Quote:
Originally Posted by urban1
People keep saying Calgary lacks culture. If Calgary had a ballet, a symphony, and a national art gallery and museum, how many of these complaining people would take advantage of it? Would it change your life if we had a ballet and symphony?
One way Calgary lacks culture is that it lacks interesting people. Id rather have funding for local artists on a small scale rather than creating monster megaprojects like new museums or galleries. People who want to live in the burbs in cookie cutter homes on cookie cutter cul de sacs dont make a city interesting or vibrant.
JohnnyB is right about the poor design of the city. But part of it is what people want. A lot of new residents in Calgary are from small towns across the prairies and the east coast. These people want yards and homes in the 'burbs. In Toronto and Montreal you have a lot of immigrants from countries and cities with very dense populations and urban living is what these people know.
Its great to see lot of condos and multifamily units going up in and around downtown. But read the article in todays herald about development in the east village and youll see developmtn is very very slow.
|
I agree to a certain extent, though there are a large number of art patrons here in the city. The Calgary Opera has had sellouts or near sellouts at almost all of its performances in the last five years. By comparison, the philharmonic is quite poorly attended when compared with Edmonton (where the philharmonic sells out and the opera cannot attract anyone). Alberta ballet does pretty good on its Calgary shows, better than the philharmonic and less than the opera.
The Alberta government has long maintained an attitude that investment in the arts should not come from the government. And Calgary's affluence has resulted in a good trickle-down effect, where Calgarians do spend more money than most on arts and culture. Unfortunately, the nature of Calgary's culture combined with a lack of government investment means that though some of the larger arts organizations do quite well, individual artists find it very difficult, not having the same funding opportunities that artists in other provinces have. I know several artists in a variety of disciplines who have moved out-of-province largely because of better development programs for young artists.
Edmonton has done far better than Calgary in terms of grassroots artist support, both in terms of developing artists and retaining them. I don't have numbers in front of me, but I believe Edmontonians spend less on arts and culture than Calgary, but because more of their money is directed toward young and developing artists, their arts scene overall feels more vibrant. The fringe would be an example of this. Calgary's most prominent theatre festival (High Performance Rodeo) tends to support a small number of established theatre groups, and doesn't have broadly accessible works as the fringe does.