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What I find irritating about the $15 million provincial gift is that Luminato isn’t even using the money this year. In one of Kate Taylor’s earlier G&M articles Luminato CEO Janice Price is quoted as saying “This [the 15M] is for the future.” It would be nice to think that the province would have asked some questions about how the money would be spent BEFORE handing over the cheque. If they did ask, & knew that the money wasn’t going to be spent this year, it’s worse that the province didn’t have the foresight to invest the money in a high interest acct. until Luminato was ready to spend it. This way, enough interest could’ve been earned on that $15M to provide several arts organizations with a similar one-time gift. According to my math, based on a 3% rate of return, about $450,000 dollars could’ve been generated in one year from that $15,000,000. I guess Luminato will just have earn the interest themselves. (Of course this is barring any contractual obligation to return accured interest back to the gov. but somehow I have a pretty good feeling that Luminato has this money free and clear). What’s disturbing about this $15M is that this money is in additon to a second $300,000 Celebrate Ontario grant Luminato received from the province (administered by the province through the Ministry of Culture). If you do all the math Luminato is sitting around $15,750,000.00 in provincial grant money this year. Now let’s take a look at the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) granting budget. In 2007 the TAC, the arms length municipal arts funding agency, provided 665 Toronto based arts organizations/individual artists from numerous artistic disciplines (theatre, dance, music, visual arts, literary, community based arts) with grant money to fund their work. Toronto Arts Council’s 2007 granting budget: $9,738,829.00 $15,750,000.00 for (1) organization vs. $9,738,829.00 for (665) What exactly was the province thinking?

Can anyone explain the rationale behind this? I see, too, that Mr. Gagliano (a person who I know to be a great philanthropist) is on the TCF Board. Isn’t this a conflict of interest??

http://tcf.ca/Portals/0/docs/Vital%20Ideas%202008-Grantee%20Profiles.pdf

and guess what …
Tony Gagliano is on the TCF Board
sounds like a VITAL idea to me ..

I think as a community it’s important to have a window to international work, and a large festival provides leverage to get the funding for it. (Harbourfront also does a fantastic job of this.) I also think that festivals can commission work that would be beyond the reach normally for organizations – I’m thinking how Ronnie Burkett has been using festivals to commission his last couple of shows.

But like you, I have reservations about Luminato being that festival.

i have a post addressing most of your points coming up next week. i am assuming by omission that from your seemingly well-informed position you aren’t quibbling with the egregious manner in which the the public funding system was hijacked by those with political connections (regardless of their most recent country of residence).

Not the case. The article quotes Sorbara as having to say this about Gagliano:

“”He was not in the political loop in Toronto or Ontario,” says MPP Greg Sorbara, former Ontario finance minister, who pressed the province to support Luminato to the tune of $15 million (announced in April), an enviable amount for any arts festival, let alone one in just its second season. “That’s changed dramatically. “

They just flat out admit that A) Gagliano used political connections to get the 15 million and B) the former finance minister used his influence to help his friend get the cash for the new festival he invented. In the newspaper. Like it’s no big deal! Shouldn’t they at least have the decency to obfuscate?

deepthroat: dude, you can’t be deepthroat and bernstein at the same time. that’s like being pitcher and catcher simultaneously.

And, what about other communities in the province who are also crying out for funding; do they have the same concerns?