Toronto Arts Council

Toronto Arts Council Foundation

2005 has been an exciting year for the Toronto Arts Council with a significant increase in revenues to invest in the Arts, staff changes, and initiatives to increase awareness of the cultural and economic importance of the Arts to Toronto.

The Toronto Arts Council on behalf of the City, in effect acts as it’s “Venture Capitalists for the Arts” investing in emerging artists and arts organizations. A few will attain national or international recognition and all will make a significant contribution to the cultural and economic vitality of their communities.

This year is the second successive year that the city has increased the budget of the Toronto Arts Council by $400,000 dollars. This is in line with the projected increase of $2 million over 5 years as recommended by the City’s cultural plan.

These additional funds were used to provide an increased investment of $317,500 in Arts organizations and $82,500 in individual artists. These increases were certainly appreciated by the recipients, but a shortfall still exists between the valid applicants and the funds available. Total grant funds now invested in Artists and Art organizations on behalf of the City and its taxpayers is just under $9 million dollars.

The contribution of the arts to the cultural and economic vitality of Toronto is huge, with over 100,000 jobs or 8% of the workforce engaged in the arts and generating over $8 billion dollars to the economy of Ontario. Yet artists continue to be among the lowest paid contributors to the economy, with average annual incomes of $23,500. The Arts community is in effect, subsidizing the cultural and economic vitality of the City. There is as a result, a continuing need for increased financial support for the arts to strengthen its role.

The City and the Toronto Arts Council continues to benefit from considerable volunteer hours with some 1,500 hours provided by Committee and Board members. Their contribution has been invaluable and we would like to thank those who terms have expired.

Those retiring from committees are: Emerita Emerencia, Debbie Wilson, Judy Fong Bates, Maria Jacobs, Helen Porter, Angela Rebeiro, Raymond Tizzard, Taylor Raths, Keith Lock.

The term of several Directors has also expired, and I would personally like to thank them for their diversity of artistic views, which contribute immensely to the deliberations of the Toronto Arts Council.

Those retiring as Directors are: Jonathan Barker, Christopher Dewdney, Laura Michalchyshyn, Gabe Nachman, Robin Pacific, Rina Singha

In addition, the retiring City Councillors are: Shelley Carroll, Gay Cowbourne

Both have made important contributions to the Toronto Arts Council.

The biggest staff change has been the retirement of Jim Garrard, our former Executive Director. Jim made a significant contribution to the Council and the Toronto Arts Council Foundation through his "Great Arts = Great City" initiatives which highlighted the need for greater funding of the arts and created the Arts Coalition, Arts Online and revived Arts Week.

The retirement of Board members brings the opportunity to attract new talent. Again, we are fortunate to have new members with impressive artistic and business backgrounds as volunteers to our Board. The incoming Board members are: Katherine Govier, Meirion Kelly, William Lau, Randy Levine, Jini Stolk

Incoming City Council members are Norman Kelly and Sylvia Watson.

Our staff continues to provide exceptional service to the Council. As President, I would like to thank Susan Wright, Director of Operations, Beth Reynolds, Director of Grants and Bill Huffman, Associate Director, in particular for their extra efforts in this year of transition.

That transition is being lead by the most important addition to our staff – our new Executive Director, Claire Hopkinson.

This spring, an extensive search was undertaken to find a new Executive Director. There were over 40 applicants from across Canada. Six were interviewed and three finalists were interviewed again – all were impressive candidates. However, Claire emerged as a unique, unanimous choice with her impressive background in the arts as well as her enthusiasm, dedication and vision for the arts in Toronto. Claire is the former director of Tapestry New Opera Works, which has achieved status as a leading performance group bringing new operas and opera talent to the community. She was also a Founding Director of the Creative Trust, which raises private sector funds to match funds raised by several mid-size and important performing arts organizations in the city.

Claire has already suggested initiatives to help the Toronto Arts Council and Foundation achieve its goals of increasing awareness of the importance of the Arts in our City and the funding need for artists and arts organizations.

Toronto, perhaps unnoticed by many of its citizens, has emerged as a major world centre for the arts. As we move into 2006, the Toronto Arts Council looks forward to making an increasing contribution to the emerging artistic vitality of the City.

Don Moffat, FRAIC RCA
President
Toronto Arts Council