The White House Studio Project hopes to win between $10,000 and $50,000 to expand their artist run studios, like the one pictured above, while allowing more Toronto artists the opportunity to afford both food and supplies.

Everyone can think of something that would make their community, large or small, a better place to live: a crumbling building transformed into a rec centre, activities for the elderly, public art, or an urban garden.

The Aviva Insurance Community Fund is going to make some of those ideas a reality next year. The $500,000 fund will be given away to three or more Canadian communities, decided by a panel of judges and online voters.

It works like this: come up with an idea to help your community, describe how it will help and ball park how much it will cost, then post it on the Aviva’s website. The public votes for their favourite ideas until the end of November, when the 60 most popular ideas move on the the finals. The 25 finalist with the most votes between December 2th and 16th will move on to be scored and evaluated by the judges.

The judges will award at least one small (less than $10,000), medium ($10,000 to $50,000), and large ($50,000 to $250,000) prize, and the rest of the money will be parceled out to the next highest scoring projects until it runs out. The author of a winning idea is invited, but not obligated, to participate in the development of the project. There are lots of proposals on the site already, from all over the country.

One that caught our eye was Toronto’s own White House Studio Project, which posted their idea as a medium-sized project. The group formed about a year ago to help artists find studio space. The popularity of commercial spaces as housing in the city has led to a spike in the cost of commercial loft rental, leaving emerging artists out in the cold.

The White House turned the tables by renting a house in a residential area and divided it into work spaces artists could actually afford to rent. Aside from being just a place to work, the collective also uses the space for group and individual art shows and performances, workshops and guest speakers. They hope use the grant money to upgrade and expand their current space, and to purchase equipment that could be used by visiting and tenant artists.

Registration for the Aviva Community Fund is open until November 29th.

[Photo used with permission of the White House Studio Project]

Kristi Malakoff, Skull

The Ancient Olympic Games were held in Greece every four years and celebrated culture as much as sports. The founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, placed an emphasis on culture as well, making it the “second pillar” of the Olympics, equal to sports. In the early 20th Century, the second pillar was honoured by hosting arts competitions that involved medals and featured art inspired by sport. In 1954 the art competitions were abandoned, leaving the second pillar’s future uncertain.

The concept of a “Cultural Olympiad” was introduced in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to revive the lost arts pillar. Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics also features a Cultural Olympiad or 400 events scheduled over 2 years that feature both local and international artists and musicians, festivals and films. According to the Cultural Olympiad Program Director, Robert Kerr, “The Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad is bringing the “Second Pillar” alive through three annual festivals of arts and popular culture, creating a diverse and dynamic showcase of some of the finest local, national and international artists of our time.”

Sounds good, right? Nope.

Though a Cultural Olympiad budget of about $20 million has been set aside, Vancouver’s art and culture landscape has only benefited minimally from Olympics funding. More importantly, the Olympics might even be responsible for the recent dramatic $77 million arts and culture government cutback.

Earlier this month the Direct Action Committee of the Alliance for Arts and Culture issued a press release stating that “the provincial government is planning to cut over 80% of what has consisted of only 1/20th of 1% of the provincial budget.  No other provinces in Canada have reduced support for a sector that, according to government statistics, produces significant returns on investment.” It’s no surprise that the arts and culture community has always been seriously under funded and often undervalued by policymakers. But the recent developments are startling.

In 1999, the B.C. provincial government assumed responsibility for the B.C. Lottery Corporation. At that time, the B.C. government promised to provide the not-for-profit sector, including artists, with one-third of net gaming revenue. This year the government has not lived up to its promise and, according to Brenda Leadlay, the artistic director of Presentation House Theatre, non-profit organizations in B.C. have been literally “chopped off at the knees.”

In 2008 gaming grants provided 6,800 not-profit groups in B.C. with $156 million and the B.C. Lottery Corporation reported a record $1.091 billion profit as of March 31. So the question becomes, with all this available revenue, what has happened with the gaming money? Why have some of the artists, festivals, community services that are most vulnerable and dependent on government subsidies been given the boot?

What makes the arts and culture community particularly angry is the abrupt cancellation of three-year grants that had been promised by the government. For artistic director of Touchstone Theatre, Katrina Dunn, these reversals are unacceptable, since the money that was guaranteed to her theatre company has already been spent.

Some hypothesize that the gaming money is being rerouted to cover Olympics related expenses in the city of Vancouver, although this story is uncorroborated for now.

According to Leadlay, many organizations will have to close their doors or risk running a deficit that can only be sustained for so long. As she puts it, this news is “really devastating.” While Vancouver is on display for both tourists and investors in 2010, and considering the copious amount of money that has gone into cultivating a sophisticated image of Vancouver—a vibrant, fascinating city with good food and great art (and no poverty or homelessness)—the arts community is gasping for breath.