The Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation announced the funding in late May.
A Saint John-based art advocacy foundation is helping local arts organizations survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sheila Hugh Mackay foundation has announced $25,000 in funding for 11 arts organizations province-wide.
The funds have gone to local organizations like the Saint John Arts Centre, and Third Space Gallery.
Executive Director with the foundation, Kathryn McCarroll says the pandemic is making life for artists extremely difficult.
“We’re hearing from a lot of organizations that they’re struggling,” said McCarroll. “Arts organizations are not particularly well-funded for the most part, they’re fragile, and yet they’re extraordinarily important in their communities.”
The SMHF 2020 Signature Technology Grants come with no strings attached as to how to use the funds, despite the technological hint of their title.
McCarroll says that the organizations are all finding ways to use the money that suit their needs.
Artist-run galaxies like Gallery Connexion in Fredericton and Third Space are both taking different approaches. At Gallery Connexion they are offering online art critiques with artists in the community, while Third Space is using money to offer international residencies online.
In particular, the pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of visual artists, as the public health emergency has removed their ability to showcase in-person.
“Visual artists are going to be deeply impacted. Their capacity to show their work, to sell their work, is severely limited. Most of them are self-employed artists, so they’ve really lost their marketplace,” McCarroll said.
She suggests viewing galleries, like the Saint John Arts Centre or Ax: Sussex Arts and Culture Centre could lose their entire spring revenue due to not being able to allow patrons.
Despite all of the setbacks, McCarroll said she’s proud of the way the arts community has weathered the storm of COVID-19 thus far.
“All of these art organizations are not sitting around saying ‘we can’t do this,'” McCarroll said. “They’re looking at ways to stay alive and serve their communities. They’re important to their communities, and that’s affirming everything I believe in: the arts are central to our quality of life.”
