This one is more relevant to Canadian readers, but if you’re the least bit interested in our politics (we’re several weeks into a federal election campaign right now, with voting on October 14th) OR if you are interested, generally, in the relationship between The Arts and Funding, the Politics Of, do check out today’s post by The Yarn Harlot. It’s a beautifully reasoned, witty, passionate letter to our Prime Minister, wondering why, moving towards an election, he would choose to cut Arts funding, unless he’s counting on the general population being hostile to “The Arts.” If the latter is the case, she argues, he’s deliberately ignoring what we all owe to artists (used broadly to refer to writers, musicians, actors, etc.) and she outlines that debt rather convincingly. Hear, hear! I say. Or rather Read, Read! — head over there and check the letter out for yourselves.
Yay – Yarn Harlot for PM!! Patricia
I am no fan of the Harper government and do not support this cut.
Unlike the writer, only a few people I know are directly employed by the arts industry, and most who are must find secondary employment elsewhere to get by.
Patricia: I’d vote for her!
Duchesse: I know more than a few, and very few who can manage without a second job. Many, many of us do work that’s driven by, or dependent on, the arts, even if we’re not directly employed there — myself, for instance!