City of Toronto Grants Department

Date: November 15, 2011

To: Mayor Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto cc: Toronto City Council

From: Senior Grants Officer

Subject: Ford City Grants Fund Application from Toronto Arts Council

The Toronto Arts Council has applied to a new fund, the Ford City Grants Fund, which was created for granting funding to non-profit organizations. Successful bidders will receive up to a $50,000 grant to offset costs from their operations and expenditures.

This report serves to critically evaluate the Toronto Arts Council and determine whether it is worthy of receiving funding from the new Ford City Grants Fund. It will begin by providing a brief overview of the Toronto Arts Council and its activities, followed by evaluating how the Toronto Arts Council impacts Toronto's society and the need for the organization’s services. Lastly, the memo will conclude by deciding whether to grant the Ford City Grants Fund to the organization.

This report is important as the Ford City Grants Fund has limited funds available and up to $50,000 may be granted to the organization, which is a hefty sum considering that money is tight. Furthermore, many organizations are applying for grants due to recent cuts in funding. It is therefore important that only the organizations most deserving of the grant should receive it.

A. Overview of Toronto Arts Council

1. Background

The Toronto Arts Council is mainly a volunteer-run organization with a small group of professional full-time staff. It's primary goal is to support the development, accessibility and excellence of the arts in Toronto. The Toronto Arts Council's activities consists of reviewing grant applications for funding made by various artists and organizations. On average, the Toronto Arts Council reviews 1,500 applications annually, and approves roughly half of them, with grant requests ranging from $2,000 to as much as $800,000 for large projects.

B. Evaluation of Toronto Arts Council’s Activities

1. Scope of programs currently offered

The Toronto Arts Council currently classifies applications into seven categories:
1) Community Arts;
2) Dance;
3) Large Institutions;
4) Literary;
5) Music;
6) Theatre; and
7) Visual/Media Arts
The Toronto Arts Council generally tries to ensure that all seven categories are equally well represented, which implies an equal division of funding among the seven categories. Historically, there is actually no limit with regards to the total amount of funding for each of the categories, and applications are approved meritocratically based on the strength of their proposals.

C. Evaluation of need for Toronto Arts Council’s services

1. Arts and Culture supports Toronto as a society

Over the past decade, the local arts and cultural scene has actively evolved into one of the key pillars supporting Toronto as a society.

The arts and culture is important to neighbourhoods and community life for a multicultural melting pot like Toronto. Approximately half of Toronto's population currently consists of immigrants and Toronto itself has one of the world's widest ethnic diversities (Schellenberg, G., 2004). Supporting all kinds of art or cultural expression from various ethnic groups, as well as their practices, is important for integration and to maintain the stability of society (City of Toronto Social Policy and Research Department, 2006).

According to The Economist's annual ranking of global cities, Toronto is the fourth most liveable city in the world mainly due to its near perfect scores in stability, culture and environment (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2011). The Toronto Arts Council's primary objectives include providing grants to outstanding artists and arts organizations. As such, the Toronto Arts Council's activities contribute directly to Toronto's cultural life and environment.

2. Benefits of arts and culture to Toronto’s Tourism industry

The local arts and culture scene supports Toronto's tourism industry, one of the key pillars of its economy.

The arts and culture sector (which is a subset of Toronto's Tourism industry) as a whole accounts for between 133,000 to 190,000 jobs and $9 billion of economic activity every year, comparable to other much-hyped sectors such as high-tech or biomedical (The Economic Importance of Culture to Toronto: Final Report, 2001).

Toronto is famous for its liberal, expressive arts, and the local performing arts scene has been in the spotlight many times and received numerous rewards (Henry, C., 2009). Every year, flocks of tourists are drawn in by world-renowned theatre events and festivals. Examples include (Toronto International Film Festival Inc., 2011):

* the Toronto International Film Festival, which draws in approximately 1.3 million visitors each season; and * the Canadian National Exhibition, which features 336 films from 64 different countries and draws in over 500,000 people annually, including numerous famous celebrities

The Toronto Arts Council's activities and funding helps to ensure the success of events and festivals such as those listed above. The Toronto Arts Council thus plays an important role in ensuring Toronto's continuing innovations and prosperity in the arts.

3. Growth of Creative Talent through Cultural Development

Arts and Culture grows creative talent through cultural development, which is fundamental to Toronto's continuing economic prosperity

For new age economies, creativity is often the key to product and technological innovation, which raises intellectual capital and spurs competitiveness. The Toronto City Council's reworked 2011 Cultural Plan itself consists of stimulating creative capital, and building a creative city, to meet future economic challenges (Creative City Planning Framework, 2008).

Arts and culture are vital to neighbourhoods and community life, and fundamental to long-term economic prosperity and key to building Toronto's local, national and international reputation as a creative city (Culture Plan: Developing the Creative City, 2011).

Culture can thus be used as an economic catalyst to maximize growth through research and development and the commercialization of ideas, which will help strengthen Toronto's economy and provide a greater competitive edge globally. As previously mentioned, The Toronto Arts Council plays an important role in directly funding Toronto's arts and cultural development.

D. Evaluation on whether to grant Ford City Grants Fund to organization

From the evidence gathered in the report, it is clear that the arts and culture are important to Toronto as it supports Toronto as a society, Toronto's tourism industry, and lastly, because it helps to grow Toronto's creative talent. Consequentially, the Toronto Arts Council plays an important role in funding, and thus, directly supporting Toronto's arts scene and its cultural development. As such, it is in Toronto's best interests to approve the Toronto's Arts Council's application for additional funding from the Ford City Grants Fund.

In conclusion, it is recommended that the Toronto Arts Council be granted the funding based on the numerous merits that it brings to the city of Toronto. However, it is recommended that a detailed breakdown of how the additional funding will be used should first be drafted and submitted by the Toronto Arts Council before granting any additional funding.

References

1. Schellenberg, G. (2004), Immigrants in Canada's Census Metropolitan Areas, available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=89-613-MIE2004003&lang=eng (accessed 6 November 2011)

2. City of Toronto Social Development Finance & Administration Division Social Policy Analysis and Research (2006), Youth & New Immigrants in Toronto, available at: www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf/youth_immigrants.pdf (accessed 6 November 2011)

3. A Summary of the Liveability Ranking and Overview, (2011 February), The Economist Intelligence Unit.

4. Wilcox, A. & Palassio, C. & Dovercourt, J. (2001), The state of the arts: living with culture in Toronto, The Economic Importance of Culture to Toronto: Final Report, Arthur Anderson LLP.

5. Henry, C. (2009), Toronto Art Scene – artnet Magazine 2009, available at: http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/henry/toronto-art-scene9-17-09.asp (accessed 6 November 2011)

6. Toronto International Film Festival Inc. (2011), TIFF History, available at: http://tiff.net/about/tiffhistory (accessed 6 November 2011)

7. Creative City Planning Framework - A Supporting Document to the Agenda for Prosperity: Prospectus for a Great City, (February 2008), City of Toronto.

8. City of Toronto (2011), Culture Plan: Developing the Creative City , available at: http://www.toronto.ca/culture/cultureplan.htm (accessed 6 November 2011)