Alberta art? It's in the red

Budget cuts to Alberta’s cultural sector has left many artists and craftspeople wondering if the bleeding will ever stop and when.

That’s why the Alberta Craft Council has offered an opportunity for artists to use their talents and express their frustrations and emotions. In the Red: creation from deficit comes fresh off of the heels of one of the gallery’s recent exhibits on the same topic. The 16% Show ran from January to March and must have been the easiest exhibit ever installed on the council’s walls. It was completely empty, a stark glimpse into a possible future where public funding for art doesn’t exist any longer.

Here, a group of 24 respected artists from across the province, including St. Albert’s own Linda Willard and Shirley Cordes-Rogozinsky, has teamed up to show off their own crafts and writings about the status quo.

For Willard, she’s not just concerned about losing creative outlets and avenues that allow others to appreciate her work.

Her submission, Opportunity Knocked, shows doors within a door. A poem that she wrote to accompany it explained her thoughts about dwindling government support.

“It basically said that the doors of opportunities just get smaller and smaller, which is how I feel about opportunities within the arts.”

She knows all too well about what happens when the well dries up.

“Last year was hard,” she concedes. She had prepared and scheduled two shows including one that would tour across the country. The other was set to tour internationally.

“Both were cancelled because of funding cutbacks.”

How would anybody feel about doing so much work and not getting paid for it?

She’s just thankful she was allowed her to express herself at In the Red.

“I think that it’s wonderful that the Alberta Craft Council felt strongly enough … and brave enough because their funding comes from the government. This show takes a stand.”

According to Tom Fall, the council’s executive director, the situation is not good for many artists. He noticed about twice as many submissions for this show over others, an obvious sign that provincial cutbacks have hurt.

“The craft form expression of a primary political concern, that was the point of the exhibition,” he explained, talking about the show’s strong thematic focus.

He described a piece from Edmonton potter Mary Swain “particularly poignant” and one of his favourites — and for much the same reason as Willard’s work. It’s an empty clay box sealed up with red tape, referencing a piece she had in a major show last year. The entire show — Clay 2010 — was acquired by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, but the tour was cancelled. Most of the province never saw it.

“She was responding by imagining what it would be like if her piece … was simply boxed up permanently. The whole thing worked on a number of levels. Symbolically, it struck us because it suggests what could happen to her career as well as what could happen to the arts generally if we don’t take it seriously.”