Celebrating 60 years: THE ACTRA STORY This special issue of ...

ARTISTS AS LOBBYISTS:
ACTRA a long-time collaborator with
the Canadian Conference of the Arts
by Megan Davis Williams
Few arts organizations were on the horizon ahead of
CCA and ACTRA. Both arose when, in the artistically
bleak post-World War II environment,
Canada’s artists began to meet and lobby for an infrastructure
and policy measures to support their work.
At the Kingston Conference in 1941, artists took the
first step in a process that led Canada from a colonial
cultural entity to the conscious recognition that the
federal government had responsibilities for cultural
policies which would sustain our own national cultural
development. In 1944, some of those same artists
prepared the Artists’ Brief Concerning Cultural Aspects
of Canadian Reconstruction for the federal government.
They might be viewed as the ideological ancestors of
both the CCA and ACTRA.
The CCA and ACTRA have collaborated on
many issues over the long lives of both organizations,
speaking out in support of freedom of expression,
advocating for funding for the arts, and developing
Steve Smith ...on ACTRA
The budget for our pilot was $700 – that was to pay the band. They
were a small, independent station. ACTRA was not a factor – it was
non-union. What they wanted us to do was 13 episodes, which I would
write and my wife and I would perform – and we would get $6,500,
total, for all 13 episodes – for two performers and a show writer. My
friends were saying, ‘Don’t do it, that’s ridiculous. You could work at
McDonald’s and do better.’ But I just ignored that advice, because it
wasn’t coming from my wife. She felt we should do it. And we did.
So we got on TV, and out of that, I started getting freelance writing
jobs for other shows, and some of them were CBC productions –
Wayne and Shuster, or an Irish Rovers Special – and they wanted me
to write the show. Bear in mind we’re getting $500 an episode doing
everything. Scale to write the CBC show was $3,500. I phoned to
check. It’s one show, and all I’m going to do is write it. And they said
‘That’s right. That’s $3,500.’ It was one of those things where
somebody’s really wrong here. Either somebody is really being
overpaid, or I’m really being underpaid. And I went with Plan Two. In
reality what happened out of that is, sure, you’re getting paid well for
when you’re working, but you may not have another job for six
months.
What ACTRA provided for me was an entry level. You could actually
sustain life at the entry level, of having some kind of success in
Canada. I’m absolutely convinced that would not be the case without
ACTRA, because we wanted to be on television. If they’d have said ‘it’s
$200 a show,’ we would have said ‘fine.’ When you’re young, you’re
always living in the future – it’s going to lead to something – and it did.
It would not have led to what it led to without ACTRA setting the entry
level. And that was pretty helpful to us.
1943-2003 • actra • celebrating 60 years 49
federal status of the artist legislation. Since the
advent of the Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA in
the mid-nineties the CCA and ACTRA have worked
together to counteract the pressures these agreements
exert on our domestic cultural interests, on our very
cultural sovereignty.
As the new millennium unfolds, the indigenous
forms of cultural expression that we cherish in
Canada are subject to even greater pressures from
globalized markets. ACTRA has adopted an activist
stance by working with its members to publicize the
decrease in Canadian drama production, by working
to promote the cultural diversity treaty and by keeping
these issues high on the agendas of parliamentarians.
If more arts organizations were as active and
focused as ACTRA, the future of the arts in Canada
would be assured.
Megan Davis Williams is the National Director
of the Canadian Conference of the Arts
Steve Smith as Red Green.
the
ACTRA
story
“As the new millennium
unfolds, the
indigenous forms of
cultural expression
we cherish in
Canada are subject
to even greater
pressures from
globalized markets.”
Photo courtesy S&S Productions