Art = boondoggle?

Kory Teneycke, the Tory Communications Minister described the PromArt program as a boondoggle.

I decided to go look that one up, because last time I checked describing something as a 'boondoggle' was a rhetorical flourish and not an economic reality.

For the record Wikipedia says:

"More recently, the term boondoggle has come to refer to a government or corporate project involving large numbers of people and usually, heavy expenditure, where at some point the key operators have realized that the project is never going to work, but are reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors."

Alright so let's wander on over to the Prom-Arts page and see what the program promises, and apparently does not deliver. Well, they certainly aren't blowing a wad of cash on their web presence eh??" Seriously as far as I can tell based on this less-fugly infosheet Prom-Art does exactly what it is supposed to do: Give artists not very large amounts of money to go and try and get audiences abroad. That's what gov agencies are good at - arms length support for Canadian artists. I just don't understand why, whenever the Canadian government wants to tighten it's grip on artists and arts funding they go in for a full-nelson of moral outrage.

Yet again the Canadian Government has tried to disguise something that hinges on taste as economics. So, the band Holy Fuck who received the whopping sum of $3000 for a week- long tour of the UK (and how exactly is giving an entire band a measly 3k to tour the UK bleeding money? 3k translates to approx 1500 pounds which would last a couple of tourists a week or two at best in London. Anyways, I digress) are considered to be one of the 'boondoggles' who are wasting Canadian taxpayers hard earned cash representing "not exactly the foot that most Canadians would want to see put forward". What I want to know is, how much of my hard-earned tax dollars are supporting the dimwit who would expect Holy Fuck to go on tour, bar of soap in hand for those difficult moments just after they say their name out loud. Like clockwork every six years someone in a position of power in this country has to start behaving as if their only access to culture comes from the Time-Life series on great artists.

If the Tory's could actually prove that artists, arts organizations and the bodies that fund them spend profligately and don't manage their money well, I would happily consider talk about cuts, but the last time I checked, (in approximately 2001) the mean income for a male artist was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30k and for a female, (hold onto your hats), 22k. Is it any wonder artists and arts organizations need to get out there and build their publics? As far as I can tell the only people getting boondoggled here are Canadian culture workers, who have to defend their livelihood against ideological cuts which are described as "strategic reviews".

Oh yeah, and just in case you think it's only us bleeding heart liberals who think this is a total titfuck of stupidity. here's a blog entry from Kelly McParland a "card-carrying right wing ideologue" who apparently agrees that this is not about steam-lining it's about helping grass-chewing, oil-guzzling, four-by driving hicks maintain an international reputation they can feel comfortable with. McParland quotes a commentor who writes "Conservatives are supposed to be pro-business. This is business. It’s a $5 billion industry, and given that that industry, particularly in Toronto, is at death’s door right now, you’d think that the federal government would be doing everything it could to help.� That's the old art-supporting argument; as long as we understand that everything is a business we should be safe.

That's been the thinking since funding for the arts got axed during the last recession and we saw all sorts of arts organizations re-named in tribute to their 'angel' corporate investors. Now apparently the Tories have forgotten the mantra that art is also a business and we are not only back to square one, we are back to having to remind a group of public servants that artists are not all sitting on their duffs smoking Dunhills and trying to come up with ways to piss off the feds, they are building careers for themselves.

So come the next election let's remember the only boondoggle happening here is silly Canadians paying public servants with our money to judge the aesthetic and moral (I know it's a bit ridiculous but it's true) worth of artistic endeavours they apparently care to know very little about. Yep. Welcome to the international global economy Canada, don't forget to do up the second strap on your bib-overalls.