Note: The following post is adapted from the Canadian Arts Coalition communications found on their website. The text of some campaign documents is currently being adapted by ARCA and will be available on our website shortly for use by individuals and groups from the artist-run community. In the meantime, members are encouraged to set-up meetings with their local MPs, in their constituency offices, with the guidance of the Coalition’s campaign material and toolkit below.
The Canadian Arts Coalition is calling all arts advocates!
We want to talk to Members of Parliament in all 308 ridings and we need your help.
Because of the prorogation of Parliament, Arts 308 is replacing the Coalition’s regular Arts Day on the Hill. Arts advocates are encouraged to set up meetings between now and the Christmas holidays because this is when most decisions about the budget are made. If that’s too tight a timeline, any time before the budget is released in March is also helpful.
You can get involved by:
- Meeting with your MP and/or
- Sending them a message using social media
Besides meeting with your MP, you can participate in the Arts 308 campaign using this social media strategy
The following guidelines are intended to help switch into ACTION! First steps first. Engaging in the campaign is easy by following the next steps!
Engaging in the campaign is easy by following the next steps!
1. REGISTER ! To ensure easier coordination of this “scattered” campaign, the Coalition requests that those who are planning a meeting with their MP first register. Registring your participation to the Arts 308 campaign informs the Coalition of which MPs have been sollicited and allows the Coalition to potentially match you with other participants in your riding. They can also provide information from previous meetings with representatives of the Coalition with respective MPs.
2. Find your MP using your postal code;
3. Consult the House of Commons calendar to learn when your MP is present in your riding (for example, the week of November 11, for Remembrance Day);
4. Watch the training videos (no longer available) presented by Coalition volunteer Melissa Grueber of CARFAC ;
5. Book a meeting with your MP – Model letter;
6. Print meeting script and adapt and print leave behind document for the meeting-
7. Produce a brief report of the meeting to send to the Coalition for tracking and follow up.
The Arts 308 is advocating the three recommendations made by the Canadian Arts Coalition in their pre-budget submission:
- Recommendation One: Stimulate job creation and local economic development by increasing the annual Parliamentary allocation to the Canada Council for the Arts by a minimum of 10% in 2014-15.
- Recommendation Two: We recommend that the government renew investments in the Canada Funds first announced in 2009, including the Arts Training Fund, the Arts Presentation Fund, the Cultural Spaces Fund and the Cultural Investment Fund. We further recommend that the impact of these programs be sustained by indexing the investment to the annual cost of living.
- Recommendation Three: Align Canada’s cultural diplomacy strategy with Canada’s Global Commerce Strategy, and capitalize on opportunities to promote Canadian values as well as business and cultural interests in key markets by investing $5 million per year over 5 years in support of artistic and cultural market development initiatives in Canada and abroad.
The Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres have also produced a bilingual campaign titled “Don’t Prorogue the Arts”, launched symbolically on October 22, the date of the cancelled Arts Day on the Hill.
ARCA wishes to thank co-chairs Katherine Carleton of Orchestras Canada and Éric Dubeau of the Fédération culturelle canadienne française (FCCF) who are both stepping down in December, for their long term engagement with the Coalition. The Coalition’s work continues in the able hands of a renewed steering committee.
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