Members of the Hamilton arts sector say the city’s grant system is broken, unfair, and needs to be overhauled.
The Executive Director of the Hamilton Festival Theatre Company, which organizes the Fringe Festival, expressed concern about the city enrichment fund.
The fund distributes over 7 million dollars in grants to more than 400 applicants, leaving the arts sector in a desperate situation.
The Hamilton Festival Theatre Company will receive just over 46,000 dollars this year, about the same as last year but Stanton asked for a lot more.
Christopher Stanton says organizations like his are running deficits every year, and are struggling to survive.
“It does feel unfair, and it feels like a problem of a funding formula that treats these things like a math problem, instead of looking at what each organization needs. We give 100% of our ticket goes back to the acts, that is not taken into account with a formula like this,” says Stanton.
Stanton says the city needs a model that looks at applicants with more nuance and offers the potential for multi-year funding so arts groups are not wondering every year how much funding they’ll receive.
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