Friday, March 22, 2019
Should Our Funds for the Arts Pay for Cultural Democracy?
HowlRound Theatre Commons: Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to discredit cultural democracy; I am convinced that access to the arts and the stimulus towards personal creativity are basic human rights and needs. This is, instead, an attempt to analyze my growing uneasiness when I read yet another arts fund, council, or ministry in Western Europe is opening a strand for “everyday creativity.”
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I am a bit confused by this article. The author does not seem to end up with a clear stance on whether or not cultural democracy is beneficial. She seems to be saying that money for arts education should come out of education budgets, not arts budgets, which makes a certain amount of sense. However, at least in the United States, education budgets are vastly insufficient as they are. Van Houte points out that not all citizens benefit equally from government programs, which is certainly true. She argues that highly funded operas, symphonies, etc., should use their funding to make workshops and other programming for local communities, or the government should entirely restructure the way they finance the arts. I think the first part of that idea is problematic, at least in countries that are geographically large (probably not Western Europe). The benefits of such programming would only be accessible to urban populations, many of which are already fairly saturated with arts education programs. The second part of that idea is fine enough, but with even the author, who believes in it, using phrases such as “welfare state” in close context, it seems like an unrealistic goal.
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