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octothorp · 04-08-2011, 02:44 PM

It's true that hockey is a major part of Canadian culture, but simply going to a hockey game is not an act of culture, any more than the simple existence of a painting locked in a crate some where is an item of culture. If culture was just the the act of attending a sporting event, there would be nothing to separate it from baseball in the US or football in Britain. But these are all markedly different cultural experiences because of what they evoke inside of us.

What Canadian hockey fan raised here in Canada did not love and relate to Roch Carrier's protagonist in the Hockey Sweater? Are we not culturally richer for having the notion of childhood allegiance and loyalty to a team articulated so well? That work was written by a writer funded by the government, first published by a small publisher also funded by the government, and then immortalized in a short film made by a government agency. It is a work that simply would not exist were it not for government funding for the arts.

The arts, at their best, are not culture, but an articulation of our culture that allows it to be passed from one mind to the next and one generation to the next. It would be difficult to fathom a Canadian national identity that did not involve the literature of Mordecai Richler and Margaret Atwood, the artwork of the Group of 7, the music of the Tragically Hip, or the films of Bruce McDonald or Denys Arcand. All of these artists (and the publishers, recording studios, production companies, etc.) had funding sources (usually government) that allowed them to function outside of purely market conditions.

The reason that Canada (and most other civilized countries) fund the arts through tax revenue and the government is that we recognize, overall, that such a model is the only away to create a merit/potential model of funding (apart from massive philanthropic organizations that exist in the US but are rare anywhere else in the world. You can ask why such organizations are rare in Canada - the closest thing we have in Calgary is the Rozsa Foundation, which is extremely well-run but relatively small - but that's another debate).

04-08-2011, 02:44 PM	#70
octothorp Franchise Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: not lurking Exp:	It's true that hockey is a major part of Canadian culture, but simply going to a hockey game is not an act of culture, any more than the simple existence of a painting locked in a crate some where is an item of culture. If culture was just the the act of attending a sporting event, there would be nothing to separate it from baseball in the US or football in Britain. But these are all markedly different cultural experiences because of what they evoke inside of us. What Canadian hockey fan raised here in Canada did not love and relate to Roch Carrier's protagonist in the Hockey Sweater? Are we not culturally richer for having the notion of childhood allegiance and loyalty to a team articulated so well? That work was written by a writer funded by the government, first published by a small publisher also funded by the government, and then immortalized in a short film made by a government agency. It is a work that simply would not exist were it not for government funding for the arts. The arts, at their best, are not culture, but an articulation of our culture that allows it to be passed from one mind to the next and one generation to the next. It would be difficult to fathom a Canadian national identity that did not involve the literature of Mordecai Richler and Margaret Atwood, the artwork of the Group of 7, the music of the Tragically Hip, or the films of Bruce McDonald or Denys Arcand. All of these artists (and the publishers, recording studios, production companies, etc.) had funding sources (usually government) that allowed them to function outside of purely market conditions. The reason that Canada (and most other civilized countries) fund the arts through tax revenue and the government is that we recognize, overall, that such a model is the only away to create a merit/potential model of funding (apart from massive philanthropic organizations that exist in the US but are rare anywhere else in the world. You can ask why such organizations are rare in Canada - the closest thing we have in Calgary is the Rozsa Foundation, which is extremely well-run but relatively small - but that's another debate).