Curator & Collector

Despite my intention, stated only two posts ago, to resume blogging about museums and numismatics, I feel I cannot quite get there before writing down a few thoughts on the recent election of the Conservative Party as a strengthened minority party.

Some in the news media are blaming the fact that the Tories let a majority slip out of their hands on opposition in Quebec and other places to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s statements on, and cuts to, the arts. In this particular case, perhaps the media are not wrong.

As the writer of a blog dedicated to museums and numismatics in Canada, I note the value of government funds in the arts industry, if we can call it that, in Canada. Most museums, in particular, are often run on shoe-string budgets, with nominally-paid curators and one or two university students hired for the summer with minimal government grant money. These resources, which are by no means extravagant, are nevertheless successfully used in many ways to operate museums in Canada. In numismatics, too, the field has benefited from a modest government presence. For example, at the recent [Royal] Canadian Numismatic Association in Ottawa, the Royal Canadian Mint had a display; the National Currency Museum’s curator was present. Also, the Bank of Canada was involved. To take another example from numismatics, Canadian Coin News, Canada’s only national numismatic newspaper, is published with the help of a federal government grant.

Tory government cuts, like the one to the Exhibition Transportation Service, were as needless as the costs of such programs were small. Frankly, when federal and provincial subsidies to the film industry–which largely turns out mediocre movies for television–remain mostly unquestioned, it seems that the government’s cuts to culture and the arts are misplaced and arbitrary.

Nor is the lack of funding the only issue. The Tories have mismanaged CBC Radio 2, practically killing it. Where before this station was the station of classical music, it is now a taxpayer-sponsored provider of alternative and jazz music–music already widely available already from commercial stations across the country.

My advice, to the Conservative Party, then is this: do not refrain from helping Canadians “conserve” their arts and culture. It’s one thing to refuse new funding in financially-difficult times, but to eliminate old funding causes grudges, and that, together with the blatant disregard for institutions like CBC Radio 2, serves only to reinforce the stereotype of redneck Philistine Tory.

Presently, the arts community has a largely antagonistic relationship with the Tories. The question is: must it really be this way?