What the Arts Mean to Saskatoon's Economy

valuing the arts

Interviews with some of the thousands of people working in the local arts, culture and tourism scene: their insights into what matters and how it all counts

What the Arts Meanto Saskatoon’s Economy

Text by Naomi Zurevinski

Original artwork by Danna Contreras

Eight years ago, Saskatoon resident Joel Bernbaum had the idea of making theatre more accessible to the general public. As the co-founder of independent theatre company Sum Theatre, his mission was simple: build community by creating theatre experiences for everyone.

“I play this little game where I walk down the street and when I walk by someone I think, ‘What would it take to get them to a play?’’ Bernbaum says. “The first summer of Theatre in the Park, we had 4,000 people total. Last year, we had more than 7,500 people come out to our shows. If we can make art more accessible, then we can use it as a tool to build community.”

The arts and a sense of community go hand-inhand with creating vibrant city life and a thriving economy. When people attend local events and shows, shop at local artisanal businesses, and visit museums, galleries or festivals, it has a direct impact on the city’s economic prosperity.

“The city benefits when people are out and about,” Bernbaum says. “On a micro level, if people come to our show, they might get takeout at a local business and have a picnic in the park. If 7,000 people over the course of a summer get sandwiches from a local business before the show, that’s a direct economic impact.”

While the city benefits from residents partaking in the arts, so do the artists themselves. “Nobody truly does anything worthwhile alone,” Bernbaum says. This is empirically true. Artists depend on local engagement, community support and income to make it possible to turn their passion into a viable career.

Succeeding in YXE as an artist Melissa Squire has been a fashion designer since 2007 and knows first hand what it takes to succeed in the Saskatchewan design market. In 2010, she opened Alchemy Collective in Saskatoon, which is a collaboration of fashion designers, hair stylists, plus tattoo and makeup artists. Squire says the goal of Alchemy is to support as

many local artists as possible.

Fashion designer and Alchemy Collective founder Melissa Squire. (CBC)

Sept28

Nuit Blanche 2019

7pm–1am; open to the public; nuitblanchesaskatoon.ca

(Reilly Forbes)

The city’s annual outdoor showcase of modern art, NB this year spans both sides of the river with more than 20 installations and performances from and by local artists. River Landing, downtown and Broadway district

“Pretty much everything in the store is made locally and the majority of it is made in-house. I design and sew the clothing, and I have two people who sew for me as well,” Squire says. “All the other designers I carry on consignment, and all the staff are renters too, which means we run it like a collective business.”

For Squire, carving out a career as a designer has been possible due to support she’s received from her staff, friends, family and the community. “There’s so much support here,” she says. “I do lots of trade relationships with photographers, make-up artists and hairstylists, so we’ve built a community of like-minded businesses that all support each other whenever someone needs anything, which has been hugely important.”

Squire is creative in choosing sustainable materials, and her accessory line is made entirely out of recycled tire, which she sources locally from bike shops and farmers. When artists are able to make their way in a city, it benefits the businesses from which they source materials and supplies: print shops, metal fabricators, even laser-cutting business, and this feeds into the business economy in a direct way.

“When you’re talking about the arts economy, you’re talking about artists who are members of the community,” says Michael Peterson, owner/ operator of Saskatoon’s Void Gallery. “When an artist is hiring an assistant or buying supplies, a large part of that money is generally staying and

being re-spent in the community, creating an economic impact.”

Void Gallery, which opened in 2012, is a nonprofit studio that does art and textile printing, runs workshops, and is home to a risograph—a stencil-based printer. Peterson is also the curator of Saskatoon’s Nuit Blanche festival, an outdoor nighttime arts festival that happens annually in the fall.

Interaction required

Nuit Blanche is funded through grants, sponsorships, and partnerships with local businesses. Its success is also heavily dependent on public engagement.

“We also work with the Downtown BID (Business Improvement District) and the Broadway BID, which have both been great partners and have supported us financially. The businesses we work with are locally owned, so there’s a synergy there between promoting local business and the arts,” Peterson says.

