from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 10:33 PM
subject Security agent expected to testify in public in Harkat case;
Dear Stephen,
How was your weekend? Most people seem happy with your cabinet selections, so did you take the opportunity to relax? I spent Saturday taking boxes to the studio, which I couldn’t get into, as I was trying to open the wrong door. Straightened that up with Sébastien Sunday afternoon. We bought 2 new winter tires from guess where. That’s right: Canadian Tire.
We didn’t get many visitors to the house on Halloween. Enjoyed the Mathieu et Genéviève show at Zoobizarre, but didn’t have the energy to go to the Eastern Bloc afterwards. We watched old scary films this weekend: The Omen and Poltergeist. Also watched Le crabbe dans la tête, a staple of contemporary Quebecois cinema, which wasn’t really that good, despite having Isabelle Blais in it.
Work is going well, but things are starting to intensify. The construction and building is continuing, electricians are running around, sprinklers need to be adjusted, and a whole lot of little details need to be ironed out.
I moved more boxes to my studio tonight, then since I had the car I picked Claudine up from choir. We had the tires put on today but the old guy at the garage forgot to change the oil.
Tomorrow night we’ll watch US election results at Champs. Who are you hoping will win? Realistically I’m rooting for Obama, but a tiny perverse side of me would kind of like to see what effect a President McCain and especially a vice-president Palin would have on the world.
OK, I must really, really, really go work on my presentation for the Hot Buttons conference this weekend.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 10:39 PM
subject Harper prépare le terrain pour la rencontre de Washington
Cher Stephen,
Desolé, j’ai oublié le partie de sujet en français. Est-ce que tu a parlé aussi de l’environment avec ton homologue indien M. Singh pendant ton recontre?
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 8:02 AM
subject Foul play not detected on body found near Barrie: Police; La mine d’amiante Jeffrey ferme pour l’hiver
Dear Stephen,
What are your feelings now that Obama won decisively in the US? We watched from Champs and called Jen in Chicago, who happened to be in line waiting to get into Grant Park. We had all watched the 2004 results from Champs, but this time the results were more positive.
There seems to be a genuine wave of optimism that has swept the globe. Whether things will actually change for the better remains to be seen, but a page in history has turned. Maybe someday the sole criteria for holding high office will be competence, and sex or colour of skin or religious affiliations need not play a role.
Last night we went to see Feist in concert at Centre Bell. They had masked off half the arena but even so it was a tad too big for her style of music, even though on numerous songs she and her band rocked out. There was also a huge screen behind the band that projected live animation images created on stage, which was fun.
I’m still behind on my presentation, and things at work are keeping me busy and tired. I should perhaps stop smoking.
Speaking of tired, now an election has been called in Québec.
How do you maintain your busy schedule? Do you exercise at a gym? Yoga? Drink smoothies? Take vitamins or supplements? Or is it all inner-drive, passion and obsessions?
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 10:16 PM
subject Government to ‘do something’ for auto industry: Tory MP; La guerre des pneus?
Dear Stephen,
Happy Remembrance Day. I had a long day at work, and I’m about to go to bed early, so I thought for my letter tonight I’d send you the transcript of my presentation at the Hot Buttons conference on Sunday morning. Overall it was a great weekend, good energy, a reunion of sorts, and lots of positive ideas bouncing around. John and Alex were there as well which I think really helps for the development of Third Space.
-chris
The future of Artist-Run culture: What will an Artist-Run Centre look like in 15 years (2023?)
First of all I’d like to thank ARCCO for inviting me to be here, I feel very honoured. I’m sad that Emily vey Duke can’t be here because I think her presentation would have been really entertaining. And finally I’d like to mention that I have a few images to accompany my presentation but they were totally ripped off the Internet and I haven’t paid anyone reproduction rights.
I’d like to start with a definition of an ARC in 2008 from Wikipedia: “The term artist-run centre, or ARC, is the common term of use for artist-initiated and managed organizations in Canada. Centres follow the not-for-profit arts organization model, do not charge admission fees, are non-commercial and de-emphasize the selling of work.
