Yo, dude, that's a good one

Prime Minister Harper came out and said, during the election campaign, that ordinary folk don't care about the recent federal arts funding cuts. He said ordinary people have no sympathy with "rich artists" who "whine about their grants." (See today's Toronto Star for the full story.) I would have laughed if that comment wasn't so sad. I'm not sure what artists he's been meeting, but the ones I know are "ordinary folk." Most artists and musicians in Durham don't make enough from their art to support themselves. Indeed, they have to have regular, day-time jobs. And no one is living high off the combined incomes. And those cuts are going to hit everyone, here and abroad. At the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, curator Linda Jansma said she'd been intending to apply for funding to get part of an exhibit by Mary Anne Barkhouse (that's her work, grace, a Canadian take on The Three Graces, in the picture) installed at a Canadian embassy somewhere in the world. But those cuts mean that's out. And Station Gallery curator Olexander Wlasenko said the Whitby gallery might miss out on some great out-of-province exhibits since the transportation funding has been cut back. I guess we're just going to have to get used to being a little more insular. Sound familiar?