Peterson adds that Nuit Blanche places emphasis on getting members of the community involved in the arts, whether through collaborative murals, workshops or pieces that have an interactive quality.

“Nuit Blanche balances criticality, which is the artistic merit of a project, with accessibility, which is how easily a member of the general public can understand or become involved in the project.

Saskatchewan Craft Council Executive Director Carmen

Milenkovic. (Courtesy photo)

We’re trying to create a dialogue with the community at large. When you’re talking about public support, I think it goes back directly to how we’re trying to create those projects in the first place,” he says.

Peterson also runs a program called Professional Practices through the Saskatchewan Craft Council (SCC), which is an organization that represents 350 fine craft artists from across the province, providing both creative and economic support.

Through the program, Peterson works with craft artists one-on-one and in groups to help them improve their business practices, including marketing and utilizing programs designed for small businesses that are important to their success.

“In craft, the artist is the creator, the designer, the marketer, the packer, the shipper, the receiver,

the business owner and the entrepreneur,” says SCC Executive Director Carmen Milenkovic. “There are a lot of hats to wear, and it’s important to remember that artists are taxpayers too. Professional Practices is designed to upgrade the business acumen of professional artists. We make use of community partners like Square One and Ideas Inc. and other artists who have already tackled some of these issues.”

Through local, national and international initiatives, the SCC pays artists for showing and selling their work. Some of the SCC’s local initiatives include annual events such as the WinterGreen Fine Craft Market in Regina, and their SCC Gallery and Boutique on Broadway Avenue in Saskatoon—the only public gallery dedicated to fine craft in the province.

The right connections Leveraging support, whether it’s sponsorship, corporate funding or business partnerships,

has a direct reciprocal impact on Saskatoon’s community and the economy, through tourism, infrastructure, a sense of belonging, and more.

At Alchemy Collective, instead of doing paid advertising, they prioritize supporting local initiatives, organizations and events. They do an annual fundraiser for AIDS Saskatoon called the “Parking Lot Party,” which involves musicians, performers and booths for artisans to sell their work. In the spring, they host their Revamp Art Show, featuring upcycled materials made by local artists into beautiful pieces which are then showcased in their salon.

Value-driven objectives

With Sum Theatre, Bernbaum works hard to leverage corporate support but says that the first step in that process is staying true to their artistic values.

“Everything we do is guided by our values, and we don’t do anything unless it checks out with these,” he says. “We have businesses coming to us now saying, ‘We want to be part of what you do, because we’re aligned with your values.’ Since we have a clear sense of our mission and vision, we attract community and financial partners who share those values.”

To illustrate his point, Bernbaum tells a story from Sum Theatre’s third year. It was the summer of 2015, when destructive forest fires up north saw people evacuated from their homes and staying in the Saskatoon Soccer Centre.

“We thought it would be great to do our show Hercules for evacuees at the Soccer Centre. They had been displaced from their homes and had been through a lot. We were just scraping by, and we don’t charge money for admissions, so for me to do an extra show, I’d have had to pay my actors extra and that’s a significant cost we hadn’t budgeted for,” Bernbaum says.

Bernbaum phoned his friend Kevin Sharfe at Sherwood Chevrolet, their title sponsor that season, and asked if they’d be willing to sponsor yet another show. Not only did Sharfe say, “Absolutely,” but Bernbaum says he attended the performance, greeting adult audience members and playing with kids.

“This is a direct example of values plus value. It almost brings a tear to the eye. How many trucks or cars was Kevin going to sell at that Soccer Centre show? Zero. But he didn’t get involved because of money; he did it because he saw the value in our values,” Bernbaum says. “If we want to have strong, vibrant communities, we have to look for ways to build those communities. On a macro level, the arts are a cultural glue—a communitybuilding catalyst. To have a strong economy we first need to build vibrant communities.”

