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During the spring in NL it is time to roll out the red
carpet and give out the awards.
Tonight is the Excellence in Visual Arts Awards ceremony at The
Rooms. So get out that extra red
lipstick and celebrate. We are
also still reeling from the double whammy of cuts to funding, an explosion of
arts festivals and fierce competition for a relatively small audience for
"cultural products".
I can't think of a single profession where an individual
works so hard for so little dollars than the professional world of visual arts,
music and attendant cultural industries like independent film and dance. In the province of NL there has never been so much
to choose from when it comes time to spend that arts and entertainment
dollar. In Canada, many of us look
to our sponsors - some of them government- to pick up the slack between what it
costs to put on a show and what it brings in. Profit? What's
that? And that's how art gets to
be seen as a vocation…where you are expected to take a vow of poverty in order
to practice your art.
But if you regard art as self-expression that's a different
story. If it tells the story of an
individual, well let the individual get a day job. If that story reflects cultural identity well it is at least
good press for regionalism, etc…government. Now, if art is seen as an education– something that teaches
us– well that almost makes it an inalienable right in Canada where we regard
education highly. What about art
as community building? There's a
whole new relationship to consider.
So, if you consider art as a luxury, an indulgence, a status
object, a lesson it all has an impact on whether art deserves your time and
money. Think about it.
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