why, oh why, do we pay taxes...?

This piece on arts funding got me all riled up... it's a long article by Andrew Coyne, originally published in Next City magazine, and very much worth a read. It basically counters the prevailing view among most media and elites that what Canada needs is more public funding of the arts if its culture is to survive the American behemoth in our back yard (or are we in their attic?), and continue to celebrate national identity and creative excellence.

I will admit up front, that while Coyne makes a compelling case for his point of view, I think he oversimplifies what public arts funding actually amounts to, and reveals a pronounced blue streak in his "individual-knows-best" approach to taxes.

Coyne argues that individuals should only pay for culture they directly consume, and therefore arts funding is unfair to people who couldn't care less what's happening beyond their local Blockbuster. This kind of argument, favouring individual "market-driven" choice, cites historical examples of excellence in artistic creation that made no use of the public purse, as though the only thing public subsidy of the arts was trying to do was discover another Shakespeare or Michaelangelo, by spraying a buckshot of cash at anyone with even the slightest inclination towards making something "great".

Public funding of the arts is a good deal more complex than the model Mr. Coyne presents, so his piece is more correctly viewed as a direct attack on the Canada Council (lord knows it's not the first one, and won't be the last).

Public arts funding in Canada is responsible for an impressive array of cultural public works projects over the last sixty years, including all of the major regional theatre centres, galleries and museums (both small and large), the maintenance and presentation of national collections, encouragement of cutting edge artistic and curatorial practice (recognized and celebrated internationally), the establishment of viable cultural industries, and the list goes on...

And despite all of this, many artists do still make a good living outside of the realms of public subsidy, in the (gasp!) commercial art world, that exists alongside and in fact benefits greatly from the creativity fueled (and funded!) by what Coyne sees as an onerous tax burden on average boors.

An example. Toronto theatre-goers need look no further than the Mirvish Theatre season: originally staged at the (publicly funded) Toronto Fringe Festival in 2001, Trey Anthony's da kink in my hair opened at Theatre Passe-Muraille, a mid-sized not-for-profit (also publicly funded) Toronto theatre, in a remount production in 2003 and did extremely well, boasting sold out performances, a rare achievement in the mid-range theatre scene. Two years later the play went on to a large-scale commercial remount at the Princess of Wales Theatre as part of the 2005 Mirvish theatre season. The production was a massive success, with sold out performances (again) and subsequent television and movie development deals. Was this a bad investment by the public purse?

On the flip side: Atwood on the underfunding of the arts in Canada (sadly, this is only available to Globe online subscribers). This one is a bite-sized opinion piece, a five minute read, and an interesting take on the state of the arts in Canada from one of our most recognized literary figures. To be sure, Atwood's been on the scene long enough to have something to say worth listening to.