“Centres have tended not to pursue individual sponsors or patrons, neither corporations nor individuals, in part because they are in a critical relationship with the traditional and established art system of museums which have the resources to pursue that type of support.”
I have to ask: did anyone in this room write this?
So in light of the recent Canadian federal election, and because art and politics are inextricably linked, I’d like to frame my presentation by looking into the future and speculating on a plausible political scenario in fifteen years, with the ramifications to ARCs as we know them.
(image of Harper)
In 2023 Stephen Harper will celebrate a historic, remarkable 17-year tenure as Canadian Prime Minister. Harper won his first majority in 2011 and used the ongoing economic recession to justify further downsizing of government spending and privatization of many services, including health care. During this time he managed to cut or re-direct all government funding of the arts into historical museums and sports and recreation programs. He turned the Canada Council for the Arts into a governmental department with the title of Creative Economy that offered, instead of grants and awards based on excellence, entrepreneurial loans to artists based on economic feasibility and business plans.
Needless to say, Artist-run culture evolved as well. Caught off-guard by the sudden transformation of funding, artists demonstrated and protested but to no avail. (Vote Arts image) Some centres managed to survive by finding wealthy patrons or partnering with businesses, while others became more commercial, selling their work or services. The bulk of centres folded after CC funding dried up in what the artist community called the Great Canadian Culture Wars of 2011. With a majority mandate, this is the period of time when Harper initiates widespread government review of all of the CCs programs, including funding to ARCs and the system of peer-reviewed grants.
Under the scrutiny of these reviews the activities of many ARCs were presented as operating in ways that were contrary to Canadian Values. Exhibitions such as “Scatalogue: 30 Years of Crap in Contemporary Art” at Galerie Saw were used to demonstrate that ARCs were an unnecessary and irresponsible use of public funds, especially in “uncertain economic times”.
(Wim Delvoye image)
Despite impassioned arguments from artists, the momentum had already swung. The 5-year economic recession that proceeded Harper’s first majority—known as the Downward Spiral—had spread fear and doubt in the public and Richard Florida’s theory of the creative economy vanished in a puff of smoke as health care, education, infrastructure and industry took priority. Art was again seen as a luxury, and artists could find no way to prove to the public otherwise. Harper deftly countered any resistance from artists because his cuts did not seem idealogically-motivated, but based on sound economics and concern for Canadian Values.
(Harper-hockey)
The sky did not fall on all artists or ARCs, however, as they proved to be resilient and highly adaptable. Private donations rose to fill some of the void, corporate sponsorship increased and some ARCs simply became more market-driven. Sales of contemporary art actually increased following the reduction of the grants system to a loans system. Rather than receive grants, artists could apply for loans to set up their studios and make work destined for commercial market. Buyers emerged for video and performance work. Galleries charged admission. More private companies jumped on the art-prize bandwagon. Of course, overall there were less artists at work in less fields producing less art, but no-one seemed to notice.
So of course all of this is just wild speculation and hyperbole. And I’ll admit a lot of my research in framing this imagined future comes from the Conservative Party of Canada Facebook group, whose members mostly represent a vocal minority of opinion even within conservative debate. But there are many reasons to believe that an outcome such as I’ve just described is quite probable.
At this moment in time, in the present of 2008, many of the founding ARCs across Canada are celebrating thirty-five year anniversaries. The movement has generated a huge national network of artists and art users, launched careers, provided training and introduced a wide variety of contemporary art practices to the public. They are spaces of openness, inclusion, innovation and experimentation. We all know this.
However, in the eyes of conservatives, and those uninitiated to contemporary art practices, ARCs are also cliquish, incomprehensible, alienating and at times downright insulting to the public, despite the fact they rely on public funding. From this perspective, ARCs are like a child, now thirty-some years old, still living in their parents’ basement. She stays out all night at parties and plays her music too loud and argues constantly with her parents, always demanding more money for food and clothes and spends her days locked in her room demanding privacy so she can make her art.
If you were the parents, what would you do?
