Editor,
After reading yet another article about the provincial government’s decision to cut funding by nearly 90 per cent to the arts and culture sector of B.C., I have a question: Is the provincial government crazy?
Artists are the very people who promote this province to tourists. Tourism is a leading source of income for B.C.’s economy. B.C.’s economy is failing because there are enormous salary increases given to cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats -- not because artists cost too much.
If tourism is one of our leading industries and tourists are attracted to this province because artists are at work, then how are dramatic cuts to the arts going to help? When are artists going to be taken seriously as real, live contributors to the economy?
Artists rely heavily on monies allotted each year to arts councils and organizations. Hats off to the B.C. government for essentially annihilating a valuable sector to the province of B.C.
Heather Lea
Editor and publisher of Reved Quarterly, Revelstoke’s arts culture and lifestyles publication