Open season on struggling artists

>>Former employees of Open City Productions go public with their complaints

by PHILIP PREVILLE

On paper, Open City Productions seems like a model combination of social-democratic values and entrepreneurial spirit. A non-profit community arts organization, Open City hires artists on welfare or employment insurance and helps place them in schools as teachers and instructors. In other words, they find work for struggling artists, reintegrate people into the workforce, and bring art to the children--too good to be true.

But according to some artists who have worked there, the truth is less flattering. They describe constant delays in receiving their paycheques, sometimes of more than a month; weeks of working for Open City for which they have still not been paid for; and harassment by Open City management for time that Open City claims the artists owe to them.

"My experience there was a disaster," says William Landry, a writer who got a teaching job through Open City in 1996. Landry, now employed directly by that same school as writer-in-residence, claims that Open City constantly post-dated or delayed the release of paycheques, even though they were receiving the money for his salary from the provincial government (Landry was on welfare at the time). He says he also led a self-defense workshop for Open City for which he was never paid, and that he still has not been paid for his last week of work with Open City as a camp counsellor this past summer.

Another former employee, Marilyne Hudon, had to bring Open City before the labour relations board just to get her last paycheque and her vacation pay. All five former Open City employees interviewed by the Mirror complained of "manipulation" tactics, such as telling them they could not seek further employment with the school where Open City had placed them for a period of two years. "Open City placed us in these jobs through reintegration programs--the whole idea is to get us back into the workforce," Landry says. "But Open City was telling us we couldn't seek out jobs on our own. They want to create a dependency on Open City, and they want to keep those placements for themselves."

Open City founder Glenn Hilke, however, says Open City merely requested that artists not seek re-employment "for the sake of future artists." And he claims that each individual interviewed by the Mirror had received preferential treatment. "We got William [Landry] on to a second government program in half the time it normally takes," Hilke said. "If I owe him money, all he has to do is show me his last pay stub from the government and I'll pay him.

"We were made to feel as though our cheque was some sort of gift," Landry says. "When I approached him to get my money, Hilke told me, 'William, the way I see it, you owe me money.'"

Hilke claims that problems with paycheques result from government delays. For the artists on welfare that they hire, Open City pays their salary up front and must then wait for reimbursement, occasionally up to eight weeks, leading to cash flow problems for his organization. But Landry says that's no excuse. "Open City was getting money from the provincial government for me, for my salary. That money has my name on it. No one else should touch it.

"I'll never work there again. And I think artists should think twice before working there."