At some point, some tough love is going to come from the Conservatives to the CC, and from the CC to the ARCs, and we had all best be prepared.
Since 2006 when the Conservatives took office they managed to cut $48-million from various arts programs, small programs that the general public wasn’t even aware of. They did this while slyly augmenting the budget of the CC by $30-million to ensure that they seem like supporters the arts. And even though the cuts announced just before the election cost them seats in Québec, and brought forth a wellspring of opposition from artists and arts supporters, the Conservatives still managed to gain a stronger minority government. Now they’ve just axed the National Portrait Gallery for good, knowing they can weather any storm of criticism artists throw at them. There really is no telling how far they can go.
I see the strategy behind these cuts. This isn’t like the Culture Wars in the US, and Harper is certainly no Jesse Helms. (Helms image) This is not overt social conservatism, although it is there, just under the surface. Rather than openly attack content, funding is cut or “re-allocated” in the best interests of program delivery. The conservatives will take it upon themselves to re-define program objectives, and apply their own interpretation. If a program isn’t effective, administratively sound or meeting its objectives then it will be cut. And this all sounds great to the taxpayer, let’s refer to him as Joe the Plumber, (image) who doesn’t want his tax dollars spent on art he doesn’t understand. In fact, Joe the Plumber doesn’t want his tax dollars spent on art, period. If he feels so inclined to take an interest in the arts, he’ll pay for it himself.
And this brings me to the core principle that could bolster Harpers’ eventual siphoning of arts funding to other areas, regardless of whether he gets a majority: and that is government should not be in the business of funding art, and that artists should be in business for themselves. Harper has learned that he shouldn’t equate funding to the arts with rich galas; next time he’ll use controversial works like those found in just about any ARC (Clark – Ron Athey image) to help justify his cuts with the full support of Joe the Plumber. The majority of his supporters prefer a fiscal house in order, as opposed to art in disorder.
This is perhaps the defining attitude of conservatives; less government involvement in our lives, less taxes, and certainly no funding to the arts. Museums can be funded but only if they promote Canadian values and history, but certainly not tasteless art. For conservatives, the market itself should determine the quality of art. If it can’t sell, it isn’t any good, and therefore need not be made.
(Komar and Melamid painting)
Artists and ARCs need to make a more vocal, sensible case for public funding of the arts, now, and not just to funding bodies, but to the general public, to Joe the Plumber. We’ve seen that despite our best efforts to mobilize, the artist vote itself is too small; we need Joe the Plumber on our side more than he needs us. The question is how to convince Joe that art is important in his life, whether he knows it or not.
ARCentres in 15 years may yet be a dominating institutional force in Canadian Art and public life, or they may simply resemble loft spaces, studio parties, apartment galleries and events that are untouched by any government agency. In any case, young artists are drawn intrinsically into Artist-run culture. They go to where the action is, or they create it themselves. And this still gives me hope.
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 10:36 PM
subject Trade war likely in Charest bid to protect Que. culture: Experts; Cauchon ne sera pas candidat à la direction du PLC
Dear Stephen,
Sorry I haven’t written in awhile. Work has been steady and I’m rarely home before 6 or 6:30pm, sometime more like 7. I haven’t been into the studio in awhile either though I did have a relaxing weekend. On Saturday it rained cats and dogs all day, Clo and I ran some errands in the car, which included a random stop at an upholsterers on St. Hubert where we bought some old lamps for the apartment and her studio. We went to a dinner party that night at her friend Janine’s place, and then on Sunday went to Chantal Dumont’s for supper. She lives right beside James, to make a small world even smaller.
Are you all set for the return to the H of C tomorrow? Tomorrow evening after work I plan to attend the AGM of Third Space Gallery via Skype, or possibly Gmail Video. I’ve prepared a partial agenda but am really hoping that others take direction.
Tomorrow is also the first official day of installation for the Christian Marclay exhibition. The construction is almost all finished, the protective floor coverings almost all off, now it remains to clean, organize, patch holes, fish wire and install the works. It’ll be a blitz to the end.
