A message to the Minister, on behalf of the next generation of arts administrators

October 23, 2009

The following message was delivered in person by Managing Director Minna Schendlinger to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger.

October 15, 2009

Minister: I’m not here today to represent a specific part of our sector or a specific organization. I’m here on behalf of a group of people I met last week. They are students in the Arts & Entertainment management program at Capilano University. They are finishing their class work and getting ready to step into practicums and internships at arts & culture organizations across the province. I had a hard time looking those kids in the eye and telling them that they were making a good career choice. I’ve been an arts administrator for 12 years, my whole professional life has been in doing this work and I’m ready to do it for another 30 years. But there’s a group of people getting ready to come in behind me, as I came in behind my mentors, and I want to be able to tell those people, sincerely, that they are making a good choice, that there is a real future for arts & culture in BC. And I can only do that with your help and support. Your government ran a campaign and was returned to power in May based on the premise of keeping BC strong. My strength, and the collective strength of the people in this room and all the people coming in behind us, is in the creation, production and presentation of arts & culture. That is the message that I am asking you to take back to our Premier and to cabinet: We are here doing what we love and we’re good at it. We want to keep doing it and we want to pass our knowledge and wisdom along to generations following us. And we can only do that with deliberate and specific support from our government.