Show with nothing means everything

Jerry Seinfeld would probably balk at the suggestion that the Alberta Craft Council knows better than anyone how to put on 'a show about nothing.' But that's exactly what it's done with its newest exhibit featuring exactly nothing.

The 16% Exhibition is a political statement about massive funding reductions announced in the spring of 2010. The Alberta government cut $5.5 million from arts funding, equal to about 16 per cent of all resources for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA). This left many artists and arts groups scrambling like a crowd fighting over the last loaf at a bread-line during a famine.

"The dire warning aspect of this is if there's another year or two of these kinds of cuts, especially when they're unannounced and they come during the year, we just don't know whether we'll be able to keep the galleries open or whether we'll continue to be able to do exhibitions," explained executive director Tom McFall.

Up until that time, the 31-year-old organization received about $230,000 from the AFA. The cuts reduced that figure to $193,000. This forced the council to cancel one show, curtail travelling exhibits and other projects and reduce other normal expenditures like its participation in the Canadian Crafts Federation.

McFall said the finances are still in the black but wonders how long the ship will float if more holes keep getting cut in the bottom. He is already aware of rumours that more cuts are coming this year.

"It's partly about the arts generally and their fragility and how none of the arts organizations, large or small, are prepared to handle these ups and downs of erratic funding which are more driven by the economy than any cultural plan. The effect here at the craft council is that when we don't know until well into the year what the core funding might be, then it's really hard to plan. It's really hard to keep going."

St. Albert artist Sharon Moore Foster, also the gallery co-ordinator at the Visual Arts Alberta Association, feels the same way.

"It's frustrating but I [take up] the challenge to put on a different hat," she said, referring to how her group has increased its fundraising efforts while paring down outflows. "We're trying to see what the major needs of the membership are and find new ways to deal with that."

The non-exhibit

When you walk into the council's gallery space, you will see a collection of empty pedestals that would normally hold beautiful and thought-provoking art and craftworks.

There is, however, a series of text panels and graphics for visitors to read through in order to better understand the issue and the impact. McFall, keen not to bite the hand that feeds him, related a study that shows how 90 per cent of Albertans are favourable to government arts funding, a high level of public support that politicians shouldn't mistake.

"In my mind that refutes this idea that the arts are some kind of narrow elitist activity that only a small number of people participate in. The popularity numbers are really high; they just don't show up in funding."

The Alberta Craft Council has had more than 90 exhibitions in the last five years, some of which have travelled internationally.

Alberta consumers also support the arts at a rate that's 15 per cent higher than the national average. For McFall, it just makes good financial sense for a government to invest in something that the population wants and appreciates. According to his figures, for every dollar in government arts investment, there's approximately $12 in economic activity with an additional $3 in tax money produced.

"It really does look like a reasonable investment in any economic model."