Lots of ideas floating around this week.
The passing of longtime Stratford Fest Artistic Director Richard Monette got me thinking -about the nature of art, theatre, and audiences; what with all the arguments back and forth about populism and arts funding, his passing seems, past its sad reality, to be a significant symbol of that fiery debate currently happening online right now.
The notions of the importance to the arts in Canada, and its role in our lives, is also looming large. In my neighbourhood, gas prices are a lot more important to most people than questions of a cultural or artistic nature.
The artists involved with the film festival got involved, taking advantage of the media presence in Toronto to put on a press conference decrying the upcoming arts cuts; it was a proud moment, but I was dismayed at how little coverage it seemed to receive locally. “Is there anyone out there?“, to quote a friend. It makes me wonder.
I’m in the process of organizing artists for upcoming PlayAnon features; if you are an artist with something to say about the current cultural climate in Canada, please write. I would love to hear from you.
MK Piatkowski
And here I was reading your blog while you’re commenting on mine!
It’s great that people are working on defeating the government but you’re right, the issue is much larger. And I feel it’s really important at this time, when everyone is worried about crazy stock markets and gas prices, that we talk about ourselves as an industry. Because I honestly don’t think people want to look at a larger picture right now.
Ezreen Emira
http://ezreenemira.blogspot.com/2008/09/liberals-announce-investments-to.html
while Conservative don’t protect the art.