Getting Creative to take on Creativity

You may not know that the Canada Council for the Arts has actually set artists up against one another, in competition for increasingly limited funds.  Of course it has done some good.  However, if it were designed by artists and not bureaucrats it would not have made artists explain everything they want to do before they do it, ignoring how creativity works.  The present system actually inhibits creativity and encourages artists to spend 3 months of each year filling out forms.  It was instituted by government shortly after the October Crisis in Quebec (which may or may not be a coincidence). 


Bulgaria and Romania are countries with arts communities that actually flourish and, there`s little or no paperwork.  Their professional arts associations were set up under strict communist dictatorships.

The last time I checked the Romanian professional artists had their own factory for fine art paints, plus a large facility for pouring metal to make bronze sculpture.  There is a national network of artist-owned galleries and residences. 

There is no arts council in these countries.  The artists have actually organized and gone after clients.  Almost all the money for this expansion of services came as income from clients. 

There is nothing like this in terms of representation of artists in Canada.  One contract I heard they secured was to design and decorate a casino in an old mansion.  Costs for services ... $2 million in 1995 dollars.

Canadian artists don`t tend to dream big.  Dreaming within state guidelines and in accordance with application deadlines seems to do the job nicely, thank you very much.

Each time the Canada Council budget gets cut artists have this habit of getting excited, making some noise, throwing a low-budget stylish party in sheer defiance.  While all the time feeling powerless to do anything any differently.  

Become less dependent on this bureaucratic system.  Start something creative and more natural, that works in parallel.  

``XXXXX Does not compute!!!! XXXXX.... XXXXX Does not compute!!!! XXXXX``

It's unfortunate that the Canada Council was not set up to encourage collaboration and therefore empowerment of artists.  But, hey.  Let's get over it and face facts.  

This system has been around a long time, and it's long been time to adapt.  And don`t expect bureaucrats to take care of this.  They will not be helping us adapt so that together artists become more enterprising and self-sustaining.  It's not something that bureaucrats offer.