90% budget cuts for arts

[poxpower]

Ok, I go to school in our nation's capitol, Ottawa, and in the next budget, they are planning to make some cuts, and in those cuts, they want to take away art funding by 90%!!!!!! 90 fucking percent! Isn't it ridiculous??? I guess this simply means: NO MORE ARTS IN OTTAWA!

personnaly, I don't really care since I'll be going to another University next year, but I do feel bad for all the kind people I know who might lose their jobs due to such a major cut.

So what says ye? Would they really do that? Do you think art is just completely useless anyways? Is 90%.. too much?

[Jimsween]

I've never been for excessive government funding of the arts to begin with, if it isn't profitable, why are you paying for it?

[TheShrike]

At 2/17/04 03:54 PM, Jimsween wrote: I've never been for excessive government funding of the arts to begin with, if it isn't profitable, why are you paying for it?

1) chorus, choir, band and symphony help develop mathematical skills.

2) art provides a creative outlet for students.

Why not cut sports instead?

Pox, can't you contact your canadian representative-person thingy and voice your concerns?

[Jimsween]

At 2/17/04 04:11 PM, TheShrike wrote: 1) chorus, choir, band and symphony help develop mathematical skills.

2) art provides a creative outlet for students.

Why not cut sports instead?

Sounded to me like he was talking about Government funding, not school funding. The only part I saw that talked about schools was when he said he goes to school in Ottowa.

Pox, can't you contact your canadian representative-person thingy and voice your concerns?

Of course not! He lives in Canada! If he complains they will chop his hands off and put him in a gulag, or worse, send him to work in the maple syrup mines of the Yukon.

[TheShrike]

Ah, well, if it isn't educational... meh whatever.

[bumcheekcity]

At 2/17/04 01:34 PM, -poxpower- wrote: So what says ye? Would they really do that? Do you think art is just completely useless anyways? Is 90%.. too much?

No. Music is a love we should have. Cutting funding for it is just...

I can't actually think of a word that sums up what I feel here. I'll get back to you though.

[Dagodevas]

I know how you feel. Governments usually see Education as some sort of rainy-day money jar and the arts programs usually get the bone first.

[bumcheekcity]

At 2/17/04 05:20 PM, Dagodevas wrote: I know how you feel. Governments usually see Education as some sort of rainy-day money jar and the arts programs usually get the bone first.

As a musician, I can tell you that my Sax Lessons will one day come in useful. My Physics lessons will not.

[A-Carrot-By-Dr-Riot]

I honestly don't think that the government has any business spending tax dollars on the arts, however, I think that the arts are far more valuable than sports, and look how much money is spent on stadiums.

http://www.libertyhaven.com/noneoftheabove/sports/socistadiums.shtml

[bumcheekcity]

At 2/17/04 05:28 PM, Dr_Arbitrary wrote: I honestly don't think that the government has any business spending tax dollars on the arts,

What are you on? Do you only go to school to get a job? Is that all that matters anymore? We could build robots for that. Music is what gives us personality and pazazz.

[TheShrike]

At 2/17/04 05:33 PM, bumcheekcity wrote: Music is what gives us personality and pazazz.

Dear god, even when said like that, I still agree.

[RedSkunk]

At 2/17/04 05:33 PM, bumcheekcity wrote: What are you on? Do you only go to school to get a job?

Well... yes...

Is that all that matters anymore?

Um... pretty much.

We could build robots for that.

Uhh... we are.

[paulz-69]

I've had to watch the disintegration of the arts in my community. It started with cutting back in the High schools, which led to 3 or 4 of the 12-15 high schools in my city still have an Orchestra, 3 don't have a marching band, 10-11 of the schools have shotty insturments and uniforms.

At the college lvl, the Community colleges are being strangled by the lack of incoming students in the insturmental arts because of the HS situation and seats are being filled by semi-professionals.

[bumcheekcity]

At 2/17/04 05:59 PM, paulz_69 wrote: I've had to watch the disintegration of the arts in my community. It started with cutting back in the High schools, which led to 3 or 4 of the 12-15 high schools in my city still have an Orchestra, 3 don't have a marching band, 10-11 of the schools have shotty insturments and uniforms.

I really feel sorry for you. Your school years should be the best time of your life, and no funding is cutting back the amount of stuff you have during them.

[paulz-69]

At 2/17/04 06:10 PM, bumcheekcity wrote: I really feel sorry for you. Your school years should be the best time of your life, and no funding is cutting back the amount of stuff you have during them.

I fell sorry for the kids. As an adult i have the option of getting in my car and driving the play with the nearest community ensemble. It's the kids who are missing out on the social experience before few HS clubs or activities are as socially oriented like the music program. Choirs will never vanish because they're resonable cheap to maintain, but i can tell you from experience that the costs of running a insturmental program for a year are horrendious.

[Proteas]

At 2/17/04 04:11 PM, TheShrike wrote: 1) chorus, choir, band and symphony help develop mathematical skills.

2) art provides a creative outlet for students.

Why not cut sports instead?

I wish they would cut sports funding in my town. The local highschool football games are like a cult religion, and the teachers will pass members of the team through their classes with A's just so they can play. That's not really fair to the player, because the school just turns out a member of society that hasn't benefited from the level of education everyone else does.

Let's not even get into the little league softball teams, those kids get violent.

Of course, if anyone from my hometown reads this post, and figures out who I am, I will probably be burned at the steak for heresy.

Arts and music have always been the first programs to be cut, even mainstream is something that is mass-produced almost exclusively through the use of technology.

Art and music is what separates us from animals, I guess now we're turning into man-bots or something.

