Please pay artists
To Voice of the City writer Maggie Stewart: I'm so glad you are speaking up about this ("Stuck in the middle of the arts funding food-chain," September 28). Our province and our country in general want to, as a good mutual friend of ours says, "support the art but not the artist."
The Catch-22 is that when you are making art professionally, it takes all your time, so there is no "day job." You are then making the art for free. So you must leave, or you must quit making the art, because there's no going backward. You don't, once you've been professional, become amateur. It would make as much sense as sending a doctor through a CCA program.
I'm here, at 60, after 42 years of well-received, sold-out work, looking for a "real" job. Try that in this economy. It's desperate. —posted at thecoast.ca by Carrots
Nova Scotia's got no love for the arts. It's a fact that's made me sick since that farce of an election we had in the spring, where somehow the majority of Nova Scotians decided a reign of tyranny against the working class, unions and artists was what they wanted. I moved to Halifax two years ago full of film industry dreams, and within a week I was working on TV shows and films. Yes, the film tax credit had just been axed and I spent my time on the street protesting, but I still hustled every single day and got some good roles and background work.
This year, the rumour of the industry crawling back is floating around, but it's a bold-faced lie. There's not as much work at all, and actors who have been in the industry for 10 years are competing for the same roles as me.
Arts and culture is sooo important to society, yet we've let the money hungry politicians of Nova Scotia sell out everything beautiful we do. Everybody is so busy scrambling to make ends meet they can't pay attention to these slimy bastards taking away art from us.
I don't know what happened. So many people seemed to be against McNeil before the election, yet he gets back in. That basically said to me that Nova Scotians don't care if I have a job or sell a painting. But move away and make a name for yourself and they'll say they've always loved you. Bullshit on a massive level.
Here's one artist who spent his whole life in Nova Scotia only to be told by the people of the province: No, we don't want art and culture here, just rich business and retirement homes. I can't say I feel bad for the exodus of art from NS, because you voted for it. And me? Sorry my beloved Nova Scotia, but after 40-plus years here I'm looking to move to Vancouver or Toronto as well. —Dr. Dave Maybe Not, Halifax
Screw corporations
Mother Earth deserves rights, too! To give corporations the right to destroy millions of years of development in the name of profit is obscene. To give them rights above the planet that supports us is crazy and to not protect our future in the name of short-term gain is stupid! The federal government should approve the recommended changes to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act for us and those who come after us. —Jamie Jackson, Halifax