Crystal carefully sculpts an argument: In a democratic country, political mandates concerning promotion and funding of the arts should ideally be based on what citizens want. Although not everybody is informed enough to actually divvy up financial allocation, Canadian citizens have repeatedly supported the general idea of public funding of the arts (just one of many statistics: 85 per cent "agree that governments should provide support for arts and culture," according to Decima Research for the Department of Canadian Heritage). There is no reason publicly funded cultural endeavours should not continue, if not grow.
Byron paints a grimmer portrait: There's a procedure for allowing citizens to fund what they want and shun what they don't-it's called a market economy. Art is a marketable commodity, just like gourmet food or haut-couture fashion. Yet, governments don't subsidize chefs or designers-they're left alone to face the cruelty of the open market and to succeed or fail on their merits. Orchestras, theatres, visual artists and experimental filmmakers, however, receive heaps of state funding. Why? Because they simply can't survive without subsidies in a market-based economy where people are unwilling to pay high prices to see a symphony, an opera or a documentary film. If enough Canadians are interested in Mozart, Matisse or Mamet, why are they only willing to pay for such cultural commodities through their tax dollars?
Crystal chips away: Individual artistic products can become marketable commodities but art is absolutely never the same as another form of goods in that its benefits are not measured in units. People are going to eat or not eat that filet mignon tonight, but a Matisse nourishes for centuries. One "experimental film" may not have throngs shelling $10 a ticket at AMC, but the artistic influence, the experimental equipment and new technology developed for such films have time and time again been adopted by the mainstream. Those kick-ass dinos in Jurassic Park? Created by innovations from then National Film Board artist Daniel Langlois, whose probably then 'esoteric shenanigans' later became marketable. Art is not "subsidized" like a paycheque for artists too lazy to make something relevant; rather, public funding is like a starter loan that helps artists get off the ground.
2008 Woodie Awards
Be the first to comment on this story