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Get involved in EvMC projects! If you have any skills that you can offer weather in a creative field or otherwise and are passionate about Toronto's vibrant arts and culture consider joining our team and contributing towards a new paradigm of conscious music. Our projects span all manner of arts and give rewarding experiences to those who participate in our ventures. Your efforts will be equitably rewarded. If you think you can help make a difference get in touch with us!
According to Human Rights Law- it is every persons’ right to participate in and benefit from the creation of culture…. Article 15 of the covenant ESCR.
It is also every person’s right to choose a livelihood, but the current economic system and its’ real-world effects, making a living from the arts is extremely challenging. The public is in debt and most people can ill afford to pay fair compensation for the enjoyment of the arts. The costs of maintaining venues, studios, rehearsal spaces, travel expenses etc, contribute to the phenomenon of falling incomes for artists and performers. The ease of free access to digital media copies of artistic productions and stagnant and falling incomes make it very challenging to benefit from sales of music and videos etc. Both the artists and their audiences on the local level lack the money and resources required to create and enjoy artistic works. In addition, the time stress and chaos of a precarious labour market hinders the time people can afford to collectively create or enjoy culture.
Meanwhile good jobs are becoming a rarity and more and more people are competing for the kinds of work that have (barely) supported artists in the past. The rise of automation is a reality facing the labour market that will make some form of basic income inevitable, because without money to spend, the economy falls apart.
Artists, of all cultures and heritage are struggling to survive, yet culture is what makes any society worthwhile to live in. The few monoliths of media that buy the rights of and impose control over select artists in exchange for short-term high rewards, benefit very few. The economy of the arts is chaotic, insecure and vastly unequal. The recent Arts Stats 2019 report clearly shows the extent of this reality in Toronto. The fear despair, stress and chronic insecurity plaguing the health of our society is deeply felt in the arts community as well, there are very few supports for artists in crisis, the security of a basic income would allow the arts to flourish.
Artistic and creative labour and many of the skills, abilities and resources required prepare and present the arts to the public cannot be automated. The arts will be one of few remaining, worthwhile forms of human labour over the next few decades, so it is imperative that cultural production is able to provide meaningful and secure livelihoods. To transform the economy and society so that communities can become more resilient and adaptive to the shifting uncertainties of climate change, pollution inequality and other 21st century challenges, will require creativity and innovation on a scale never seen before. We will need the arts to help drive the hope and energy required to recreate our economy for sustainability. A basic income for artists and all people in need of the time and money to be able to benefit from the arts, and achieve their full potential, is a keystone of the foundation of a sustainable future.
Why Artists need a Basic Income Guarantee
©️ 2020 Evolutionary Music Co-Operative Inc.
Commissioned by Toronto Arts Foundation
KEY FINDINGS:
89% of Torontonians believe that the arts make Toronto a better place to live.
And yet...
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80% of Toronto’s artists and arts workers believe they cannot make a living wage;
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Half of our artists make under $30K per year;
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Nearly 1 in 5 artists have been renovicted;
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73% of artists and arts workers have thought about leaving Toronto.
Toronto’s artists and arts workers create a dynamic sector that is reflective of our city’s multicultural character. Collectively, they are a highly trained and experienced work force that are integral to creating a city that is welcoming to visitors, a hub for business and a vibrant place to live and work. These are important characteristics of Toronto’s artists and arts workers that every Torontonian should know. Despite the immense value artists and arts workers give to the city and all our lives, most do not make a living wage and face extremely high costs of living and working in Toronto.
The stats reveal what we know, artists and arts workers are struggling in Toronto. EvMC has been established to help change this, especially for the music community, as best we can-collectively.
Here is a link to the report:
https://torontoartsfoundation.org/research/reports-and-publications/pages/toronto-arts-stats-2019
arts stats 2019
©️ 2020 Evolutionary Music Co-Operative Inc.
Soul Sound Wellness is Toronto's Premier Sound Healing Studio. Sound Healing provides relief from stress, anxiety, depression and other physical and emotional issues. Using a variety of organic instruments, Sound Healing finds and adjusts frequencies inside the body. This creates harmonious resonance a nd deep awareness unifying the Mind, Body, Soul and Spirit. Danny DePoe, is the Founder & Sound Healer He is a multi instrumentalist, producer and composer. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA and then went on to study Vibrational Arts and Energy Work at the Transformational Arts College in Toronto, Ontario.
Bain Co-operative Apartments Inc. is one of the most beautiful and historically interesting communities in Toronto. In many respects, they are a village within the city – with many of the positive and demanding aspects of living in a small community. They are constantly striving to find new ways to live together in harmony and to develop and strengthen community life. On October 30, 1977, it became one of the first housing cooperatives in Ontario and its creation was an inspiration to low and middle-income people who sought a similar way of life for themselves and their families.
Eva Schubert is a singer / songwriter based in Vancouver, Canada. Inspired by jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone, blues icons like Etta James, and — perhaps improbably — Leonard Cohen, she writes in a diverse range of styles. Her most recent release Hot Damn Romance is a five-track EP described as a "love letter to old school jazz."
John T. Davis is a jazz & blues mainstay on the Toronto music scene. Back in the day he helped establish The Rex Hotel as one of Toronto's premier jazz hotspots. His most recent CD is “Warm Up Words And Voice Matters”
Lenny Stoute is an acclaimed Canadian music journalist who has supported and written about Canadian musicians and bands for decades. He is currently the editor for CashBox Canada and has a weekly column called BTW. In the past he was a columnist and contributor for the Toronto Star and editor of Music Express. He has always been a big supporter of independent artists.
OASIS Food Hub is a model for an integrated food hub for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. It engages every phase of the food cycle, from growing, to processing, selling, cooking, and composting. It is a “full-cycle food hub”; and, while they also partner with farms and distributors to bring good food into the community at affordable prices, the OASIS model emphasizes on-site capacity.
Southern Time Productions is a social innovator arts and entertainment company producing great works of music and film to bring awareness of and encourage empathy to social, health, and environmental issues to people around the world. STP begaon in 2005 with the multi-media stage production of openly HIV-positive musician Timothy Bartsch’s rock opera ‘Southern Time‘.
Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) is a voluntary, non-profit, non-partisan organization promoting informed, constructive public dialogue leading to a basic income guarantee in Canada.
https://www.basicincomecanada.org/
Ontario Basic Income Network (OBIN) is a citizen's coalition committed to seeing Basic Income implemented in Ontario by 2021. It's a bold vision of dignity and justice for every Canadian regardless of work status - and we're inviting you to join our growing community of advocates.
©️ 2020 Evolutionary Music Co-Operative Inc.
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