Tories kill arts grants for foreign travel

In the US, we saw the National Endowment for the Arts wither to its deathbed. If that's Canada's artistic future, then I'm truly sorry. The proponents of this move have clearly never tried to make anything "world-class".

You make a lot of good points. I'm often saddened by the degree to which art is marginalized in Canada, and how it's never a priority to monetize quality creative work. You're right, art doesn't just magically appear.

kate, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I'm guessing that Canada sorely needs these these art-emissaries as I'm blissfully unaware of  what's currently going on in the Canadian art-scene.

For all my opinions on modern art (often a low opinion) I'm glad it's still there and I'm glad that British artists can get their works out into the world.  For a government to undermine its countries artists is so short-sighted that it's an insult to its people.

Why is it that art is so politicised?  The Right complain that the Left allow art to become depraved, the Left complain that the Right wouldn't know 'good art' if it tripped over it.  It's an unwinnable argument that just goes around and around every time a new party comes to power.

A pointless argument that puts artists out of work and leaves a country culturally impoverished.

Another move destined to move Canada one step closer to cultural obscurity.   I guess there is always indigenous art to appropriate when we don't have any of our own.

kate, I like this story. It's good stuff. Kate, I flagged this story, to let you know, what some may not have told you about waste in the arts community, not all of them, but certainly a large percentage, who enjoy Chablis and Travel on our dime.

As for Canadian Culture? Well, Ya know many may not agree with me and that is fine, as for Canadian Culture, well granted it is rapidly not slowly eroding, and not just in the arts, it is everyday Canadian life as we know it.

Most here know I frequently comment on this very same subject, sometimes to no avail, with nary a response from fellow Canadians, but I get a whackload of comments, good stuff flags and ongoing dialog from Europeans, Middle Easterners, Americans, Latin America, and East Asia and Austrailia.

They all say the same thing, why are we letting our Canadian culture slide, my answer to them is if we talk of Canadian Culture, it is not politically correct, as we are a fabric of multicultural diversity with all the colours of the rainbow, a melee or Yadda, Yadda, Yadda......

Let's face it people, We let it get this way in our quest to be The Bestest Canadians on the Planet, a model for the World to follow, but when we ask them, Aren’t we as Canadians special, their response is polite, but all I get from them are pretty much the same, We would never let our culture go, as that is what defines us as a people.

Well Canada, ya got's no one to blame but yourself, and that includes the arts. Remember I used to work for CCRA, I know auditing and I know and see waste.

Our friends here who are commenting, granted see only one aspect of this story, the reason I joined and write for Now Public as a Opinion Contributor, is I always like to have a balance to any story, providing the pros and the cons, as media rarely tell both.

For example I will provide Facts, as most of you know me, that is what I do as an forensic investigator, oh yes, and I have done art and antiquities as well, including the Art Gallery when it was on Elgin Street in Ottawa, before they moved it to Sussex street.

I could provide so many examples of waste, just not in art, but theatre, literature, dance, music it would turn your head and make you vomit.

Now remember everyone Arts Grants are to showcase "Canadian Talent", that's what Canadians want, they are paying for Canadian Culture, so Now Public Readers should know this before continuing reading the following, and know this money is taxpayers money.

I will also post in this story the accompanying photos of each fact and or News media report I provide here, so readers will know, I am not just babbling here.

In 2001, I was in Moscow, Russia, when our Illustrious Prime Minister and his wife and a cadre of politicians, glitterati of the artsy set, literary types, and businessmen all on a fact finding mission, supposedly on a world “Showcasing Canadian Business and getting Business contacts, Canadian Culture, yadda, yadda, yadda, it was also during the Olympic bid between Russia and China.

Elton John was playing Red Square, as was Pavoratti, the Bolshoi Ballet was in full swing, the best performers at the Bolshoi were on tour.

Guaranteed it was well attended “Money no Object” as was every other venue which Moscow had to offer. Did I happen to mention this entire entourage was spending a few weeks on the Canadian Taxpayers Dime?

Average hotel room per day for the lowliest public servants was around $400.00 a night, with the majority of Canadian Attendees getting them $1200.00 a night rooms.

Meals on average were around $500.00 a day, though drinks were not included as was snacks, theatre performances etc.,Etc, ETC….. Want to guess what that jaunt for a battalion of hanger oners was?

And that was just Moscow, I hazard to guess what it cost the rest of the tour through Europe? Let’s say for one lowly person, it most likely would have put a med student through med school, that’s for Moscow alone.

Hence, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever vote Liberal or NDP, cause like Mulroney, once said, “There’s No Whore, Like an Old Whore~!!! And the Liberals and NDP can Whore it better than anyone when the Canadian Taxpayer is picking up the tab.

Michael Alstad’s Blog below, is certainly not art, but perhaps what our Conservative Prime Minister is talking about, why pay people to travel and discuss non art subjects?

His environmentalism is nice, certainly is indepth reporting on Chickens is news breaking, but I don’t see a degree in environmental or agricultural sciences behind his name, so what is the deal?

http://shanebrennan.net/climate/category/michael-alstad/

Gwynne Dyer a British resident, HMMMMMM, why are we paying him to go to Cuba to discuss Politics, last time I checked, he has no diplomat training or even political science training or degree in Political science? Again, I refer you to re read the No whore like an old whore statement!

