I understand Canwest’s troubled history, having entered bankruptcy protection in late 2009, and selling its newspaper arm to creditors headed by National Post’s CEO Paul Godfrey. But the person from this new regime who has dictated that the Ottawa Citizen can no longer review ‘non-professional’ art forms has made a grave mistake. The vibrant sheen of our cultural community is presently being quietly diminished due to some asinine manager who lives, no doubt, in Toronto. Having said that, the people who are in charge of the Citizen must realize that this decision will have an adverse effect on their enlightened readership until a creative solution rectifies this lack of reportage. The idea of not covering such groups as the Ottawa Little Theatre, Savoy Society, Orpheus Musical Theatre Society, Ottawa Choral Society, Cantata Singers of Ottawa, Ottawa Bach Choir, Seventeen Voyces, and the Canadian Centennial Choir is an irresponsible one and only does Ottawa and its denizens an egregious disservice – culturally, socially and economically. I personally don’t care about Brad Pitt’s moustache, Mariah Carey’s strapless dresses (okay, maybe a little bit) or Lindsay Lohan’s latest lock-up, but I know that those of us who have worked in the trenches of the local arts’ scene for most of our professional adult lives feel completely betrayed. The Ottawa Citizen’s Arts & Entertainment section is rapidly becoming a wire-serviced American tabloid for the same reasons CBC Radio 2 became a vast, fatuous wasteland – near-sighted Philistinism.
Kevin Reeves
Seventeen Voyces, Director
Ottawa Regional Youth Choir, Director
Ottawa Choral Society, Associate Director
Former Citizen Subscriber
4 comments:
Kevin, I'm sure you're absolutely right. The brief view of Ottawa I had, from an international perspective, showed me a vigorous community working entertainment magic of all hues. The real strength of this magic is in a depth and breadth of home-grown talent,and I can only agree with you, that the import to Ottawa of Hollywood and America in general is almost totally meaningless.
here , here! Well said! You kill off amateur music making and the music will grind to a halt!
Kevin, the local arts editors are in a real bind with this dictum they have received from on high so they are not to be blamed. The Citizen has always been,and so far, continues to be very supportive of community arts groups through its media advertising sponsorships and preview articles and mentions in their arts listings. But you are absolutely right that the new ownership , by putting the squeeze on its local editors,who have chosen to kill the critical notices in order to meet the new budget constraints, is betraying Ottawa's vibrant arts community. They do not appreciate that just because these performers are not paid, personally, at union scale, they do not approach their art with very professional and serious intent and indeed, do achieve highly professional standards. All of the organizations you have referred to are 'professional' inasmuch as they have distinguished professional artistic leadership, engage professional soloists and instrumentalists,are individually auditioned, in many cases have 'professional level qualifications, and are paid as professionals for their services as an 'organization' when they are engaged to perform outside of their own series concerts.
Postmedia should be aware of the negative impact this decision will have on the arts community. They ought to be supporting the arts community in which they earn their own revenue. The Ottawa public can get all the gossip and image spin they need about starlets and popular culture from the National Enquirer and People Magazine.I hope they will re-think this decision and repeal it. Many Arts patrons subscribe to the Citizen solely for its local coverage however, they may soon become disenchanted and migrate to one of the National papers - a loss of revenue to the Citizen which could represent much more than the cost of a few freelance reviews a year.
I fully agree with everyone who's commented. I've been singing in choirs for over forty years (I started in Westboro United Church Junior Choir at the age of five) and feel that the idea of "professional" is in one's perception.
Many of the choirs I've sung with (including pickup choirs for weddings, funerals, Unisong, Kaggik 1985, MIssa Gaia, etc.) have been extremely professional in their attitudes towards rehearsals and performances.
The Ottawa Citizen and its ilk are shooting themselves in the foot by reducing the amount of local arts coverage - whether we like it or not, reviews are quite useful when it comes time to apply for grants, etc. Reviews are also either an ego boost or deflation (depending on the review) for the arts organization.
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