NSCAD grad Yolande Laking says it’s tough for artists to make a living and recent federal arts-funding cuts won’t help. (Photo: Amy English)

Funding cuts a blow to fine arts grads

Yolande Laking is folding her life into two suitcases and a carry-on. She’s been downsizing her wardrobe for weeks.

This fall she’s moving to Banff to start a winter of skiing and waitressing.

Laking graduated from NSCAD University in April with an interdisciplinary arts degree. She is officially a professional artist. She studied painting and wooden sculpture and, if she wants to make money doing that, she’ll have to start creating.

With the $45 million in cuts the conservative government made to arts budgets this fall, Laking could have a harder time finding funding so she can afford to create. According to Statistics Canada, the average hourly wage for an artist is just over $14.

With $35,000 of debt collecting interest, she can’t afford to make art. She needs a regular paycheque, starting now.

That’s why Laking is moving to Banff.

Daina Tavenier will graduate from NSCAD in December and as a dual citizen, hopes to continue her studies in Europe. “I’ve heard rumours that if I live there for a year I can do my master’s for free,” she said. But at this point the funding to get through that year would all have to be out of her own pocket.

Arts programs axed include culture.ca and PromArt. Culture.ca was a website promoting Canadian artists. It provided everything from listings of events to biographies but now displays a statement saying, “the original program objectives of the Cultural Observatory have been fulfilled.”

PromArt, a program run by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, granted money to Canadian artists and arts organizations to promote Canadian culture abroad. It will no longer exist at the end of March 2009.

Tavenier may have to put off her dreams of taking her studies to Europe until she can afford to do it on her own dime. “I’ll probably end up just making coffees.”

Laking was working full-time at Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro when she heard about the cuts.  “It affected every single person I was living with and working with,” she said, including her mother.

She knew from the beginning this degree was strictly about her love for art – she already had some experience living off of an artist’s wage. Her mother is renowned Nova Scotian painter Joy Snihur Wyatt Laking.

“I grew up knowing how hard it was on my mom, and knowing she’s … always going to worry about money until she dies.”

Tyler Dennis, president of the Dalhousie-King’s Conservatives, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pushing a tax break for families who enroll children in arts programs in his campaign.

But that won’t help Tavenier and Laking. For now, they’ll just have to put their degrees on the backburner and find some other way to pay the rent.

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