[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by vanisleflamesfan

What Harper has cut so far is The Museums Assistance Program (MAP) by $4.63 million. MAP provides financial assistance to regional Canadian museums and galleries to improve Canadians' access to their heritage and foster the preservation, protection, and management of collections of Aboriginal cultures.

He has also eliminated the ETS or Exhibition Transportation Service. ETS was a federal government program which provided shipping services exclusively to public art galleries and museums across Canada. This service made it possible for small museums to host large exhibitions. I work in a large museum and since the demise of ETS our shipping costs have gone up by around 65%.

This effectively makes it impossible for smaller museums to host any susbstantial exhibitions.

As you can see, none of these cuts directly has anything to do with giving money to individual artists. But all of these things affect the ability of museums to continue to do their work.

Honestly, I appreciate the passionate defense of your position but I don't buy it, and your example just confirms my original thinking.

Whether it’s through check boxes, deductions, or just plain old giving or tickets, arts funding (and a million other things) should be voluntary. Some funding to preserve the assets makes sense, but the rest I don’t see.

There is nothing preventing smaller museums from getting anything they want, they simply have to find a way to fundraise on the front end or back end. If the exhibits are worth seeing people will pay to see them or travel to see them. And if no one will drive from a small centre to a large to see the stuff, or pay to see it in their own back yard, then the exhibit itself has little value. The stuff might, but not the production.