NS Film Training Cut
The VOID following closure of Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia
The recent closure of Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia has left a void – both informational and programmatic – for our organization as well as the industry.
Centre for Art Tapes (CFAT) has delivered affordable training for emerging media and film artists for much of its 36 years, and especially through its 26 year-old Media Art Scholarship Program.
The Scholarship Program received a small, but key, core grant annually from Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia, and that $10,000 helps to draw approximately $55,000 in funding from other levels of government and corporate sponsors. This program boosts not only the training of young emerging filmmakers and other media (video, audio, electronics) artists, but also propels their entry into the film industry and gallery installations worlds, helping to develop and build careers. Graduates now include Emmy and Oscar-nominated filmmakers, Andrea Dorfman and Ariel Nasr. This program helps keep young Nova Scotians engaged in their creative pursuits and building a successful local industry.
The recent, unannounced, closure of Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia has left Centre for Art Tapes (and other organizations) adrift and with the following questions:
- 1) Where and to whom to submit final reports for last year’s grants,
- 2) Where and from whom they will received final outstanding balances of those grants,
- 3) Where and from whom is the future funding for its Media Art Scholarship Program (already launched) coming, and,
- 4) Is there a future for this CFAT Program?
Media Art Scholarship Program is CFAT’s core and flagship program, representing almost 25% of it’s organizational budget; it’s loss will threaten the very survival of the organization.
The Board of Directors of the Centre for Art Tapes call on the government and its agencies to offer explanations and directions to our questions regarding this critical funding.
Keith McPhail
Executive Director
Centre for Art Tapes
902-422-6842
cfat.operations@ns.sympatico.ca
