Whenever our economy goes into a slump, arts funding always seems to come under the knife. It’s like the arts are some kind of cancer to be extracted by the political scalpel.

These cuts have happened federally in Canada to the tune of $45 million (and no, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s piano playing doesn’t make up for it). They have also happened in British Columbia. Our poorly named BC Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts will apparently cut 50% this coming year from arts funding, 90% in 2011, and 91%-94% the following year. According to The Hook, the cuts pulled funding from the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia ($45,000), BC BookWorld ($31,000) and the BC Association of Magazine Publishers ($20,000).

Some people have asked, “Why should I have to pay for arts funding? I don’t read much. I never go to the theatre.” My answer to that is that I haven’t been to provincial parks in a while but I still see the value in funding them. Whether we are discussing arts or the environment, it is vital to look beyond our own lives and realize the impact on the greater good.

I’ve heard people say, “In a capitalist society, shouldn’t the amount someone is willing to pay dictate the true value of a work?” Tell it to Vivaldi who died poor on the streets of Vienna after his patron, the Church, abandoned him. Tell that to Gwendolyn MacEwen, one of Canada’s greatest poets. This two-time Governor General’s Award winner died in poverty. Imagine a world without the legacy of Vivaldi or MacEwen. We would be lesser for it.

At one time, fortunate artists may have had patrons to help support their work. Certainly Beethoven did, as did Michelangelo who received funding from several popes as well as the House of Medici, Italy’s first family of Renaissance arts and architecture. In fact, the Medicis were responsible for the majority of Florentine art during their years in political power. True, Michelangelo often cursed them, but without their funding he would not have had the funds to purchase his precious marble. Imagine a world without the art of Michelangelo?

Today, government has largely assumed the role of the patron in Canada but it is clear that this patron does not see the value of arts to our culture. It does not see that support for the arts is essential to our evolution as a people. Arts nourish our ability to appreciate other people’s points of view and to stimulate intelligent thought and discussion. The arts also nourish our economies and boost tourism. Would Paris be as compelling to visit without the Louvre? Would New York be the same without Broadway? It always amazes me that Canadians will travel far and wide in search of great art and architecture, yet the arts are sadly not well supported here at home.

In terms of arts funding, I know of no artist in Canada who has become wealthy on this funding alone. Believe me, the starving artist is alive and well in our country. They create because they are born to create. Indeed, they are compelled to do so. They enrich us all through their work. In his speech to the Federal-Provincial Culture Ministers Conference in Halifax in 2004, Simon Brault, then-head of the Canada Council for the Arts, perfectly captured the role of the artist in our society.

“These artists do their work, often without worrying about its direct and indirect impacts. This work is of value in itself, and we cannot, nor should we, “instrumentalize” artists for economic or social purposes, however worthy they may be. But it is our job to place this work in context and to show how it contributes to the well-being of individuals and communities. Now more than ever, arts and culture appear as the key to three basic skills: learning to be, learning to know and learning to live together.

We must do more to support our artists, to fully recognize their status, to provide high quality training at the initial and professional development levels, to ensure they are fairly compensated and to protect and celebrate their creative freedom.”

That speech was five years ago. What a shame the government did not listen and has chosen a short sighted approach. William Gibson, author of Necromancer, wrote, “As a futurist, someone with some experience in long-range scenario-based corporate and municipal planning, I’ve seen my share of jaw-droppingly shortsighted proposals. But these proposed cuts to support for the arts in BC (almost 90% by 2011) really take the cake. This is governance guaranteed to rot the fabric of our province’s future…”

In 1956, John F. Kennedy spoke at Harvard University about the arts.  I only wish I could find such inspiration from Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Premier Gordon Campbell. John F. Kennedy said:

“When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.”

In defending the arts, perhaps the poets are learning politics. When will the politicians learn poetry?

This morning Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté boarded the International Space Station and conducted a news conference wearing his trademark red clown nose.

Laliberté made the two-day journey in a Russian Soyuz craft along with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams. The space station is 350 kilometres above the Earth.

I always wanted to go to space. I remember watching the TV as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made that first moon landing in 1969. I told everyone that I wanted to be an astronaut with NASA. I never did reach my goal  but sometimes when I’m looking up at the stars, I imagine what it must be like to be out there gazing back at the Earth as Aldrin and Armstrong did 40 years ago.

“It suddenly struck me,” said Armstrong, “that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”

But “a person’s a person no matter how small” according to Horton the Elephant in the incredible Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who! In the story, empathetic Horton finds himself caretaking a tiny speck of dust that is actually a planet called Whoville. While many people focus on the lesson Horton learns about defending something even though others ridicule you, for me the big lesson was how fragile our own own planet is. After all, we are the Whos in Who-ville, building busily away.

As we deal with our busy lives, it’s so easy to forget that our own “speck of dust” or “tiny pea” is what sustains us. We need this planet; it probably doesn’t need us. One day we may go far enough into outer space to discover other livable worlds, but right now this planet is all we’ve got. We are just tiny, fragile creatures on a strange blue and green ball floating in the middle of a universe we don’t yet understand.

Not Just Clowning Around

In that spirit, Cirque de Soleil’s Laliberté plans to use his trip into space trip to draw attention to the importance of access to clean water on Planet Earth. He will hold a two-hour webcast “Moving Stars and Earth for Water Event” on October 9, featuring Al Gore, U2 and others.

It’s worth passing on here one of the most poignant things anyone has said about observing the Earth from outer space. American scientist Taylor Wang, the first ethic Chinese person to go into space, said, “A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That’s how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. I could not help but love and cherish her.” Blessed be to that.