The financial benefits to the arts, extending from Vancouver?s successful bid to host the 2010 Olympic Games, exist Now. ?Now? is a key word in pre-Olympic, Olympic-inspired cultural funding. The new LegaciesNow programs have relevance to the entire province.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) organizes the opening and closing ceremonies and a five-week Olympic Festival and a Paralympic Games Festival. They also plan to organize a Cultural Olympiad: a series of small festivals in the years leading up to the Olympics (2007-2009). VANOC activities will require the involvement of a large labour force skilled in the creative arts but, as I have already said, they are not going to be funding projects 'til much later in the Olympic countdown calendar. The head staff person for the Olympic arts programs (funding and production) will start work in May 2005. Details on VANOC cultural funding programs will not be available for some time
after that.

LegaciesNow is a fraternal organization to VANOC. LegaciesNow is a non-profit organization that was formed during the Olympic Games bid phase and it has a province-wide mandate. The agency?s vision is to create sustainable legacies that will benefit all of BC as a result of hosting the games. LegaciesNow has several components. They are Sport and Recreation Now; ArtsNow; LiteracyNow; VolunteersNow and the Spirit of BC Community Committees. Learn about these committees and the VolunteersNow and LiteracyNow programs, by visiting the LegaciesNow website at www.2010legaciesnow.com where there are application forms, eligibility requirements and complete contact information.

I learned about ArtsNow by attending a public meeting on the program in late November in Vancouver. At the meeting, I learned that the program?s mission statement is as follows: To strengthen and enhance the creative capacity of individuals, organizations and communities throughout the province. ArtsNow programs will serve the arts, culture and heritage sector, the cultural industries, professional and community-based organizations and associations, and individuals, organizations, communities, bands, partnerships, and collectives, etc. ArtsNow has $12,000,000 to give away during their 2-3 year mandate ending in 2007. They want to fund strategic investments and partnerships?projects that are catalysts for change. They want to fund projects that help communities and/or organizations ?take the next step.? In questions, it became very clear that projects involving community partnerships are favoured. (LegaciesNOW will NOT fund existing programs or agency core operations. Nor will they fund capital projects.)

ArtsNow is willing to invest in a community or agency more than once, but not for the same project, and they seek to fund projects that create lasting change for a better arts sector and/or community. They want projects defined by measurable objectives and good reporting, and they will favour applications that reflect certain themes: participation, sustainability, and enhanced performance. Projects that increase community engagement in creative activities meet a major program objective, as do projects that strengthen the applicant?s organizational and/or economic capacity. So do projects that help the applicant achieve artistic excellence. The meeting emphasized that applications should, or may have to, leverage financial contributions from community partners. And remember, LegaciesNow will have to ensure that projects reflect the diverse face of the people of BC, and that they fund projects all over the province. For now, LegaciesNow is awarding grants through three programs. The first application deadline is the end of January 2005. These are the programs: Cultural Scans and Plans, Capacity Building for Organizations and
Community Engagement.

The Cultural Scans and Plans program is designed to encourage communities to include cultural planning in their long-term visioning. Program staff hope to receive applications from local governments or arts collectives for projects that have broad-based community support and for those that can show a commitment to implementation. Local governments and arts organizations must cooperate as applicants for funding under this program.

The Capacity Building for Organizations Program is designed to address the internal competencies of arts and cultural organizations. Applicant projects (or activities or training) should enhance the applicant?s ability to achieve artistic excellence. Arts organizations, partnerships and arts service organizations are eligible to apply. At the meeting we were told that projects could address such things as mentorships, market and audience development, collaborations and/or incubations (I had to look that last one up). The aim of the Community Engagement Program is to create new opportunities for British Columbians to engage in creative activities. Applications are welcome from organizations, associations, collectives, bands, partnerships, municipalities and arts service organizations. The program will fund such things as community celebrations, new works and new art forms. This, and all ArtsNow programs, welcome applications that are concerned with capacity building for individuals, arts for children and youth, First Nations and Aboriginal strategy, and with building community knowledge.

The Cultural Scans and Plans, Capacity Building and Community Engagement Programs are pilot programs; each will be served by an advisory panel. Projects submitted to the end-of-January deadline can expect to receive their award by the end of March. During the summer, program staff will assess and potentially revise these program?s procedures in time for a second deadline that will be posted on the agency website. (There is no deadline for the ?Cultural Scan and Plans? program.) Funding will be up-front; 80% of funding will be awarded in advance once decisions are made. The meeting I attended raised some interesting questions for ArtsNow staff. They, I think, got as much from the meeting as did attendees who were interested in the funding programs. ArtsNow staff committed themselves to considering the points raised at the meeting before launching their website. By the time you read this, their website will have been updated. The ArtsNow programs will put $12,000,000 of ?new? money into the arts in BC. Also, the Olympic Arts Fund (OAF), will provide the arts with new money through another funding program that will be administered through the Cultural Services Branch of the Government of BC. The OAF is financed with annual interest payments yielded from a $20,000,000 endowment that the BC government will establish over the next four years. (What will become of the $20 million endowment after the Olympic Games is unknown.) If ever there was a time for artists and their communities to undertake arts planning, it is Now. Visit the LegaciesNow website to see if one of their programs will work for your community, your organization or your agency in partnership with others.

This good news is timely. As I wrote in last month?s editorial, Opus has offered to host an artists? forum later this month on what kind of collective action the visual arts community might take to coincide with the Olympic Games. Now when we meet, we will know that there are new funding opportunities for us should we decide to do something innovative. The meeting will also give the community the opportunity to discuss Artropolis, a tradition in need of help. Opus? public forum is on Wednesday, January 26th at 7:00pm in the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre (the Planetarium), 1100 Chestnut Street in Vancouver. The forum will determine if there is interest in a visual arts Olympic celebration, different models of showcasing visual art and about the future of Artropolis. It will be an interesting meeting, so please plan to attend and, as space is limited, please RSVP to my e-address below.