P.E.I. Council of the Arts dissolving due to lack of funds

The P.E.I. Council of the Arts board has been dissolved after government funding to the organization was cut.

The announcement was made Tuesday night to the membership of the not-for-profit organization, following the decision by theDepartment of Education, Early Learning and Culture to cease funding them.

In aletter to its membership, the arts council said the news was a shock. It said the department gave them enough money to pay off their final bills, but its onlystaff member has been laid off andtheir property tax bill is still outstanding.

• P.E.I. Council of the Arts finances in crisis

"The board feel strongly that we have done everything to meet the Province's requests and regrettably, all board members have indicated their intention to resign from their positions, " the letter said. "This leaves the operation of the PEI Council of the Arts in the hands of the membership until a new board is elected."

The council has been in financial troublefor years now, but had been working to get back on its feet. Minister of Education, Early Learning and CultureDoug Curriesaid his department wasworking with the organization but saidin the end constant financial problems and tax liability led them to make a decision.

Best value of resource

"We put supports in place, they did make some gains but the government felt in respect to the mandate to getting the best value of the resources we have into the hand of artists ... we decided to go in this direction," Curriesaid.

The government plans to lookfor a new way of running things, one that will involve less administrativecosts. The organization receivedover $200,000 in government funding and of that,only $94,000 went to grants.

"There's a substantial volume of money that was going to administrative overhead so we're going to be looking at opportunities to see how we can get more of those resources into the hands of the artists and musicians," saidCurrie.

Artists upset

The announcement has left artists like Monica Lacey upset. Themultidisciplinary artist who works in Charlottetown, said she couldn't believe the news.

"It was pretty upsetting and angry and hurt, it was pretty emotional, " Lacey said.

"Working as an artist in a place this small already has its challenges. You know I've always been proud to say to people in other places that we are supported here and we have a wonderful arts council that supports us here with our work and encourages development of new work and now I can't say that anymore."

Lacey said besides the grant money, the organization provided a much needed voice to advocate on behalf of artists and she wonders what will happen next.

Curriesaid thegovernment will come up with a system in order to jury the upcoming grant applications that are due on Sept. 30. He addeda peer jury will still be involvedanddetails of that process are expected to be announced in 10days.

Following that, government will come up with a longer term plan of how to move forward.

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