Arts fund raising in the good old days
September 26 2009
The Pianobabbler has tried. He has. Several times. Federal. Provincial. Municipal.
No luck. No grants. Craps. Craps. Craps.
That's my disclosure. No sour grapes. Just a fact. No influence on my views. As follows.
The Canadian government has cut the money the Canada Council for the Arts awards for recording music. A spirited debate has ensued.
The Pianobabbler's fellow jazz musicians are angered and upset. The commercial fragility of jazz makes Canada Council money crucial. No dough, no recordings. My colleagues see us as the systole and diastole at the heart of Canadian culture. Cut the funding, and we bleed dry. The music loses its beat.
In the opposing corner: the Canada's Conservative government free marketeer gang. They say nyet to throwing money at non-money making arts. Nyet to paying for music no one listens to, except über-analytical dour humbug hermits.
What is a Pianobabbler to think?
The great short story Tonio Kröger, by the greatest novelist to ever roam Earth's precincts, Thomas Mann, described the dilemma of artists. Their artistic soul lies in open sensitivity and understanding. But openness to all impedes commitment to one thing. Comprendre c'est tout pardonner.
That's how the Pianobabbler feels. He sympathizes, empathizes and izes in all sizes with his beloved colleagues.
At the same time, how does he respond to the citizen who has no use for recordings of bleating saxophones that interest 100 people and sell 50 copies? I want MY tax money going to better hospitals and schools, quoth the maven.
I know the comebacks. The inherent value of art. Its contribution to the economy. The national pride it inspires. Arts consume a minimal fraction of the budget.
I believe these arguments. I want them to prevail. They reflect my ethics. And yet.
I cannot make the absolute case for state funding. The arguments in favour have no higher ethical imperative than the arguments against. If it stands as immoral not to fund the arts, then it might equally stand as immoral not to fund medicine and education. Who does the triage here?
The Pianobabbler plays jazz. Jazz is the great American art. The U.S. has just about no state arts funding. Our anti-funding taxpayer points that out. He asks why, then, should Canada? Irony.
Who pays for art? The question has endured for millennia. I know of no definitive answer. Any more than there is one for Which is the best religion?
The Pianobabbler therefore abstains in this debate. While silently rooting for the good guys, he cannot honestly paint the others as baddies.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned, I've never got a grant. Anyone interested in helping to finance the Pianobabbler's next recording?
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