March 4, 1999

To:Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee

From:City Clerk

Subject:Arts and Culture Grants Service Area Review

Recommendation:

The Municipal Grants Review Committee on March 4, 1999, recommended to the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee the adoption of the attached report dated February 19, 1999, from Ms.Anne Collins, President, Toronto Arts Council, respecting the Arts and Culture Grants Service Area Review.

City Clerk

R. Dyers/tl

Item No. 7

(Report dated February 19, 1999, addressed to the

Municipal Grants Review Committee from the

President, Toronto Arts Council)

Purpose:

This report recommends a needs assessment be undertaken to determine appropriate funding levels for City-wide arts and culture grants programs.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1)the Toronto Arts Council undertake a Service Area Review that will assess the needs of the arts and culture communities across the City beyond 1999, make recommendations on the programs required to meet those needs, and provide a cost analysis for the funding and delivery of those programs; and

(2)the Toronto Arts Council be directed to report the results of this Service Area Review to the appropriate committee by December 1999.

Council Reference/Background/History:

In March 1998, City Council approved the formation of the Municipal Grants Review Committee to oversee the development of a Municipal Grants Policy, including Service Area Reviews. A preliminary report on the Arts and Culture Grants review process was provided to the Municipal Grants Review Committee at its meeting of July 27, 1998, along with progress reports on other Service Area Reviews.

At its meeting of October 26, 1998, the Municipal Grants Review Committee approved a report from the Commissioner of Economic Development, Culture and Tourism which recommended, among other things, deferral of the Committee's review of arts and culture grants policy until Council had given final consideration to the structure for the delivery of cultural services through the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team.

At its meeting of December 16 and 17, 1998, City Council approved the clause embodied in ReportNo. 15 of the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team regarding the Administrative Structure for Arts Grants, which, among other things, approved the Toronto Arts Council as the City-wide arm's length administrative body in relation to the funding of the arts and cultural organizations and artists in the City of Toronto.

Comments:

The Arts and Culture Grants Program Review undertaken jointly in 1998 by the Toronto Arts Council and the City's Culture Division was never completed. Prior to the October 26, 1998, deferral of the process, the Review concentrated mainly on the structure of the delivery process, because this was a central issue in the Arts and Culture Grants Service Area. Now that that issue has been resolved, a comprehensive needs assessment must be done to determine the service enhancement and levelling up needs of arts and culture groups across the whole City. The scope of the Toronto Arts Council's report to the October 26, 1998, meeting of the Municipal Grants Review Committee regarding service levelling was limited to one program area - individual artists programs - and reflected the bare minimum to extend those programs City-wide. It did not address the broader and longer term needs of the arts and culture service area, which includes the levelling up required to extend the former City of Toronto's Cultural Facilities Grants Program City-wide and the service enhancement required to raise the level of cultural grants service delivery across the City to that of the former City of Toronto.

An Arts and Culture Service Area Review should be initiated to determine the program needs of arts and culture organizations across the City and the cost of meeting those needs. The six former cities that now comprise Toronto all supported arts and culture groups, but the level of funding and the types of programs offered varied widely. The Toronto Arts Council, as the City's arm's length arts and culture grants funding body, should undertake this needs assessment to determine the level of funding required to cover the service levelling and service enhancement needs of the arts and culture grants program beyond 1999.