Richmond Hill arts community angered by council’s decision to cut grant

Arts and culture are what draws people to communities and keeps them there,

Yorkregion.com
February 24, 2020
Noor Javed

A Richmond Hill-based director, whose film is currently streaming on Netflix thanks in part to an arts grant he received from the city, is blasting council after it voted to cancel all funding to arts and culture projects claiming the city was in a period of “austerity.”

Sean Cisterna, said he received a grant from the city in 2015 to write the first draft of a script that went on to become the acclaimed film “Kiss and Cry,” which stars Chantal Kreviazuk, and is currently streaming on Netflix.

“When the motion passed to deny the small amount of cultural funding set aside for contributing to the vibrancy of our city ... I was shocked,” said Cisterna in an email to councillors. “It proved to me that culture does not matter to this council. That the arts do not matter to this council.”

Last week council voted 4-3, against the recommendation of staff, to cancel a $65,000 grant program that awards a small amount of funding to 20 community and cultural groups such as the Alzheimer Society of York Region to Richmond Hill Concert Band.

When he first brought in the motion, Ward 1 councillor Greg Beros said “I don’t think residents of Richmond Hill want us taking their tax dollars and handing it out to community groups.”

Regional councillor Carmine Perrelli, who supported the motion to cut funding, cited the results in a recent citywide survey he conducted, in which he found the “overwhelmingly majority” of respondents didn’t approve of council giving money to groups of their choosing.

He said if groups need funding, they should come to councillors to help get private funding. “Please reach out to your member of council, we have the ear of the community, we can help raise the funds you require.”

The city created the grant program in 2015, and has given groups seed funding to a maximum of $5,000 to launch and support cultural and artistic projects and initiatives in the community. According to the staff report, the funding “allowed for the creation of impactful programs, services and activities that may otherwise have not been accomplished due to financial constraints.”

In an interview, Cisterna said the $5,000 grant he got helped kick-start his career.

“Often this money is the genesis of a project,” he said. “The hardest thing is for someone to say ‘yes’ first, and that’s why this grant, and the support from Richmond Hill had been so great because they had been willing to take a chance on local talent,” he said.

He said many of the upcoming projects “are dead at the moment,” he said.

Resident Maureen Loweth, who was hoping to create a music hub within the Richmond Hill United Church, said her group was shortlisted for funding. She said the city recently approved the terms of reference for the funding, put out a call for applications in July 2019, and even went through the process of choosing volunteers for the selection committee. Volunteers from the organizations were also invited to the Wednesday council meeting to answer questions from council -- but none were asked.

“We sat in council chambers for three hours; many volunteers had taken the morning off work to attend at the city’s request,” she said. “My issue is not so much with whether they think it’s a good idea to continue the grant or not ... it simply has to do with, so many of us are volunteers who put our time into this, whose time was utterly and completely wasted by these councillors.”

“It’s so disrespectful,” she said.

Cisterna said he will be withdrawing his participation from the city’s upcoming Cultural Summit, coming up at the end of March in protest. “I do not wish to contribute to a city who does not respect its cultural creators and ambassadors.”