Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | C | C: International Contemporary Art

Montreal's DHC/Art and the changing climate of arts patronage in Canada.

Article Excerpt
Philanthropy, the donation of money to good or worthy causes to the benefit of all, is alive and well in Canada, though almost invisible in the world of visual arts. As our relatively affluent society continues to grow, putting more strain on public resources, health care and education get much attention as they adapt to a changing world. Comparable adjustments are just barely underway in the funding of the visual arts in Canada. As public resources strain to keep up with an aging infrastructure and ballooning artist population, the private sector needs to play an increasingly important and visible role.

However, the status of art is confusing because it belongs simultaneously to the people and to the market, straddling a line between serving the public good and satisfying artists' and collectors' private needs. Perhaps generations of class conflict have helped feed misunderstanding and antagonism between artists and the wealthy elite. Still, despite a robust economy and projections of almost a million millionaires in Canada by 2010, few philanthropists in this country direct their money towards the visual arts. Of the top ten single Canadian donations made by philanthropists since 2000, only one was to an arts organization: the $70 million given by Ken Thomson to the AGO in 2002 along with over $300 million in artworks.

Despite their differences, publicly funded and commercial galleries ultimately have similar goals, such as cultivating arts appreciation, expanding markets or networking and advancing the careers of artists. Less and less is profit seen as a dirty word, especially given the poverty experienced by most artists and comparatively thin levels of public funding available to them. Although in Canada the publicly funded part of the art world is over-extended, just like other public services such...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!