At an event at The Banff Centre, Saturday (March 16), nearly $6.7 million in funding from the federal government was announced for various cultural programs.
The announcement was made by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, accompanied by Wild Rose member of Parliament Blake Richards.
“Arts and culture organizations help strengthen our communities and improve Canadians’ quality of life,” said Baird. “We know that the future of the arts depends on the financial stability of the sector and on the appropriate training of the highest quality of our artists.”
The funding amounted to $3.9 million over two years, 2013-2015, to The Banff Centre for the Canada Arts Training Fund, $1.6 million for the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund and $1.2 million for the Canada Cultural Investment Fund.
“In addition to providing funding for the all-important training that takes place at the wonderful centre, our government is also pleased to support The Banff Centre in its efforts to recruit and remain current through the use of state-of-the-art technology,” said Baird. “For that reason, we’re proud to provide more than $1.5 million for the purchase of specialized digital equipment.”
Banff Centre President Jeff Melanson was ecstatic about this announcement.
“The endowment money grows our investment pool, and all that money goes to support artistic creation, and the cultural spaces money we’re using to invest in the radio station and webcasting,” he said. “It’s a profound level of investment, almost $1.6 million for specialized equipment that will enable us to really digitize all the content we develop here and disseminate it to the world.
“That’s a pretty important investment, the one that incrementally does the most for us.”
Melanson’s vision for the centre involve going back to the original roots of the organization, he said.
“When we were founded, Donald Cameron, the original president, his philosophy was it should be almost like an agora-type campus, where you bring together thought leaders across disciplines,” he explained. “So as an arts institution, but also with community leaders, business leaders, and so on – over a long term we’d like to bring that together holistically.”
Now this new broadcast-related funding will help move the centre forward, he said.
“I do think the whole broadcast orientation is a big deal for us – getting the stories onto the world stage is pretty important,” said Melanson. “The cultural spaces funding will really allow us to do new things. It’s a game changer in terms of our forward strategy, which is all around broadcast dissemination.”
