On Friday I attended a gathering hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Art, Culture and Sport (TACS?). The event was quite literally held in a church basement, if it wasn't for the fact that the church was a wealthy west side church and the basement wasn't raked for live theatre.
Fronting the event was area NDP MLA George Heyman and Saanich NDP MLA Lana Popham, Minister of TACS. Also on stage were Stan Chung (Chair of the B.C. Arts Council), Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle and the provincial Parliamentary Secretary for Arts and Film, who Ms Popham failed to introduce during the first go round, but whose name is Bob D'eith.
The purpose of the gathering was to reconnect the Ministry and the B.C. Arts Council with the provincial arts community, after a three year gap due to Covid. The opening remarks concerned provincial government Resilience funding, which some organizations received, and others didn't. The biggest issue from the audience (at least for those who received Resilience funding) was accessibility; specifically, wheelchair access. Apparently those in wheelchairs attending a Firehall Theatre performance have to be carried across the stage in order to be seated. We gasped when we heard that.
With that said, what struck me most about the gathering was the way the individual members of government presented themselves. Ms Popham, who wore gold-sparkled sneakers, kicked things off by identifying herself by height and hair colour, and this was picked up on by others, until Stan Chung spoke of his "boyish charm," even though he is "approaching sixty." We laughed at this because we were supposed to, but maybe too because these introductions were once focused not on what was already apparent (height and hair colour), but more often than not on what wasn't (ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class). A sign of the times? "Does anybody really know what time it is?"
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