[Appeal] OAC Funding Controversy Covered in the Canadian Jewish News

An article in the current issue of the Canadian Jewish News discusses the recent OAC funding cuts to Guernica Editions.

"Though serving the Italian community primarily," writes staff reporter Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf, "the publication also is home to a variety of ethnic wordsmiths, including a smattering of Jewish, award-winning authors and poets who are none-too-pleased by the provincial agency’s decision to reject this year’s grant application."

"[The withdrawal of funding] puts a financial strain on us,”publisher Antonio D'Alfonso is quoted as saying. “This isn’t a money-making job. Everyone who works with us works for peanuts... Are books like shoes, ham or potatoes? We are a literary press. We produce books about ethnic culture, cultural pluralism. This is a slow process. When we started, ‘multicultural’ barely existed as a term. Guernica was one of the first presses to deal with such issues.”

The full article can be read on the Canadian Jewish News website: http://bit.ly/4svYeP

[Appeal] Reader Responds to OAC

Tandem has published a reader response to the Ontario Arts Council's recent defense of this year's Guernica cutbacks.

[Article] Tandem Covers the OAC Decision

Isabella Gagliardi, writing in Tandem, interviews Antonio D'Alfonso, Julie Roorda and Karen Shenfeld about the Ontario Arts Council's decision to withhold funding this year from Guernica Editions.

“This is about how we live in a society where culture is not funded enough,” Antonio D’Alfonso says, discussing the OAC's current grant criteria.

“Personally I feel that this is part of a larger trend," adds Guernica author Julie Roorda. "It seems to me that the kind of simplistic business model is being inappropriately applied not just across the arts but to education and health care as well. That model works for some businesses, but I think it’s very damaging to apply it to these other institutions like the arts that are based on values that are different from commercial values, which are just about making money."

"[At Guernica] there has always been a gap between commercial writing and literary writing," says Karen Shenfeld, reacting to the a"serious concerns about... impact and viability" expressed by the OAC. "I believe that alone should bespeak of Guernica’s viability."

The full article is available at http://www.tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=9355

[Appeal] Toronto Star's Joe Fiorito Takes On the OAC

Toronto Star columnist Joe Fiorito discusses the Ontario Arts Council's withdrawal of funding for Guernica Editions in today's paper. The full article can be read online: http://www.thestar.com/article/678694

Says Fiorito, "The Ontario Arts Council, which has provided modest funding over the years, has just stopped giving grants to Guernica... That's not just stupid, it's offensive." Fiorito cites the OAC's assessment that Guernica's titles "fell below the standard in impact and viability," wondering whether that means "it's hard to sell a Guernica book in an airport."

Guernica Editions recently appealed to its readership to protest the withdrawal of funding: "We have recently learned that the Ontario Arts Council has discontinued all funding for Guernica Editions. This is an unjust decision that threatens to censor the several hundred writers to whom Guernica has given voice over 31 years of publishing, and to suppress important elements of Canada's culture and identity as a whole. Please write to the OAC and to your local politicians to express your support for Guernica, and to request their help in reversing this decision. Following is a sample letter you may wish to send to the individuals listed below.

To help support Guernica Editions, please write to:

John Brotman
Executive Director
Ontario Arts Council
jbrotman@arts.on.ca

John Degen
Literature Officer
Ontario Arts Council
degen@arts.on.ca

The Honourable Aileen Carroll
Minister of Culture
Province of Ontario
acarroll.mpp@liberal.ola.org

Peter Tabuns
MPP Toronto – Danforth
Culture Critic, New Democratic Party
tabunsp-qp@ndp.on.ca

You can also find contact information for your local MPP here: http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/member_addresses.do?locale=en

Guernica Editions recommends a letter similar to this:

Dear ____________,

I am writing to request your help in reversing a decision by the Ontario Arts Council to eliminate funding for Guernica Editions. In its 31 years of publishing, Guernica has facilitated dialogue within and among Canada's diverse communities and led the debate about Canada's identity. Guernica has published more English translations of Francophone Canadian writers than any other publisher. It has remained the foremost publisher of Italian-Canadian literature in the world, while keeping pace with the changing faces of Canada. Guernica has published more than 800 writers.

The OAC's decision threatens Guernica's future as a publisher, rendering this unique body of work unavailable to Ontarians, and to the world, and silencing many voices that would continue to enrich Canada's cultural landscape. Please intervene in any way possible to convince the OAC to reconsider this decision.

Thank you.