The CMYK Cultural Snapshot

As referenced on an earlier post, this cultural snapshot, the Canadian Map of Yellow pages listings in Kultcha (CMYK) has been compiled simply by counting the listings in the Yellow Pages under the selected categories. The only weighting involved is in the choice of categories and cities

	city	art gal- ler- ies	theatre live			dance		fra- mng	art sup- plies	art school	studio	mu- seum	total							prcntg if over 1%
	Victoria	148	34			78		115	235	40	318	59	1027							4%
	Kelowna	58	4			45		81	106	27	162	14	497							2%
	Kamloops	20	3			22		50	52	16	94	10	267
	Nanaimo	31	12			29		55	66	12	105	9	319
	Prince George	27	2			13		58	60	13	98	16	287
	Vancouver	281	75			182		286	547	82	904	84	2441							9%
	Whistler	36	1			26		38	52	7	38	9	207
	Banff	49	3			18		19	53	4	55	18	219
	Calgary	209	67			190		311	352	61	856	76	2122							8%
	Edmonton	162	64			199		330	267	41	933	67	2063							7%
	Fort McMurray	16	3			16		20	24	5	72	6	162
	Lethbridge	34	8			27		51	50	10	82	25	287
	Red Deer	43	6			34		67	62	8	163	30	413							1%
	Medicine Hat	15	1			9		25	31	6	73	9	169
	Regina	55	23			39		74	97	5	209	18	520							2%
	Saskatoon	58	28			31		63	140	16	208	19	563							2%
	Moose Jaw	25	3			7		22	31	8	34	17	147
	Swift Current	26	5			3		17	19	3	24	23	120
	Brandon	46	7			6		41	54	6	65	24	249
	Winnipeg	145	55			68		208	223	35	533	57	1324							5%
	Guelph	28	9			52		66	86	20	139	9	409
	Hamilton	63	25			71		73	107	21	290	23	673							2%
	Kitchener -Waterloo	45	19			75		83	130	22	251	12	637							2%
	London	50	11			69		91	132	23	320	15	711							3%
	Niagara Falls	33	7			36		30	55	15	91	18	285
	Thunder Bay	30	2			32		41	58	8	96	9	276
	Toronto	325	108			266		248	646	89	1114	45	2841							10%
	Ottawa	130	39			152		150	265	50	647	38	1471							5%
	Windsor	42	10			64		66	85	19	206	15	507							2%
	Baie St. Paul	24	-			1		7	40	5	12	3	92
	Laval	14	16			59		59	88	23	108	10	377
	Longueuil	36	20			70		66	142	28	179	19	560							2%
	Quebec	110	42			75		106	221	27	275	42	898							3%
	Mont Tremblant	9	1			5		11	25	6	18	1	76
	Montreal	250	127			222		162	534	50	932	62	2339							8%
	Saguenay	18	13			18		25	45	9	79	12	219
	Halifax	88	52			56		100	147	9	357	51	860							3%
	Moncton	42	12			36		62	57	9	122	22	362
	Charlottetown	58	25			13		46	84	7	93	40	366							1%
	St. John	30	18			25		42	47	7	88	13	270							1%
	St John’s	66	7			49		69	115	8	133	25	472							2%
		2975	967			2488		3534	5630	860	10576	1074	28104

Since this blog is concerned primarily with visual arts, there has been more emphasis placed there.Two areas that are not included are literary arts and music. Now that I think about it, "publishers" and, say, "musicians" would have been good categories to include. Maybe we'll expand the survey in the future.

When you look at this chart, a couple of things you see at a glance are, that some smaller centres, like Victoria, have disproportionately large cultural activity and that culture does thrive throughout the country despite many factors favouring the larger cities.

Another thing you might surmise is that, in terms of cultural activity per capita (without looking up the population figures), Laval is the ultimate cultural lightweight in the country. This might be explained by some anomaly in the translation of terms in the Yellow Pages. I checked several listings and found that it didn't make much difference whether you searched in English or in French, but that might not have held true through all categories or cities.

All Things Being Equal

Here are the number of grants awarded by the Canada Council in a few selected ridings during the fiscal year 2005:

Saskatoon-Humboldt SK: 15
Abbotsford BC: 1
Westmount-Ville-Marie QC: 259
Toronto Centre ON: 205
Okanagan Shuswap BC: 7
Surrey North BC: 0
Nickel Belt ON: 0
Oakville ON: 7
Scarborough - Rouge River ON: 3
Brossard-La Prairie QC: 3
Gaspésie--Îles-de-la-Madeleine QC: 0
Laval--Les Îles QC: 6
Halifax NS: 113

This is presented just in case anyone thought that, ya know, since all the electoral districts in Canada are made up of roughly the same number of people (generally within 10-20%, allowing for fluctuations caused by migration, immigration, gerrymandering and other realities), one might surmise that all the Canada Council monies might be doled out evenly. NOT!!!!!!

Not only are the numbers hugely skewed, the actual dollar amounts are even more grossly unbalanced, due to large sums being granted to many of the larger organizations in cities.

One must acknowledge the need to support many intstitutions such as operas and ballets that operate on the national or international stage. In the same breath you might reasonably inquire why at least some of these cultural mega-marts are not able to support themselves via the private route.

Another question to ask is to what extent the huge concentration of grant awards in urban centres contributes to a syndrome of an inbred cultural elite who gratuitously label each other prestigious and systematically (consciously or otherwise) lock out the unwashed from the hinterlands.

It must be considered that any dollars going into culture are welcome. However, decentralization would surely be a worthwhile consideration - not only in the Canada Council universe but throughout the Canadian cultural scene.