RCA News

RCA Advocacy Committee Report - July 13, 2007

This is the second annual report of the RCA Advocacy Committee formed in March 2006 "To investigate issues affecting artists and the arts in Canada in relation to society in general and to recommend appropriate responses to the Governing Council."

Membership is based on as much regional, disciplinary and generational diversity as is possible, given limits to the size of the committee. Members work together by email and the occasional teleconference. Present members are Douglas Bentham RCA (Saskatchewan, sculptor), John Cook RCA (Ontario, architect) Ted Howorth RCA (Manitoba, printmaker), Milly Ristvedt RCA, Chair (Ontario, painter), David Sorensen, (Quebec, painter), Megan Williams non-RCA, member Governing Council (Nova Scotia, arts consultant), Ken Vickerson RCA, (Ontario, silversmith), and Hilda Woolnough RCA, (P.E.I., printmaker).

A direct result of Advocacy in the Arts, the committee's first symposium, at the 2006 AGA in Halifax, was the decision to join forces with CARFAC in organizing a second. Arts Advocacy: a Collaborative Dialogue, took place June 21st, 2007, and was attended by more than seventy artists. This was made possible when both groups agreed to hold their annual general assemblies in Winnipeg at the same time.

April Britski, Executive Director of CARFAC, and Milly Ristvedt RCA, shared planning responsibilities. The six-member panel, consisting of Nadia Myre, Cliff Eyland, K.C. Adams, Milly Ristvedt RCA, Ted Howorth RCA and Andrew Valko RCA, addressed different aspects of two broad themes: issues for emerging, mid-career and senior artists, and the role of CARFAC and RCA memberships.

Moderator Megan Williams then determined questions for discussion by symposium participants: (1) How should CARFAC and the RCA, together or separately, express social responsibility for senior artists? (2) How can artists gain more control over the economic realities of their profession? (3) Is there a power dynamic in the relationship between emerging, mid-career and senior artists that we can use? (4) How can we affect the way art is commodified and treated within both commercial and public spheres?

A common theme of the responses to these questions point the way for more collaborative efforts to ensure, for instance, that the issues of senior artists are included in Status of the Artist legislation. Creating a retirement fund and approaching public galleries in regard to the neglect of senior artists were other possibilities raised. We need to find as many ways to work together as possible, from cross-generational mentoring to collective professional associations that will further develop and strengthen our legal tools. We also need to: find ways to promote the declaration of the economic value of what we create instead of hiding it as something that 'real' artists have no interest in; work toward setting fair and stable market values, and; stop the process of undercutting.

During the past year the committee has also investigated several issues of concern to the visual arts community, including the eventual closing of the Saidye Bronfman Centre School. (In this case, the process was well underway before a concerted intervention began.) The RCA has written to the Prime Minister to object to the possible relocation of the National Portrait Gallery from the nation's capital. The committee will continue to make recommendations to governing council for action on such issues as they arise.

Milly Ristvedt RCA
Chair