On the surface, it may not sound like much, but when your total operating budget is less than $200,000 per year, a hit of $9,500 becomes significant.
That is the amount that the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) will have to make up following the decision by the Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone School Division to cut its support funding.
Citing a division directive to supply funding only to core services, Cornerstone's director of education, Marc Casavant, said that what the EAGM offers is not necessarily in line with the core curriculum. Many other agencies, he said, provide non-core programs such as swimming, skating, golf, field visits, etc., with arrangements and payments made by the schools.
Casavant said visual art instruction is provided in the schools by teachers who are trained to deliver it, along with music, drama or other school-based programs. He said, in the situation with the EAGM, it amounted to a service-provider asking for the payment from the school division. He said the gallery was forewarned last year that there was a good possibility that the traditional funding support that had been provided for them on behalf of the schools could be pulled.
Karly Millions, the educator at the EAGM, confirmed that this was the case, but it still didn't lessen the impact.
The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division has decided to continue to support the gallery with an annual stipend that averages between $1,500 and $2,000.
"I just wonder if people really know what we do here in educational terms," said Millions, noting that the gallery has always insisted on having educators with university degrees and majors in education and/or fine arts employed full-time. The educators arrange programming that aligns with school curriculums at various grade levels and includes the ever-changing exhibits that the gallery brings in, usually on a monthly basis. Some educators who have served the EAGM have later gone on to gain employment in area schools.
"I work with the teachers. We develop the art days and education kits that are used for follow-up work back in the schools," said Millions.
She said she is often asked to teach an art class as a visiting instructor or within the gallery.
Millions said she has had discussions with director/curator Griffith Aaron Baker and the gallery board regarding the next step, which probably will not include cutting educational opportunities for the schools. But the method of recovering the expenses involved will obviously have to change.
"We're still accepting the students and not charging them. If we end up having to do that individually, then it becomes a stumbling block," Millions said, adding that she expected things such as bus availability for the schools to make a trip to the gallery would be more of a deterrent than the token fee structure that has now been pulled.
Millions said that on average, the EAGM program, which is unique to the southeast region, attracts over 10 school visits per month. In October, she hosted and taught 13 classes. The gallery's records indicate that over the past 10 years, well over 2,000 students and their teachers have taken advantage of the EAGM's educational programming each year.
"I visit the schools; we have an outreach program. I make sure the teachers know what's available and what exhibit is coming and how we can introduce it to their curriculum," said Millions. "The bottom line is, I want to work with teachers and it's just great to be able to do it within a gallery environment. Where else can students get a visual art exposure to national and international work that isn't on a computer screen or in a book?"
Millions said that perhaps the Cornerstone board and administration weren't entirely informed as to "what we do here. I know there are even some Estevan people who still don't know."
Casavant said that if the different schools or classes deem the gallery visits as necessary, they have a decentralized budget to cover it, just as they would for a visit to the zoo, golf course or pool. Student registration numbers generally dictate what that decentralized budget is for each facility.
Millions said smaller schools in the division have made good use of the gallery in the past since it is obvious they don't have the time or the teacher pool to offer a more complete fine arts program.
Estevan Mayor Gary St. Onge said council was made aware of the cuts in the funding and he said he was disappointed to hear of the decision.
"When the school divisions were amalgamated, we were promised that the move was made not to save money, but rather to provide more equal access to education. We heard all along that nothing was going to be cut, music, art, etc. Well, we have a cut now and it looks like it's the same old story, they're downloading on us again," he said, referrinig to the local ratepayers since he said the gallery will probably now have to come to the City to ask for some funding backfill to make up for the losses from the educational side of the spectrum.
"So we're not happy because I think this is just going to cost us more," said St. Onge.
Estevan-based school division trustees Janet Foord and Pam Currie said they recalled the subject coming to the floor last year, during budget deliberations, but Foord said she couldn't recall a direct vote being asked for this year. She also noted that she has been absent for a few Cornerstone meetings due to her executive role in the Saskatchewan School Boards Association which is currently in the middle of negotiations.
Currie said she understood the rationale behind the decision, but doesn't recall a recent discussion or vote around the subject.
"It has to be related directly to programming, but I would like to bring this up at our next meeting and at least ask for a re-evaluation," said Currie.
"I'm disappointed, " said St. Onge, a former teacher/principal. "It's been an important service for our students."
He said he hated to see the educational opportunities for the students being restricted, rather than augmented.
The Cornerstone trustees will be meeting for their regular monthly session in Weyburn on November 18.