Aug19

The Guardian

7pm; tickets $2 + donation of a non-perishable food item. All donations go to support the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre. Local film company Tiger Eye Production has embarked on its first feature film, which features an angel posing as a homeless man sitting outside a diner (Broadway Café) trying to decide who he will guide through their struggles in life. It touches on five stories/struggles that are current-events related, touching on sexual harassment, bullying, addictions, racism and suicide. The film, made entirely in Saskatoon, features music by some of Saskatoon’s most popular indie bands, namely Bombargo, Friends of Foes, Cquel and One Bad Son. The Guardian production crew included talented local cinematographer Geordie Trifa. The Guardian was written, produced and directed by Saskatoon-born filmmaker and photographer Ryan Grainger. Broadway Theatre (715 Broadway Ave.)

Infrastructure, sustainability & more

In 2018, the City of Saskatoon did a study with the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance to find out the main challenges facing artists and how the city can help. Kevin Kitchen, the City’s community development manager, says two key findings were the high cost of studio space, and a lack of gallery space for emerging artists.

“These are concerns we’re listening to, and trying to find solutions to. One of the biggest challenges we’ve heard loud and clear is the lack of affordable space to create,” Kitchen says. “So one thing we’re doing is facilitating short-term leases in under-utilized vacant spaces. We’re doing that with some of our own facilities where, in between tenants, we allow an artist or group to use the space on a short-term basis.”

The City also has a Public Art Program which commissions and hires artists to make art, thereby providing an opportunity for artists to showcase their work, but it also allows community builders and developers to see the benefit in hiring artists.

“River Reflections” by Jerry Rugg (under the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge) is an example of publicly funded art through the city’s Placemaker Program.

Intangible benefits

Artists not only help to create a sense of place and identity for cities, but they also add to the overall vibe of a community. A vibrant arts scene has various spinoff benefits, including bringing

The Arts Economy in Numbers

• The arts economy accounted for $40 billion, or about 2% of national GDP in 2016

• The cultural sector in SK directly contributed $900 million to the province’s GDP in 2003

• The arts generated $31.7m for the local economy in 2016

• Total attendance at arts events in Saskatoon in 2016: 906,162

• # of artists employed in the city: 3,249

• # of people who have volunteered for arts organizations: 4,459

• 1 in every 43 people (13,000) in SK has a cultural occupation (2009 figures)

• SK residents spent $38 million on books and $94 million on art works and events in 2008

Sources: City of Saskatoon, Conference Board of Canada, Hill Stategies Research Inc., Statistics Canada

business to restaurants, bars, taxis, hotels and the tourism industry as a whole.

Squire notes that you can sense right away if a city has a vibrant arts scene.

“If a city has an artistic flare, there will be murals and funky neighbourhoods that focus on local stuff. When I go travelling, those are the areas that I seek out,” she says. “When the arts are a large and healthy part of a community, the community thrives.”

A thriving city also paves the way for future generations of astists, and for Peterson the important part of a booming arts economy is inspiring youth who may have an artistic interest.

“If the only people you know doing art live in New York or Toronto, then as a kid from Saskatoon it becomes hard to dream of doing that,”

Peterson says. “If instead we create opportunities for local artists to show their work here, then when children see that they can be inspired and dream a little bit more too.” Milenkovic of the SCC agrees. “The arts contribute to the economy and quality of life. It can be seen as a way to bring people to the province to work, visit, play and live, and investing in the arts has a high (rate of) return across the board,” she says.

“Art and culture draw people in and create a buzz. People want a place to live in that is vibrant, that engages the mind, that stimulates their children,” Milenkovic continues. “Art is not a sideshow. We’re a pillar of the community and the economy—we are problem solvers, inventors and a reflection of Saskatchewan.”

Members of the Saskatoon Opera perform La Bohème at the Remai

Arts Centre in spring 2019. (Courtesy photo)

For the first time ever, Saskatoon will host the Creative City Summit from Oct. 1-3 through the Creative Cities Network of Canada, which is made up of people from across the country who work in arts, culture, heritage and design. The theme of this year’s Summit is “Growing the Creative Cultural Economy for 21st Century Cities.” With noteworthy speakers and a spotlight on local artist Andrei Fehergyhazi, it’s sure to be an illuminating event, shedding light on the contributions that artists make to our cities.