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Foggy Future for the BC Arts Council the "independent arts agency" be? To understand what the fuss is JLf you haven't yet heard about the recent milestone in B . C . cultural policy. 1 think we can safely forgive you. The fact our provincial legislature has voted to establish a new. 15-member. independent arts funding agency (the British Columbia Arts Council) which will disperse a total of S16 million this year alone, is not the stuff that headlines are made of. A n d you can be forgiven if you're not exactly sure what this will mean for artists and arts organizations in B.C.--the people who are usually in the know about these things can't say for sure either. What is certain is the demand for an arms-length arts council, like the Canada Council or the Ontario Arts Council, is a long-standing one. Artists, service organizations, and arts groups in all disciplines have been asking for it for at least 25 years. But how much will the new B . C . Arts Council resemble the community's vision of arms-length funding? Probably the best-known description of what an arms-length B . C . arts council could be is the one in the 1994 report of the B . C . Status of the Artist Advisory Committee which recommends the agency be composed "primarily of practicing artists" with pnn isions for disciplinary, regional, gender, and ethnic balance. Also, that the council act as an advocate for artists' rights and as a funding agency. Former members of the Status of the Artist Committee were the first to publicly drop a hint there was a proposal under development, but the "arms-length-ness" of the proposal might be lacking when they released their "report card" on the government's progress earlier this year. They used the term "elbow-length" to describe the growing suspicion the government might not be willing to go the distance. Some similar concerns were raised in the legislature when the Arts Council Act came up for debate: how independent would about, consult provincial culture minister Bill Barlee's remarks on the subject of arms-length: "The fundamental argument for the arms-length approach is that decisions on which artistic activities should be funded are best made by an independent body supported by expert advice from the arts community. In this way, the arts community is assured that decisions are free from censorship and are being made with the best interests of the arts first and foremost." On the other hand, not only will appointments to the new Arts Council he made h\ the government ol the day, the council is not formally being given the power to hire its own staff--its support staff will be the existing Ministry of Small Business. Tourism and Culture staff who presently make up the (definitely nonarms-length) Cultural Services Branch. Is this enough to compromise the independence of an independent? Daphne Goldrick, one of the co-chairs of Status of the Artist and a board member of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, looks at it this way: "I suppose we should look at the glass and say it's half lull. In the past the Cultural Services Branch had a great deal of input into what the B . C . Arts Board did." Whether the elbowlength approach to creating an Arts Council works or not "really depends on the people involved." The B . C . Arts Board itself plays an interesting part in this story. The Arts Board is an appointed board with a vague mandate to "advise" the minister responsible for culture, but no independence and no teal control over its budget. Any decisions made by the Arts Board were still subject to approval by one of an illustrious line of ministers responsible, among them Bill Reid (no relation). Grace McCarthy. Rita Johnston, Lyall Hanson, and Darlene Marzari, all ol whom handled responsibility for culture as part of a broader portfolio including lotteries, municipal affairs, tourism, or other demanding, high-profile areas. The new government in 1991 was opening up lines of communication with the arts community. A rait of new appointments to the Arts Board were announced and the Arts Board, for its part, backed the call for a transition to arms-length funding. In essence, the Arts Board encouraged the government in its quest to do awaj " ith the Arts Board. Donna Spencer, a current B . C . Arts Board appointee and Artistic and Managing Director of the Firehall "They used the term 'elbow-length' to describe the growing suspicion the government might not be willing to go the distance."