Letter from the minister

(Dear all of you,

If I am whacked tonight by VANOC BLACKOPS, or arts "sector" oligarchs and their henchpeople, please, no violence in reprisals.

What I would like most is that you create or present some awkward unpopular un-entertaining art in my memory.

Love
and fuck you, really

David McIntosh)


Dear David McIntosh:

I write today to address a rumour that is circulating about the BC Arts Council (BCAC). You can be absolutely assured that our government has no plan to abolish or change the mandate of the BCAC in any way. Please consider this letter confirmation that no changes are being considered for the Council.

This government is very pleased and continuously impressed with the work of the BCAC and what the Council delivers for British Columbia’s arts community. We are grateful for their accomplishments, and how they represent you. Funding through the BCAC is being provided in 2009 at a level exceeding last year’s.

I hope this email will relieve any anxieties and eliminate rumours on this issue. Please do not hesitate to contact my office by email to TCA.Minister@gov.bc.ca if you have any questions.

Sincerely,


Kevin Krueger
Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts




Dear Kevin Krueger,

I am honoured by your attention, but I simply do not believe you. If the BC Government were to publicly announce that they supported the BC Arts Council and fully endorsed the concept of an arms-length peer-juried arts award system, I would still be dubious. If the BC Government were to back up such words with the allocation of funds for the BC Arts Council to distribute as grants in a line item of taxpayers revenue in their budgets, I would be heartened, but I would wait and see, as obviously action speaks louder than political rhetoric.

I believe in transparency, democracy and honesty. I am not interested in benefiting from behind-the-scenes mechanisms that equate art and communities to capital and constituencies.

This may be inconvenient for me, but until the BCAC is able to write its own cheques to fulfill it's declared mandate I must assume it is not supported by this government.

I would be mad to think otherwise.

Sincerely,

David McIntosh

Yes, I think it is about the Olympics.

These are hard times for bankers and politicians.

These are hard times, and the arts must take the blame.

In light of the prudent fucking of BC based artists by their just and honest leaders, I suggest it would show great fiscal responsibility if all arts organisations deferred their Vancouver presentation activities scheduled between January 22 and March 21st, 2010. Defer to a time when the global economy picks up and the children are allowed second helpings of gruel. Or until March 22nd.

Yes, I think it is about the Olympics.

The arts and culture "sector" was enlisted to help land this corporate cluster fuck. Now it's here the "sector" is expendable. Why be fearful of offending these people? You can't lose what you never had a chance of getting in the first place. Respect. What's to celebrate in this context? Don't stop making art, but make it on your own terms after Mach 21st.

I know, it's easy for me to say.

I've been planning my escape ever since I spent 3 days at an artist's consult meeting with Vanoc two years ago. Three days with risk averse corporate cluster-fuck operatives and a bunch of depressingly well behaved 'artists' from across Canada. For my troubles I got a severe MRSA staff infection on my face and a major boost to my misanthropic world view.

During the olympics I'll be doing a self-constructed developmental workshop in a totalitarian country in the tropics.

There is no escape.