A program announced by the province last week may not sitting well with Saskatchewan’s film industry which is still reeling from the loss of the film tax credit, but other artists are embracing its creation.
Creative Saskatchewan is a program announced on Friday to help the province’s creative talent market their work. The film industry says it comes too late after losing the tax credit in last March’s budget.
But, singer and songwriter Amy Nelson knows how much work and money it takes to promote her music.
“To create a video, or to put your song out to radio, there are thousands of dollars being spent, and that doesn’t even include the product creation,” she said.
That is where Creative Saskatchewan can help, by providing grants and supports for local artists of all kinds, from musicians and painters to gaming developers and book publishers.
“One of the things the Creative Saskatchewan will do will be to help provide a business accelerator for publishers in the province,” said Jillian Bell, the co-executive director for the Saskatchewan Publishers Group.
With some help, the 60 publishers in the province could expand their marketing into e-books or audio books, for example, something they may not have done before.
“It’s going to generate a lot of activity in the creative industry and the arts community that wouldn’t have happened without this fund in place,” said David Kyle, the executive director for Saskatchewan Arts Board.
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Consultations are still underway to determine how everything will work. In the meantime, a $1 million transition fund from the Saskatchewan Arts Board is getting the work started. It is expected the new Creative Saskatchewan agency will be launched later this year.
For now, the grants range from $1,000 to $60,000. Already some local artists have indicated their interest in applying for grants.
“This is the next step of marketing,” said Ellson, adding some provinces are also introducing similar programs. “If we don’t do this, we are going to be left behind. And our artists are so good, why wouldn’t we do this?”
Nelson says the information she has heard so far about the program should be well received by new artists.
“Any support you can get in doing that, whether it be funding or just support or resources… we’ll take as much help as we can get!” she said.
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