Arts funding - where do you draw the line?

[MattNQ]

I raised this topic today on a different forum (not photography) with perhaps a different mix of opinions. I'm interested to see what differing points of view are here.


I enjoy photography & playing the guitar, and I appreciate the wonderful talent involved in the theatre, music & dance, and I do think funding the Arts is important to society.....

But, sometimes I wonder at some of the projects our gov’t sinks money into. Here’s a few examples of state arts funding that make you wonder ..umm why?


Qld
$4000. Ms xxxxx will be undertaking eight weeks work experience with Thomas Rentmeister in Berlin and eight weeks self-directed research into experimental food happenings in Germany, Paris and Italy.


NSW
$30,000 - to investigate human-impacted landscapes in the USA and respond to these landscapes through the mediums of sculpture and photography.

Vic
$10,000 - the development of Untitled, a series of abstract photographs that explore memory
$12,000 - Development of "The last car park", a self-generating sculptural installation using new technology.


Are we keeping food in the mouths of people who otherwise cannot get a real job?

I love seeing what creative people can come up with, but seriously, $30k to go to another country to interpret how they have trashed the place - I'm sure we have plenty of places like that here

[jev]

I'll top ya on this one. Translated from (a part of) an article in the Dutch newspaper "het Algemeen Dagblad":
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Rotterdam. It's a fixed ritual on a daily basis for the Rotterdam based artist Wim Konings (age 59). Every day at ca. 11:45, he arrives at the Coolsingel in Rotterdam, parks his bike behind the McDonalds and warms up his voice with a couple of voice-training exercises.

At exactly 12 o'clock, he ceremoniously walks up to a glass showcase, retrieves the chromed megaphone that is stored in there and yells as loudly as possible: "it's never too late to say sorry!". He than replaces the megaphone, locks the showcase and walks of.


This is part of the artwork "It's never too late to say sorry, by the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen and Dragset,", Konings explains to the newspaper. The object (megaphone in showcase) was a gift from the duo to the city in 2011. When it was revealed to the public, the duo (that made fame with a Prada-shop in a desert somewhere) wished that "the people of Rotterdam would no longer feel guilty".
----------8<--------------------------

The article goes on to state Konings earns €40 per day doing this, €14600 (almost AU$21000) per year . He has been doing it for 2 1/2 years now, rising the bill to a measly $52k and still going. Just recently, the city of Rotterdam decided this was too much and he no longer "works" on Sun- and Mondays now. Funding is getting tighter and "the project may come to an end in 2014".

Pictures and full article on-line here.

[pjs2]

Artistic people dont see the sense of the GOV spending large amounts of tax payers money on sports where large men smash into each other on well kept paddocks. Even though I dont see the value or what the point is of some art installations, others do and they also deserve money to create these items or ideas.

Im more peeved obout the fact that pollies are spending much larger amounts of my dollar than they spend on things like the arts. attending weddings and the like and trying to justify it as work. Now there is something to wave your flag aboot.


peter

[freelancer]

Ok Ive looked but frankly Im a bit speechless, maybe as the day goes on I will have a comment but for now Im just planning my grant application (havant a clue what for)
Jon

[agb]

On the other side of the coin the Newman Government in Qld have just reduced the funding for the Queensland centre for photography, by a mere $170000.

http://lucidamagazine.com/?p=2472

[jev]

Artistic people dont see the sense of the GOV spending large amounts of tax payers money on sports where large men smash into each other on well kept paddocks. Even though I dont see the value or what the point is of some art installations, others do and they also deserve money to create these items or ideas.

I don't think this is different on your side of the globe... but over here, sports stadiums are paid for by the tax payers but the sportsmen are paid by the public that actually buy tickets to see what they're doing. TV rights and companies buying advertisement time around these "shows" pay for the rest of it.

These art projects on the other hand...

There's a huge storage facility here where numerous paintings are stored. These paintings are made by artists for the sole purpose of getting funding from the government. As long as the artist creates a certain number of objects per year, he gets subsidized. These works are stored, never shown to the public. Why would anyone deserve money just for throwing some paint on a piece of paper that no-one ever gets to see?

[pjs2]

I don't think this is different on your side of the globe... but over here, sports stadiums are paid for by the tax payers but the sportsmen are paid by the public that actually buy tickets to see what they're doing. TV rights and companies buying advertisement time around these "shows" pay for the rest of it.

These art projects on the other hand...

There's a huge storage facility here where numerous paintings are stored. These paintings are made by artists for the sole purpose of getting funding from the government. As long as the artist creates a certain number of objects per year, he gets subsidized. These works are stored, never shown to the public. Why would anyone deserve money just for throwing some paint on a piece of paper that no-one ever gets to see?

That's why nobody wants to play for Parramatta. No ticket sales
Not all gov funded sports people are people who play in stadiums. I know cus I are one. Most if not all sports on a local level are gov funded in the form of grants or that the land on which they play is owned and up kept by the local councils who get thier money from the gov. Over here if they bring an exhibition in from over your way they will only put it on in Sydney or Canberra's art's centers. Every body else in the country doesn't get to see it . Why? I here you ask. Not enough funding to move it around.


We have a similar facility here in Brisbane used for the same thing . We call it the Brisbane Art Gallery.
OK that was a bit rude . But the arts do suffer greatly when it comes to funding and I dont think they should get yelled at for the small amount they recieve.