'The kids aren't there': Arts groups losing revenue due to teacher strikes

The impact of job action by local teachers is trickling down to art institutions, and the students that use them. 

In November, elementary and high school teachers started a work-to-rule campaign. That means programs that used to run outside of normal school hours or off-site no longer have a teacher to chaperone them. 

Paul Field runs Artshine, a mobile art school based in Kitchener, which gives art lessons to students between the ages of four and 12.

During a normal school year, those lessons would take place during lunch and after school.

"We're not allowed in the school, and of course the kids aren't there, so we have to cancel the program and refund the parents. And then our instructors are out of work as well," Field said.

Total losses for Field's company will depend on how long job action goes on, but at this point he is out close to $200,000, he said. 

Artshine's free programs for at-risk and impoverished youth have also been impacted. 

In addition, a four-concert series from the Kitchener-Waterloo Sympony for high-schoolers is in jeopardy. The series was planned for April, but executive director Andrew Bennett said if things don't improve, the entire series will be cancelled. 

"Some arts organizations have the relative luxury of being flexible about date and time, but clearly when you've got a symphony orchestra that's scheduled one to two years in advance and a major venue like Centre in the Square, you can't just say, 'Let's do it on a different day,'" said Bennett.

"The kind of amount of money we're talking about per group, is about $20,000 in terms of ticket sales. So clearly we're not charging the students very much money individually, but of course it absolutely adds up over four concerts on those two days, and it would be a considerable loss."

Meanwhile, youth theatre company Growing in the Arts is looking at cutting costs and ways to bring in new audience members. The company puts on shows geared toward school curriculum and often has school groups attend perfrmances.

Gita Shuster Ashley runs Growing in the Arts, and she said that at this point in the year, she would usually be getting ready to send out invitations to local schools.

"There will not be, you know, busses upon busses pulling up, dropping off hundreds of young people during the day," she said. 

"We will just have to put a big effort into publicising and getting the public out."

In-school productions also impacted

Elmira District Secondary School's rendition of The Little Mermaid may not run as planned.

There are 55 students who have been working since the second week of September to put on the show, drama teacher DJ Carroll said. 

Depending on how the situation progresses before opening night on Feb. 20, students are ready and willing to go with the flow, according to Carroll. 

Luckily, a former student is volunteering with the production as it's director. Which means, in the worst case scenario, the production could be put on at an outside venue. 

"We have to assume that it's going on. We're not going to cancel anything just because there is this pressure from the government," he said.