A life without the arts would be a poor one

In tough eco­nomic times — like we are told con­stantly we are in now — one of the things that tends to get mar­gin­al­ized is the arts.

Our atten­tion was drawn to the sub­ject by the lack of gov­ern­ment grant fund­ing for our very own Cowichan Music Fes­ti­val, which annu­ally cel­e­brates and encour­ages music, the­atre, and dance in our com­mu­nity and beyond.

It seems like the arts make an easy tar­get for hack and slash aus­ter­ity folks who love to pro­claim with great vigour that all that artsy fartsy crap is tak­ing money away from areas they feel are far more vital to our soci­ety, such as tax cuts and policing.

Why spend money on probablynever-to-become-famous dancers (boo), vio­lin play­ers (eek) and painters (yikes)?

The Cit­i­zen, March 14, 2012