What flows from a Fountain

On May 14, Fred and Elizabeth Fountain gave an amazing gift to our community. The well-known philanthropists donated $10 million to establish a new school of performing arts at Dalhousie University.

In making this extraordinary gift, Elizabeth Fountain said, "This is not just about making a gift to Dalhousie. It is much broader than that."

Indeed it is. This generous act will benefit our entire community in numerous ways. At the announcement, the Fountains gently challenged governments to step up and play a larger role in directly investing in the building of our creative economy. Those of us in municipal government must accept this challenge. And I believe we are up to it.

It has long been felt by many that HRM is not pulling its weight when it comes to funding for arts and culture. Studies like the well-known Hamilton study have suggested that our direct municipal investment in the arts is the lowest of all benchmark municipalities.

 While we can argue about the methodology of the study, there is little question that we are not a strong enough partner in this area.  While our city gains greatly from having a vibrant arts community, the municipality is a passenger, not a driver, of the creative economy.

I believe we can change that. Recently Council unanimously passed a motion tabled by Councillor Mason to have staff bring back a process to set up an Arts Advisory Council. This could lead to the establishment of a Municipal Arts Council for Halifax, which could provide a number of benefits to our Arts community, our economy and our citizens.

At a recent dinner arranged by the Greater Halifax Partnership, I met the Canadian director of a large multi-national company that has a significant presence in HRM, which could become more significant in the mid-term.

One of the dominant themes of the evening was the importance of a vibrant and unique professional arts environment in attracting top corporate talent to a community. It is, of course, as important to those of us who are already here.

The benefits of investing in the arts are well known and generally understood, but arts investment often takes a back seat to more "pressing" needs. In a city like Halifax where we have an abundance of creative talent it is easy to think we don't have to support the creative economy more actively. I believe we are missing a great opportunity, losing talent and diminishing our potential.

In an article in the Globe and Mail on March 27

( http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/the-economic-imperative-for-investing-in-arts-and-culture/article10463290/, Todd Hirsch (chief economist of ATB Financial) spoke of why investment in the arts is imperative for the economic well-being of progressive cities. He compares arts investments to similar investments in roads and bridges: "Arts and culture are infrastructure for the mind." Nicely put.

The remarkable gift of  Fred and Elizabeth Fountain will strengthen that infrastructure for all of us who live here, and those who join us in years to come. I am certain that they would be delighted if the larger gift they give to us is not the $10 million, but the dividends it can pay in creating a stronger, collaborative, sustained commitment to supporting our arts community and recognizing the huge benefit we gain by more fully partnering to take our city to new, bolder places.