Had beers with James after work and discussed again possible contracts and long-term arrangements at work. Things look positive.
Here’s a list of the top 10 things our friend Blair Skulmolski would do if her were PM, in case you were hard up for ideas:
Blair Skulmoski wroteon October 29, 2008 at 4:32pm
1) Dissolve the Senate
2) Public/Private Medicare
3) Eliminate Bilingualism
4) Increase spending on infrastructure ie. roadways,highways
5) Toughen up immigration laws
6) Bring back capital punishment
7) Make life sentences 99 years instead of 25
8) Buy back our monetary system from private ownership
9) Eliminate the, “Double Dipping” of pensions by M.P.’s
10) Hand over more power to the provinces and decentralizing government
It’s actually rather tame, certainly for Blair. Then again, I think he just likes to antagonize.
In case you were curious the Canadian Art website has an article on the Hot Buttons conference here:
http://www.canadianart.ca/online/features/2008/11/13/hot-buttons/
Do you like how the first picture is of you, from my presentation? Can you believe how big your head is, or are you used to things like that? Have a good night,
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 11:05 PM
subject Patriarch cited for triple murder-suicide in Toronto suburb; Des déficits à Ottawa
Dear Stephen,
Did it feel hard to get back to the H of C? It seems many of the opposition party members weren’t too pleased with your Speech from the Throne, certainly the fact that you plan to now run a deficit.
“Departments will have the funding they need to deliver essential programs and services, and no more,” Jean said. “Our government will engage Parliament and encourage members to take a more active role in scrutinizing spending and suggesting areas for restraint.”
Wow, that quote from Michaëlle Jean sounds like a pointed attack at any arts funding. What, artists don’t work during periods of “economic uncertainty”? C’mon Stephen, surely you must know by now that artists ALWAYS live in economic uncertainty. You might learn a thing or two from us about how to get through this.
Anyway, I won’t go on and on about it. I’ve had another long day, one of the longest yet, and we are starting to fall behind schedule. Lots of little things keep cropping up, and the fourth floor, G4 as we call it, the Marclay Archive room, has been causing some problems. We’ll be installing the fourth layout of furniture tomorrow. Due to some misunderstandings, miscommunication and just stylistic differences this floor has chewed up a lot of time. But otherwise, most works are progressing and everyone is working real hard.
I’d also like to mention that I haven’t shed any tears over the loss of the F1, which certainly isn’t the Greenest form of cultural expression.
-chris
from chris lloyd <dearpm@gmail.com>
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 11:09 PM
subject Full-blown recession could cause $50B deficit: Think-tank; Pas de plan détaillé lors de la mise à jour dit Flaherty
Dear Stephen,
It is snowing in Montréal, the first that has stayed on the ground. Glad we bought the winter tires and installed them weeks ago.
Work has been going steady. Had a tech party on Friday night where mostly the préposés came; some of the techs came, but none of Thomas’ crew. This had more to do with my lack of extending invitations than how far north-east we live. I’ve been too busy at work, bouncing off one little problem or task to another like a souped-up tennis ball.
If Christian Marclay isn’t happy with the efforts of the team over the past five weeks, or the sheer amount of time, energy and money to get his work installed, then he is a pompous asshole.
So how is it going with you? The whole economic meltdown story just won’t go away, and now there is talk of huge deficits in the coming years. Are you going to go the Obama route, and create a bunch of New Deals? I hear there is talk of infrastructure, but it would be nice if you kept the arts and culture industries in the loop. After all, the creative industries count as well. It sure is nice to have roads without potholes and bridges that don’t collapse but ultimately we prefer to use our infrastructure to get to and from the creative things in life, no? Like plays, the movies, concerts, art openings, etc.
Speaking of which how would you like to come to the opening on Saturday? I can probably get you into the after-party at the Gault.
Clo has sinus congestion. She went to the clinic the other day and suffered poor service after a morning wait. Neither of us have family doctors. Maybe we’ll vote PQ, Marois is trying to making health care an issue.
-chris
DEAR PM 