Death seems to be dealt with strangely in our society. We wait to celebrate people until after they are dead. We use euphemisms all the time when talking about it; we are taught to cling to life, to fight for it, and we often feel uncomfortable if we have to deal with "passing away." We seem to fear death. Christian faith is based on a resurrection story; reincarnation is another key element of myth and faith. And we believe in "heaven" offering life ever after, implying to me that life is doomed to forever be a lesser source of happiness, satisfaction and understanding than the hereafter. I don't avoid the subject of death, be it a person or a tradition, so I wanted you to know that I believe the Artropolis tradition may be over. I don't want this death to go unnoticed.

There is a tremendous awareness of the Artropolis tradition in Vancouver, but many younger visual artists do not know its history. It began in 1983 as a salon des refusées, in response to the survey show of BC art that the Vancouver Art Gallery mounted when it moved into the former courthouse (its present location). That 1983 salon show, called The October Show, was so successful and so popular that a tradition was born: every two to four years since that exhibition, volunteers armed with large government Job Creation Branch grants have put together massive group shows—part curated, part juried—that captured the hearts of the city. These exhibitions were massively successful. Then, in 1997 came Browser. That show ignored the Artropolis tradition and alienated many local artists; it was also a provocative, brilliant idea, but it did not work as an Artropolis show and it bankrupted the Artropolis Society.

Besides the loss of an accumulated surplus as a result of Browser, worse news was to come. First, all the federal government's Job Creation grant programs were cancelled. Consequently, Artropolis 2001 and 2003 had to be done by a single (underpaid) staff person where once up to nine people had done the work. Also, the BC Government decided to award a paltry $3,000 to the visual art exhibition that shows more BC artists and attracted more crowds than most every other publicly funded visual art exhibition. That was at a time when funding to the BC Festival of the Arts was also cut off. Artroplis 2001 and 2003 were successful in spite of these very serious financial challenges, but the days of volunteers who will work all day every day for nothing for almost a year are over. Both these exhibitions enjoyed the services of either a free or "almost free" executive director.

A few months back, Opus hosted a public forum on Artropolis and its future that I chaired. The forum was open to discussion of alternative forms of exposure for visual artists (outside the Artropolis tradition) but at the meeting there was a strong voice for maintaining the Artropolis format for collective action.

Follow-up meetings were organized and I attended them whenever I could, but I feel they will ultimately come to nothing. Some terrific people came forward, but the demands of mounting an Artropolis exhibition are now so complicated and so challenging, I think that they are insurmountable. I have said before that it is leadership that is particularly lacking but the problem of operational funding is the biggest issue.

Several enthusiastic, capable people came forward but they cannot really take the reins without Artropolis experience. Those of us who have been sitting at the bedside of this dying tradition cannot hang on any longer. I am letting go because I see it as a hopeless cause, and it was a cause for which I really got involved. I was one of the volunteer executive directors (2001) and I have been working ever since (in a much reduced role) to breathe life into the organization. However, there comes a time, as it has for "Mr. Artropolis," Ed Varney, when you have to let go. I got involved in 2000 when I discovered the Society was two weeks away from being dissolved as a result of lack of compliance with regulatory agencies. The Artropolis Society is approaching the same situation again and I do not see a solution on the horizon. This is sad
but true.

Artropolis has been a tradition I have loved. I will miss it should this be the end. I'd be happy to be proven a bad prognosticator. You can contact Artropolis at info@artropolis.bc.ca

The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), Hill Strategies, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage are cooperating to offer arts advocates across the country some valuable resources inasmuch as the nation will almost certainly have an election at the conclusion of the Gomery Inquiry.

Chalmers Conference 2005
Report on the 2004 Chalmers Conference
Canadian Conference of the Arts
www.ccarts.ca/en/events/#chalmers

These reports from the Canadian Conference of the Arts' Chalmers Conferences provide arts advocacy information and techniques. The 2005 report provides practical tips for communicating with MPs, insights into parliamentary committees and tips on getting a message heard. The tips on getting a message heard include inviting MPs to exhibitions and performances, making common cause with other groups, and educating MPs on the intrinsic value of the arts, without being "too esoteric". The 2005 report also provides an overview of the federal policy process and a guide to the Canadian Parliament.

The 2004 Chalmers report emphasizes the content of advocacy arguments, including "culture and its contribution to the wealth and harmony of cities, the importance of creativity in education, and the many facets of cultural diversity". A successful advocacy initiative in Quebec is also highlighted.

CCA Advocacy Primer
Canadian Conference of the Arts
www.ccarts.ca/en/advocacy/publications/toolkits/index.html#howtoadvocacy

The Canadian Conference of the Arts' advocacy primer contains steps to develop advocacy activities, strategies for effective advocacy, tips on how to communicate with candidates, ways to get the message out, tips on how to "make the pitch", and more. The advocacy primer provides bullet-point suggestions for each of the five effective advocacy strategies: be brief; be strategic; be appreciative; be informative; and be respectful.

The advocacy section of the CCA's website also contains "handy quotes" for arts advocacy and "examples of arts for life". A statistical fact sheet is available at http://www.ccarts.ca/en/advocacy/publications/toolkits/

Advocacy Resource Kit
Canada Council for the Arts
www.canadacouncil.ca/aboutus/advocacy/ns127300566470312500.htm

The Canada Council's advocacy resource kit contains sections on key advocacy messages, advocacy tips and strategies, the achievements of artists and cultural organizations in a range of sectors, community and economic impacts of the arts, the contributions of Aboriginal and culturally diverse artists, and more. Within each of these areas, the kit contains a variety of statistics, resources and arguments to help arts advocates.

Other resources for arts advocacy include:

Alliance for Arts and Culture
www.allianceforarts.com/advocacy/ad_resources.html

Culture Matters Coalition
www.culturematters.ca/kit.html

Saskatchewan Arts Alliance
www.artsalliance.sk.ca/advocacy

Toronto Arts Coalition
www.torontoartscoalition.org

Mouvement pour les arts et les lettres
www.mal.qc.ca

Nova Scotia Cultural Network
www.culture.ns.ca

Key stats on the arts in Canada, May 2005
Hill Strategies Research, www.hillstrategies.com

This new fact sheet from Hill Strategies Research outlines some findings from their recent Statistical Insights on the Arts reports and the Arts Research Monitor. The fact sheet is available as a stand-alone document in the Statistical Insights on the Arts section of their website.