[blueloa13]

90% is an outrageous amount to cut from any part of any school. Its proven that music in grocery stores keeps us from being violent in that store. Without kids being exposed to music when they are in school what stops then from being violent all the time. 'Music sooths the savage beast' and without it all we will be is beasts

[A-Carrot-By-Dr-Riot]

I think that my post was misinterpreted. I thought we were talking about funding theaters and museums. I think that schools should have a significant amount of education in the arts. I think that it is also valuable to have sports in school as well (although the sports obsession that many schools have is excessive)

Please re-read my post taking into account that I was referring to government expense in general, not schools.

[Thanatopsis]

i think that there should be enough funding to keep up and maintain prexisting (sp) art and theaters so that people have the option to find the joys of the theater or of art. growing up in DC i have had the luxury of free access to Art and in some cases free access to the theater. obviusly this is not cost efective but people should have the ability to go and enjoy the theater or an art musium (sp) if they want.

[Jlop985]

The original poster did not make it clear whether the government was cutting funding for art programs in the schools, or art subsidies. Art shouldn't be ignored in school, because it is a vital part of one's education. Arts are definitely more important than sports, but nobody is trying to cut funding for that. The priorities in education need to be set straight.

If the government cut art subsidies, I'm down with that. The US should do some of the same as well. Education is one matter, but outside of education, and several other matters such as defense and law enforcement, etc... the government should not spend money gratuitously. By subsidizing arts, the government spends money on a dead-end venture that likely will not return its investment to the community. The government should not artificially support that which cannot stand on its own.

[RedSkunk]

At 2/17/04 07:26 PM, punk_hippy wrote: Art and music is what separates us from animals, I guess now we're turning into man-bots or something.

*Looks at his opposable thumbs, openly weeps*

[poxpower]

------------to clear up some confusion-------------

the CITY is cutting the budget for the city alone. It extends to art in schools and outside, i.e. Museums and galleries. Almost complete and total shutdown.
I don't think it will apply to music or whatever, but it applies to modern art kinda stuff, where artists won't get a penny. Nuttin'

But frankly, I don't give a crap about 90% of what's being made today in the world of arts, so I don't really care if they do that >: )

Artists will just have to move away from Ottawa, that's all. IMO, arts have been dead since the 1920's. That's the only good thing that came out of art history: I know for a fact art is dead. bu-bye art.

No onto the "lesser" ( fun/useful/generally acclaimed) art, like comicbooks, web design, graphic design etc :)

[Vowl]

WTF....Flash is art. No one on this bbs should be against art training if they like good flash. Education is not that expensive. Why put computers in school? If schools cant afford technology, leave it out. A kid with good art skills can make a better flash (or any art) than a kid with good computer skills.

[poxpower]

Well I wrote a huge post, and my nice computer froze and I lost all the text even though I copy-pasted it >: (
hissssssss
hissssssss

Well I just want to reply to Bumcheekcity:

I agree. To some extent. I think art is fucked nowadays, modern art is one GIGANTIC waste of ressource. I don't mean monetary, but just.. as a whole. Every penny you give em' is a waste penny.
That's why I think the governement should cut funding to some museums and galleries, and cut artist grants, but they should always encourage arts in the high school level, and fund REAL art schools, where people learn techniques and stuff. Because at the college I go, all we learn is "ideas" because we don't have any material O.O

We have like.. nothing. My dad has almost as many tools as we have in the woodshop for fuck's sake. And its a COLLEGE.

I don't want Canada to cut funding to schools, because that's what makes our Colleges rock so much: they're accessible. You don't need to pay 10k per year.

Oh yeah back to school funding. I think they should encourage kids in High School and Elementary to take art classes, or at least give them the option to take classes.

:/

You know what the real problem is? too many people on earth. We should kill 90% of them. Yeah. Now it sucks, because every time there's new technology, every creative mind on earth gets on it and depletes most possibilities. I mean, we've pretty much done it all with computers already, and its only been like 20 years. In the creative industrty I mean. Look at games! Look at movies!! I don't think you'll see anything truly "new" being done : (

All this is just so complicated.. argh.. to create or not create.. and there's so much competition.. argh... sometimes I wish I could work a stupid easy desk job till I die so I don't have to make hard choices >: (

[TheShrike]

At 2/18/04 04:40 AM, poxpower wrote: You know what the real problem is? too many people on earth. We should kill 90% of them. Yeah. Now it sucks, because every time there's new technology, every creative mind on earth gets on it and depletes most possibilities. I mean, we've pretty much done it all with computers already, and its only been like 20 years. In the creative industrty I mean. Look at games! Look at movies!! I don't think you'll see anything truly "new" being done : (

In 1875, the Director of the United States Patent Office resigned, stating that “There is nothing new to invent. Everything that can be invented has been invented”.

Don't lose hope.

[IWillSetYouFree]

thats hardly enough for supplies,its madness,gezze probally all going to sports-something that REALLLLLLLLLLLLY does nothing.

[beaucoup-yeux]

we need to return that funding, but sadly arts is whats always cut first since theyre not vital. of course, all the other shit the government wastes money on isnt going to be cut. I read about a college president whos getting an extra 114000 while slashing programs and hiking tuition.

[bumcheekcity]

At 2/18/04 04:40 AM, -nightwish- wrote: I agree. To some extent. I think art is fucked nowadays, modern art is one GIGANTIC waste of ressource. I don't mean monetary, but just.. as a whole. Every penny you give em' is a waste penny.

Ah. I was under the impression that when you said 'the arts' you meant music, which I regard as my reason for living. I dont give a monkeys about art.