On January 6, the International Festival of Authors (IFOA),Canada's largest literary festival, announced it had received a $200,000 grantfrom the Ontario Trillium Foundation to expand its two-year-old IFOA Ontarioprogram, through which it organizes literary events in locations outside ofToronto. There will be at least a part-time project co-ordinator job created by the funding, with more staff to follow as it expands.
In 2009, there were 10 events featuring Canadian andinternational authors in seven locations run by the IFOA, which is part ofHarbourfront Centre. They were mostly north and west of Toronto, includingBarrie, Burlington, Midland and Parry Sound.
The money is meant for research and development, as well ashelping to set up infrastructure in locations around the province to facilitate literary events and take advantage of the authors who come to the internationally renowned Torontofestival from around thecountry and world.
According to IFOA director Geoffrey Taylor, new locationsbeing considered include Kingston, St Catharines, Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
"It's not about going to these places and showing them howwe do it in the big city," says Taylor, who's been with the IFOA for more thantwo decades. "It's about trying to create something so that they can do itthemselves."
Taylor estimates it cost between $80,000 to $90,000 in cashto run the program in 2009, in rough tandem with the Toronto events, though hestresses there was a good deal more spent by the festival and localcommunities, in staff time and goods in kind. By any calculation, though, a$200,000 injection is a major boon.
"IFOA can't really grow much," Taylor says of the festival'sToronto incarnation, which already maxes out its Harbourfront facilities andvenues, "but IFOA Ontario can be as large or larger than the festival."
"It's quite possible," he adds, "that in the future, we'llbe bringing authors in just for this program exclusively."
-- Bert Archer