I can’t decide which government administration I dislike more, the Bush led American version or Steven Harper’s conservative party in Canada, currently wrecking havoc on artists. Unlike the Americans however, who were at least pressured by conservative groups before cutting NEA funding in 1996, the Canadian government is entirely self motivated. Indeed, as CBC reported Tuesday, the prime minister’s press secretary Kory Ten-nike explained The Tories cuts to the PromArt funding stream, (which subsidizes international promotional tours of Canadian artists), as follows “the [funding] choices made were inappropriate….because they were ideological in some cases, or the money was going to fringe arts groups that, in many cases, would be at best, unrepresentative, and at worst offensive.”
Such positions seem remarkably similar to their proposed changes to the Income Tax Act earlier this year which would have allowed the Heritage and Justice department to deny tax credits to projects deemed offensive. In both cases the government assigns decision making power to people who, worse than having no investment in arts and culture, actively fear it. The result is an administration actively seeking to harm the profession under the guise of goodwill. To wit, amongst the “unrepresentative” and possibly “offensive” examples cited by Anne Howland, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, is the Juno nominated Toronto indie band Holy Fuck. While nobody here is going to attempt to defend the band’s name — let’s face it, it’s awful — I will note the notoriously snobby assholes over at Pitchfork issued rare praise so I can’t imagine they’re representing the country all that badly. “Holy Fuck actually inspire awe”, writes Joe Tangari for the publication, before qualifying the statement with, “during their best moments.”
Not surprisingly, Holy Fuck were the wrong people for the Tories to pick out from the crowd, as their talent extends to making compelling statements to the press. From the CBC,
“I guess more than anything it’s a little bit annoying that we’ve been made the scapegoat when you consider how much money we receive relative to the budget for the entire program,” bass player Matt McQuaid said.
The program costs about $4.7 million a year and supports hundreds of different arts groups, from ballet and theatre companies performing overseas to author readings out of country.
“I think our funding comes in at something less than 0.1 per cent of the whole program,” McQuaid told the Q cultural affairs show on Tuesday.
“So all of these other larger groups who need money more than we do to travel abroad — like ballet and symphonies — we become the scapegoat for the cutting in their funding.”
Nontheless, Holy F— is on a tour of Germany right now, paying their own way as they have been able to all year — because their growing popularity and an album deal with a record label in the U.K.
McQuaid says he realizes the band’s name makes it an easy target, but still shouldn’t be held up as an example of a way Canadians would not want their money spent.
He can’t understand the arguments being made by supporters of the cuts that arts groups who need support are not “mainstream” enough. The band was shortlisted this year for the $20,000 Polaris prize.
“We’ve been nominated for a Juno award — that’s as mainstream as you get for popular music in Canada,” he said, pointing out that the band’s videos appear on MTV and MuchMusic. “That argument falls flat in our case and from what I’ve read … for a lot of other people as well.”
But he says other musicians and ballet troupes and authors and filmmakers sometimes need help to start out.
To read the full piece click here.