 Below is a story from the National Post, which will give readers another side of this story.

http://www.nationalpost.com/related/links/story.html?id=710676

Ending PromArt's gravy train

National Post Published: Saturday, August 09, 2008

The majority of the grants awarded under the federal government's $4.7-million PromArt program -- which was cut by the Conservatives on Friday -- were tiny and uncontroversial:

$1,000 to an independent filmmaker to show his short documentary at a European film festival;

$750 to a novelist to read excerpts from her book at a store in New York City;

$2,000 to help an Aboriginal artist transport some of his works to an exhibition in New Zealand.

Most of the awards wouldn't raise the eyebrow of the average Canadian.

But some would absolutely curl their hair. Why, for instance, is it the duty of Canadian taxpayers to fly left-wing anti-war journalist Gwynne Dyer -- who is a resident of Britain-- to Cuba to hobnob with that country's opinion leaders and give them a "greater awareness and appreciation of Canadian foreign policy, values and models"?

Camilla Gibb, the novelist -- who, like Mr. Dyer, lives in London -- was given $10,000 last year "to travel to the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to participate in public diplomacy activities in support of Canada's dialogue with Muslim communities." Again: Why? Barbara Willis Sweete of Rhombus Media received $2,000 from the program to allow her "to present her production Five Days in September -- The Rebirth of an Orchestra at the 2006 Sydney Film Festival in Australia." That seems OK.

But why should ordinary working Canadians give former CBC activist Avi Lewis, who now has brought his anti-American schtick to al Jazeera, $5,000 to attend film festivals in Australia and Argentina?

Why should they underwrite his jet-setting travels when they are having trouble saving up a few hundred dollars for a summer camping vacation of their own?

Alexander Mair was given $4,200 "to participate in seminars in Helsinki, Finland and Trondheim, Norway on cultural exportation in the sound recording industry." If he wants to fly thousands of miles to hear a Finnish academic drone on about business models for alternative rock bands, so be it.

But PromArt paid for several other Canadians to attend the same seminars, then added several thousand more dollars to subsidize the conference itself.

Many of the recipients weren't even Canadian and had very little connection to Canada. A group called Peru 2021, for instance, received nearly $30,000 from Canadian taxpayers "to organize a one-day conference on corporate social responsibility," while nearly $44,000 was doled out to the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency to "host a two-day conference on Pakistan's national Elections in 2007 and possible political scenarios for the region.

" Among the biggest beneficiaries of PromArt is the Toronto International Film Festival, which last year was given nearly $150,000 to bring out-of-country film buyers to T. O. and wine and dine them while they were there.

Predictably, there will be plenty of stink over the cancellation of the tax-funded slush fund. Some artists will claim it is censorship -- as they did when the Conservatives recently tightened the government's film-subsidy rules.

And cultural nationalists will charge that the move cripples Canadian artists' ability to have their voices heard outside our borders.

(Blogger Paul Wells of Maclean's magazine, for instance, claims the program's cancellation is a sign the Tories believe "Canada has nothing to tell the world.")

http://www.nationalpost.com/related/links/story.html?id=630364

Indie 5,000: glut of pics, lack of hits Doom looms for art-house cinema

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon Published: Friday, July 04, 2008

All winter and spring, people in the independent-film business have beenmurmuringpolitely behind their hands and pretending not to see the 800-pound walrus in the corner of the room.

The indie industry is undergoing a sudden and largely unexpected meltdown, or in the business-speak recently employed by Sony Pictures Classics co-president Tom Bernard, "a periodic market adjustment."

Here is just a smattering, why grants are being cut, I will start with the following: ·

Voice of Fire, "$2 million dollars" paid to a Non Canadian but a American Artist Barnett Newman in which we paid the absurd sum of close to $2 million dollars.

The Public took a Sh*t fit, for us purchasing a canvas from an American, no less an American Artist, who most likely was on acid when he painted this two blue stripes on either side of a big red stripe, that a mentally deficient monkey could paint with a roller and some house paint.

Certainly a bad return on investment, that if the money was used wisely, we could have bought back some native art, or art from local artists.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Fire

Then on to the ludicrious

  The Banana “$2,500.00” someone actually thinks this is art, thank god the taxpayer didn’t pay for it.

People walk past a banana installation exhibit by Michael Fernandes at the Gallery Page And Strange on Granville St. in Halifax, NS on Wednesday, July 2nd. (Sandor Fizli for The Globe and Mail)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080702.wbanana03/BNStory/Entertainment/

I do thank you for the opportunity to comment on your story Kate, in closing, I hope you and your readers now have a balanced perspective on why these cuts were made.

The Arts are meant for Canadians, by Canadians and to focus on the Arts, not political statements, non sensical babbling about chickens, or why Chavez likes Monet, etc, Etc, ETC…

Gotta remember it is my money too, and I want it spent on what it is supposed to be spent, Canadian Culture, which is fast becoming extinct, as the funding they are whining about.

If artists think what they have to say, do, draw, write, play and dance is so Sh*t Hot, then why are they relying on Taxpayers for a living?

Their work should speak for itself, if it is so groundbreaking and nouveau, otherwise, they should bury it, like the Hanging MEAT DRESS the Canadian Are Gallery bought!  That was a putrid maggot infested stinker, but some artist thought it was art and the taxpayers paid for it. talk about buyers remorse on that Abortion.  Which brings me to another work of art........>we paid for!

Barry Artiste.

kate, I like this story. It's good stuff.

kate, I like this story. It's good stuff.

kate, I like this story. What a shame if we make it a political issue out of this, but art without politics in the modern time is like Michelangelo without his belief. Complex relationship which may or may not bring out the best in an artist. :)

kate, I like this story. It's good stuff.  If I could flag it twice, I would. Good one Kate.