a national focus by the Canadian Conference of the Arts on ensure that all provincial governments support both an arts council and a cultural bureaucracy. Those that did not, including British Columbia, were pressured by a series of regional arts conferences that culminated in a national conference “Direction ‘73” in Ottawa in April 1973. At the time of the Direction series of conferences, British Columbia was represented on the CCA Board of Governors by a group of arts activists with strong community and professional networks. The B.C. delegates to “Direction ‘73” were encouraged not only by the presence of a B.C. provincial government representative but by the words “We consider the arts an important and vital part of the fabric of our lives …we are committed to the principal that all artists should participate in decisions affecting the cultural life of our province.”

Everyone was determined to build on the excitement generated by “Direction ‘73” when they returned to B.C., decided a provincial conference was the best approach, and for the next six months energetically excited more and more people – artists, community leaders and arts activists from all corners of the province. In 1973 the provincial government made a Centennial Cultural Fund grant to Arts Access, the provincial conference to discuss the future of arts and culture in B.C.
Arts Access: The Conference

In less than six months after “Direction ‘73” some 1000 individuals from all over British Columbia came to Simon Fraser University, at their own expense, excited about the possibilities of actually influencing the provincial government. Arts Access was chaired by Nini Baird, who was at the time a CCA Board member, a Canada Council board member and the Director of SFU’s Centre for Communications and the Arts. Rosemary Brown, who had elected MLA for Vancouver-Burrard, attended the entire Arts Access conference and was a key liaison between the arts community and Provincial Secretary Ernie Hall, whose portfolio included the Centennial Cultural Fund. Many positive recommendations came out of Arts Access and over the months that followed a steering committee of the same name kept the government’s “feet to the fire”.

By the beginning of 1974, Provincial Secretary Ernie Hall announced the bare bones of what he said would be “the best cultural policy in the country” and his intention to continue working closely with Arts Access. In the spring the government appointed Nini Baird as “Cultural Animateur” to take the provincial pulse of the proposed provincial government cultural policy. After travelling throughout BC, Nini Baird presented her report Access to the Arts to the Provincial Secretary in September 1974. The Provincial Secretary acted swiftly to appoint an interim BC Arts Board (chaired by Betsy Lane of Vancouver) and to initiate the search for the first director (Tom Fielding) of the Cultural Services Branch. British Columbia finally had a provincial government focus for the arts and subsequent provincial governments, whether Social Credit, NDP or Liberal, all continued to support the arts with varying degrees of emphasis. In 1996, the BC Arts Council Act was enacted, and the BC Arts Board finally became an arm’s length body.

Why did the pressure work in 1973?

Canada was in the euphoric aftermath of the Centennial in 1967. The Liberal Government in Ottawa fostered “democratization and decentralization” with federal programs such as Local Initiatives Program (LIP) and Opportunities for Youth (OFY) stimulating arts development. The change of government in British Columbia in 1972, the provincial grassroots initiative stimulated by “Direction ‘73”, and the genuine optimism of the arts community for a positive change after what they saw as years of benign neglect by the provincial government all contributed to Arts Access and its successful aftermath.

Nini Baird – August 2010