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| Petra O'Toole, Ben Irvine, Claire Hage and Mara Zigler walked from the Dal Arts Centre to join the rally at Grand Parade. (Bruce Bottomley Photo) |
The rally began with the sounds of salsa music and the crowd grooved to the rhythms. Participants carried banners and signs, and even walked on stilts.
But for all their apparent joy, they were outraged by Harper鈥檚 claims that arts issues don鈥檛 resonate with 鈥渙rdinary people.鈥�
Approximately 500聽actors, writers, artists, dancers, teachers, arts students and others聽showed up Friday at noon in Grand Parade, Halifax to rally against Stephen Harper鈥檚 cuts to arts programs in Canada and protest his disparaging comments.
A group of art students from AV俱乐部 walked to the rally together sporting black attire and carrying broad signs that read: 鈥淰ote Arts.鈥� They departed from the AV俱乐部 Arts Centre and marched down Spring Garden Road toward Grand Parade to show their support. To these students, the arts are a home away from home. Laura Achenbach, a second-year student in the acting program, said 鈥渨ithout arts, we have no individuality.鈥�
Several members of the art community spoke for the cause at the podium in Grand Parade. Edmund McLean, a fine arts specialist at Halifax West School, described Harper鈥檚 cuts as 鈥渂arbaric.鈥�
Playwright Charlie Rhindress quoted from on the back of a $20 dollar bill, reading, 鈥淗ow could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?鈥� The use of legal tender聽to back up聽the importance of the arts struck a powerful chord with the audience as their excited cheers were heard throughout the streets of Halifax.
Emily Turner, a third-year student studying psychology and theatre, baked cookies shaped into theatrical designs for the rally and handed them out to arts supporters as her own way of promoting the arts.
鈥淎rt is everywhere and everything,鈥� says Ms. Turner, an Alberta native. 鈥淐lothing is art. Music is art. Television is art. It鈥檚 such a fundamental part of our lives that people don鈥檛 even know it鈥檚 there 鈥� If art goes out the window, so do our own personalities.鈥�
READ: in The National Post