There has always been a tension between those who see the price of everything but sometimes not the value. That’s what we’re talking about on this episode of Imagine Burlington. The contribution of art and culture to a community is hard to quantify. Art by its nature is subjective, intangible, hard for us to get our arms around. Is it important to have an outdoor salsa dance party/class? Should the city help pay for that? Well, after a long and clearly lingering pandemic stretch, perhaps doing the merengue might be just what the doctor ordered.
By the way, that salsa event was featured here at Burlington’s local-news.ca recently.
Everyone can recall times when public art, for instance, was met with cries of “waste of taxpayers’ money!” Art, for some, is seen as “a nice to have,” not a “need to have.”
Culture, there’s another word that can be interpreted many ways. It can signal that what goes on behind gallery doors is for the elites. The “cultured.” The other way to see it, the way I see it, is that culture is the story of who we are, where we come from, how we celebrate and mourn, what foods we eat. Art and culture are our human attempt to articulate and represent the living world around us. To document this journey that we call life. Through song, dance, visual art, and the written word, we can share in the experience of being fully human.
In this edition of my Imagine Burlington podcast, I’m talking to Angela Paparizo, the City of Burlington’s manager of arts and culture, about where we’re at and what has to happen next to support the arts in Burlington. Folk artist and muralist Poonam Sharma will put artistic flesh on the bone as she talks about her inspiring murals that are popping up around the city. The public response to her work is well worth a listen.
Like so much else, we have to choose between supporting the creation of local art or waving goodbye as the city’s best sail on down the QEW to greener cultural pastures.
Where do you stand on public funding of art and culture? Is Burlington doing enough?
Have a listen.
