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