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European programs mix arts with the economy
When Rick van der Ploege became Holland's secretary of culture in 1998, he launched an arts-funding revolution that alarmed his quiet, multicultural country -- but also became a potential model for smaller-population countries such as Canada.
Dwarfed by cultural behemoths Germany and France, the Netherlands did not have the population or funding to compete with them. On the other hand, the economist felt that his country could become a destination-- what he called a "cultural freeport."
Bursaries for about $100,000 a year were offered to foreign graduate students. Foreign filmmakers could also receive funding -- as long as it met Dutch content requirement. More contentiously, artists would have to prove that there was a market for their creations if they wanted a subsidy.
"My argument has always been to get the best people in the world," said Mr. van der Ploege, now an economics professor at Oxford University. "Whether they be Canadian, Japanese and maybe the Dutch, bring them together, and the locals would then have to compete on a global scale."
While Stephen Harper and Canada's artistic community battle over the inspirational value of $45-million in arts subsidies, countries in Europe and elsewhere have long been experimenting with alternatives that might end such debates.
While the U. S. system is a unique mix of public, private, corporate and philanthropic funding -- one too well-funded for any country to imitate -- France is devolving some of its vaunted nationalized funding programs to local authorities.
Pushing the idea that access to culture breeds more culture, Britain has spent tens of millions refurbishing its great museums and offering free-of-charge admission to them.
The governments of Germany and Berlin joined forces to create what arguably became the world's most avant-garde city, an approach that Spanish, Basque and local governments used to revivify Bilbao.
Once a gloomy, disused manufacturing city, Bilbao became must-see destination for architectural aficionados after the construction of a Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum.
The massive influx of tourism and commerce soon helped rescue the port city's fortunes, boosting the theory that a cultural enclave can bring in money.
Taking this idea to an extreme, the oil-rich city-state of Abu Dhabi is forking out $27-billion to build what it calls the Island of Happiness -- a pre-fab cultural hotbed that will include low-density housing, hotels, a state-of-the-art performance hall, a new Guggenheim museum and a mini-Louvre.
Risky as the gambit might seem, it is an idea that experts say not only help artists, but an economy as well.
"Advanced economies are information economies," said Simon Evans, a Briton who runs an international forum, Creative Clusters, that discusses the relationship of arts, commerce and government.
"Rather than being a consequence of a good economy, culture is a cause of success."
The arts used to be considered an evening activity, he added, but it has since inserted itself into the daily life of Britain, with fashion, music, architecture and other industries accounting for 7.8% of the country's GDP, about double the percentage of Canada's.
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