British Columbia arts groups opposed to recent cuts in provincial funding for the arts are planning a city-wide protest in Vancouver this week. On Wednesday, artists and their supporters will dress in grey and move through the downtown core for the better part of the day in what they're calling a Grey Relay. The artists will form a static human square for each leg of the relay and then march in single file to the next designated location. "Stand quietly and with courage," the instructions read. "It is not easy to make public art with your bodies."
Late this past summer, arts groups learned of cuts in funding first through gaming grants, and then through the B.C. Arts Council - whose budget was slashed in the provincial budget by more than 80 per cent this fiscal year, growing to a projected cut of more than 90 per cent by 2011-12.
The grey square has been adopted by arts groups as a symbol of a future without art in the wake of the funding cuts.
Marsha Lederman