Culture Policy

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It’s time to support our artists and the institutions that foster arts and culture in Alberta. It’s time to fuel an Alberta Renaissance.

An Alberta Liberal government will build on the many strengths of Alberta’s arts and culture sector by implementing an innovative and flexible arts and culture policy that provides stable, sustainable, generous funding for our vital arts and culture sector.

By supporting Alberta’s artists, we can secure Alberta’s prosperity and invigorate our cultural growth.

The Alberta Liberal Caucus is committed to achieving the following goals…

  • Elevate Alberta’s status as a leading cultural capital;
  • improve Albertans’ quality of life;
  • nurture Albertans’ talents and aspirations;
  • advance a stable, energized arts and culture sector;
  • transform the perception of arts and culture from “ornamental” to “essential.”

…and accomplishing the following objectives:

  • improve awareness and accessibility to arts and culture;
  • stimulate social and economic development;
  • recognize and support professional artists;
  • raise the province’s cultural profile within and outside Alberta;
  • respect and celebrate cultural uniqueness/ differences.

Generous, Sustainable Funding

The arts enrich our lives; indeed, they can help give life meaning. Great art brings joy, hard questions, understanding and new challenges. The arts are essential; they fuel civilization. And investing in arts, culture and heritage attracts investment, creates jobs and diversifies the economy.

An Alberta Liberal government would immediately double the budget of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and triple funding within three years. AFA grants support festivals, book publishers, artist-in-residence programs, emerging artists, education, community events and exhibits.

We would also review the ongoing operations and mandate of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and establish a $500 million endowment fund for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, parallel to existing endowment funds for medicine, engineering and the sciences.

For more details, read Fuelling an Alberta Renaissance.

Culture Responses & Questions

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27 October 2011

RAM funding debacle just political cover to back out of the project

Edmonton – Official Opposition Culture Critic Laurie Blakeman says the debacle over Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) funding is merely an exercise in sloppy accounting and the excuse the provincial Tories have been waiting for to back out of a project they never really supported in the first place.

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29 September 2011

Arts sector getting lost in the shuffle

Edmonton – Laurie Blakeman, Official Opposition Culture and Community Spirit Critic, says that while artists and patrons across the province are looking forward to Alberta Arts Days, the province’s arts and culture sector faces significant challenges the provincial government must address – including an imbalance of provincial support between Edmonton and Calgary. 

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29 October 2008

Sexual Orientation (October 28)

Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We’ve heard promises of a review of the Human Rights Commission and the legislation, but no clear answer has been given about whether gay and lesbian Albertans will be given the same written-into-legislation rights as everyone else.

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14 June 2007

Arts Funding (June 13)

Mr. Agnihotri: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Alberta needs to get serious about diversifying the economy.

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16 May 2007

Community Initiatives Program (May 15)

Mr. Agnihotri: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. CIP guidelines state very clearly that up to $10,000 will be considered on a nonmatching basis. Not over $10,000. Up to $10,000.

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04 May 2007

Community Initiatives Program (May 3)

Mr. Agnihotri: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Applewood broke the rules, CIP broke the rules, CFEP broke the rules, and the other initiative programs do not even have the rules.

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01 May 2007

Major Community Facilities Program (April 30)

Mr. Agnihotri: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government is more concerned about photo ops than being accountable with taxpayers’ money.

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20 April 2007

Royal Alberta Museum Renovations (April 19)

Mr. Agnihotri: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For years this government has been planning to renovate and expand the Royal Alberta Museum, but now all the hard work, imagination, creativity, and money that has been put into this project has been wasted as architects have been forced back to the drawing board.

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