When the Harper government decided to cut funding from several arts programs last year, the country rehearsed the well-worn lines about why we fund culture production in the first place. Art entertains, it’s an important sector of the economy, and, last but not least, it tells us who we are. The Varsity Magazine decided to test that last point by asking four composition students from U of T’s music faculty to write pieces responding to the cuts and their aftermath. Between the musicians, there were only a few points of consensus regarding the government’s “trimming the fat” (see Daniel Bader’s report in the January 20th INDEPENDENT ARTS issue). But after listening to the pieces the students composed, it’s hard to challenge the view that a country needs its arts like it needs self-reflection. A society without either is dead.
Instead of having all four students respond to the events of the last few months as a whole, we asked each to pick a section of the narrative. While the individuality of each composer is obvious in his work, what emerges is a strikingly coherent and complimentary suite of songs.
For all the distinctions made in the debate about arts funding between high-flying artsy elites and Main Street, Canada, the airy flute and earthy guitar compliment one another in Patrick Power’s contribution. And, as the title reminds us, creating art is something that Canadians will do “even without a record contract.”
Patrick Murray picks this up in his own piece and breaks down the distinction further. As Margaret Atwood wrote in her rebuttal to Harper’s claim that “ordinary people” don’t care about the arts,
“Mr. Harper’s idea of an ordinary person is that of an envious hater without a scrap of artistic talent or creativity or curiosity, and no appreciation for anything that’s attractive or beautiful. My idea of an ordinary person is quite different. Human beings are creative by nature.”
Murray found Atwood’s editorial inspiring and chose to write an elegy for ordinary humanity—all the lives enriched by arts programs that focus on amateurs and communities.
We launch from there into the fall federal election. In the opening half a minute of Rosano Coutinho’s composition, you can imagine MPs dispersing from Ottawa like solids and stripes rocketing across baize with a good break. Olivia Shortt’s saxophone hints on the national anthem. The instruments speak to us and one another, sometimes forming a measured argument, sometimes teasing.
So, a return to normalcy, then. Another throne speech, another (if slightly more Conservative) session of parliament. But as the violin grows increasingly erratic in Saman Shahi’s “Drift,” the violence underlying what had seemed sedate tears through the surface. The political discord has been temporarily muted by the proroguing of Parliament. The country is drifting. Maybe we haven’t been listening.
The Announcement and the Ideology
The announcement in late August 2008 that Stephen Harper was cutting $45 million to arts and culture spending in Canada was met with different attitudes across the country. In the Prairie provinces, the announcement was met with a solemn nod—“It’s the elitists versus the ordinary people.” During the election campaign, Harper seemed content to disparage those champagne-swigging, gala-attending bigwigs who use taxpayer money to get rich and famous off their so-called art. His argument, and that of most Tories supporting the cuts, is that the majority of Canadians don’t give a hoot about arts and culture. As Kevin Lebin of The National Post says, “[most peoples’] cultural experiences are more about TV’s Survivor than the Stratford Festival,” and perhaps he’s not wrong.
Patrick Power, “Even Without a Record Contract”
Patrick Power (guitar), Tim Crouche (flute)
Recorded and mastered by Jon Hawkes at the CIUT studio
Patrick is a second-year performance major and composition minor
radio3.cbc.ca/bands/patrick-power
Artists Unite
After the initial announcement, many prominent Canadians decried the cuts. Writers, musicians and filmmakers banded together not only to instruct the nation that arts and culture in Canada are essential, but that everyone, including those on Main Street, needs the arts. We are all creative people, says Majdi Mouawad. “Let’s make no mistake. The cultural politics of Canada are built on a contempt for intellectuals and a snickering at the words of artists; this contempt and snickering are exacerbated today by the policies of a police-state party that has grown alienated by ‘might-makes-right’ [attitudes].”
Margaret Atwood, the apparent voice of Canadian writing, vociferously opposed the spending cuts, arguing that being creative was inherently Canadian, and that by removing vital programs from the arts budget, Stephen Harper was not just denying the gala-attending art snobs, but the heart and soul of our cities. She claimed that in 2007 the arts industry employed over 600,000 people, and contributed $46 billion to our economy.
Patrick Murray, “Elegy for Ordinary Humanity”
Patrick Murray (piano)
Patrick is a first-year music student with a prospective minor in composition.
www.myspace.com/patrickmurraymusic
The Election
This cut announcement was made just weeks before the fall election campaign. Opposition parties blasted the Conservative government for not understanding “normal people” in Canada, and promised to boost spending in the arts. Bob Rae claimed that “[c]ulture affects working people. It affects a lot of people. It’s the air everybody breathes.”
Fearsome rallies ensued, organized by students and workers in equal force. Most were located in the cultural centres of the country: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Fielding a question about arts funding during the English-language leaders’ debate, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe began his response: “It means a lot to me. My father was a well-known comedian, my family has a theatre in Montreal, my son and daughter are working in the movie sector. […]I think it was awful for Mr. Harper to make those cuts in the cultural sector.”
Rosano Coutinho, “The Art of Rhetoric”
Rosano Coutinho (piano), Olivia Shortt (alto saxophone), Brenton Chan (cello)
Rosano is a second-year music education student.
Check out PNO DUO: Weekly piano improvisations at http://pnoduo.com
Economic and Political Fallout
Since the election, attention paid to the issue of arts funding has faded in the midst of worries over the state of the economy and the political drama unfolding in Ottawa after the government’s fall economic statement. Department of Culture, a national group of artists that emerged during the election to campaign against the cuts, supports the proposed coalition government between the Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Quebecois. And while estimates abound regarding the size of the stimulus package the government will propose in its 2009 budget on January 27, arts groups are urging Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to remind the Prime Minister of the contribution to the economy made by the arts. The estimated 600,000 Canadian arts jobs that Atwood referenced in her Globe & Mail editorial was likewise referenced in a Canada Council statement defending arts funding. According to the council, this figure is “roughly the same as agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, oil & gas and utilities combined.”
Saman Shahi, “Drift”
Saman Shahi (piano), Emma Vachon-Tweney (violin)
Saman is a third-year composition student.
