Art+&+Culture

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===1. During the Renaissance period, the Medici family, a powerful and wealthy family, supported local artist by funding art schools and providing them with money to create their pieces. In Calgary today are there specific professional fields or individuals that support local artists? ===  Yes... I bet you've heard of Brett Wilson on the Dragon's Den? He helps local artists (mostly musicians), but he also buys a lot of paintings from young artists. Take a look at this page from Theatre Calgary's website: http://theatrecalgary.com/support/our_sponsors/ you will see a lot of corporations listed... most of them are oil and gas companies, with some major construction firms. Many of these corporations like to support the arts, education, sport, etc. as a part of their strategy to improve their relationship with the community. Enbridge is one of Calgary's most prominent arts supporters, and they gain a lot of credibility in Calgary through that sponsorship.

It is much more difficult for individual artists to find support from patrons. There are a lot of government funding options for artists, and patrons will often want to work through a foundation (like the Calgary Foundation) to grant their support to individual artists. In other words, we are much more formalized in our mechanisms of supporting artists than we used to be. There are also many more "competing" causes for funds, specifically health care and education, that ultimately benefit artists in Canada, but do take away some of the direct forms of support.

**M** **any Calgary families contribute substantial amounts to the arts. You can see their names on buildings and in the programs of the shows. We have the Rozsa Centre at the University of Calgary, the Max Bell Theatre, the Jack Singer Theatre, the Martha Cohen Theatre, the Flanagan Theatre at the Grand. All of these were named in honor of people who made major contributions to the construction of the venue. In Calgary, we are building many new art spaces: the National Music Centre at the King Eddy, the Folk Festival Hall, the Mount Royal Conservatory, a new and improved Pumphouse Theatre, a new Nickle Arts Museum inside the Taylor Family Digital Library at the U of C... and more... all of these will require Calgary's (and Canada's) wealthy patrons to contribute millions of dollars** **for construction (and eventually operation) over the next 10 or so years**

===2. During the renaissance period, the people valued the arts and culture very much. In 2010, do you believe that we, as a society, support and appreciate the arts and culture as much as the people of the renaissance did? ===

This is a tough question. I think that it is MUCH easier to "consume" the arts now than it was. Radio, TV, movies, etc are all widely available and even more widely available thanks to iPods, iPads, i???'s... There are also so many more options to get involved as amateur artists, singing in your church choir, etc. Because our basic needs are taken care of, we are able to spend more time on things like the arts. Interestingly, the arts are not as ingrained in Western culture as they are in African or Latin cultures. Singing and dancing, for example, are much more important on a daily basis to these cultures than they are to many anglo/European cultures. Often we don't really know that we are "appreciating the arts," we're just enjoying a song on the radio!

This is a big problem for the arts sector... there is a big danger of the arts being something for the elite as opposed to something for everyone. Look at this article about Simon Brault. (I can't find a link to this article, so I'll paste it here)

James Bradshaw From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Dec. 04, 2009 1:40PM EST Last updated on Friday, Dec. 04, 2009 1:51PM EST If you're hoping to chat with Simon Brault about the future of the Canada's cultural sector, take a number. The head of the National Theatre School and vice-chair of the Canada Council for the Arts has stirred quite a few top cultural minds, both in Canada and abroad, to re-think the direction of cultural policy with his recent book, //Le facteur C: L'avenir passe par la culture//.

“ Cultural participation includes support to all the amateur practices – people being involved in choirs and community theatres and all that. ”

The book, in French but slated for English translation, has earned him a stack of invites to discuss his ideas. In the past month he has met with top civil servants at the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Quebec's Ministry of Culture, and he delivered a speech at the Trudeau Foundation's conference on Rethinking the Urban Commons. He then left for France to speak at the 20th-anniversary colloquium of the Observatoire des Politiques Culturelles, and alongside deputy mayor of Paris Christophe Girard at a conference hosted by Quebec's delegate-general in Paris. Brault 's main thesis is this: If we don't take drastic action to encourage broad-based, grass-roots cultural engagement, state support for the arts will face a crisis of legitimacy because everyday participation in the arts is declining. His conviction isn't derived from the usual sources of inspiration – great painters or authors or even Gabrielle Roy's celebrated words about the arts that are quoted on Canada's $20 bill. Rather, it comes from Article 27 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” Brault 's pragmatic streak comes from past training as a lawyer and accountant. He says that nearly 70 years of post-Second World War cultural policy in the developed world has assumed that if governments supported a robust cultural offering, demand would follow. But that isn't enough any more, he says. Canadian Heritage deputy minister Judith LaRocque invited Brault to give two separate talks: one an intimate affair with LaRocque, associate deputy minister Stephen Wallace and the different branch directors; and the other with about 100 economists and policy makers, “people who are really the specialists of crafting programs and trying to see what the impacts are,” Brault said. He spent a combined three hours answering questions from the “very open and appreciative” audiences. Their million-dollar question to Brault was: If you were us, what would you do? “I said, ‘If I were you, I would try to imagine something like the first incarnation of Participaction,'” referring to the not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to inspire Canadians to be physically active. Its government funding waned in the 1990s. “It was really the idea of finding very innovative and imaginative ways to promote physical activity,” Brault said. Brault sees the seeds of such an approach in the increased attention paid to Venezuela's “El Sistema” music-education model and the drive to institute Culture Days across Canada, modelled after the Journées de la culture he instituted in Quebec. With his home province's Ministry of Culture, the conversation was framed more around culture's intersection with education. Brault attacked Quebec's intense preoccupation with Audience Development – “kind of a buzzword now” – as something that focuses too narrowly on selling tickets. “Cultural participation includes support to all the amateur practices – people being involved in choirs and community theatres and all that. This is the more profound way to engage with the arts,” he said. This is exactly what Brault had hoped to spark by writing his book, but with each new invitation, he seems mildly astonished at how quickly he's kindled the conversation. “I realized how important it is to have these types of discussions and how rarely it happens,” he said.

===3. In the Renaissance period, art reflected all the changes that were occurring in society. In today’s type of art, do we see more visual pleasure than real emotion and meaning throughout different pictures? Specifically, do artists use pictures to reflect how people look and feel about the world? ===

This is a tough question for me, as I'm not an expert in the visual arts. Here are some related ideas:


 * Look at the work of filmmaker Gary Burns, for example. His film "waydowntown" was about people who made a bet to see how long they could live in the +15 tunnels that connect Calgary office towers. A later film, "Radiant City," looked at urban sprawl and its impacts. Both are critical examinations (using different modes of telling stories) of how Calgarians are choosing to live, work and relate to each other.

Ryan Sluggett ([]) reflects current ways of living and thinking in Calgary, but with a VERY skewed perspective! Chris Millar has a lot of really fun ways of looking at the world in his art... but it may take some work to figure it out! []

If you like music, take a look at Woodpigeon, a Calgary band whose song "Our Love is as Big as the Calgary Tower" is popular in England! They are very conscious of what's happening in Alberta and Calgary []**

===4. During the era of the renaissance, artists faced opposition from the church. In Calgary do artists face problems like these today? Specifically, do artists face barriers in expressing themselves? ===

Not really, for the most part. There has been criticism recently about government funding being pulled from controversial projects or from bands with controversial names, but the artists haven't been prevented from expressing themselves, they just don't get tax funding to undertake their project. In fact, in Alberta, government funds have supported projects that are critical of the oil sands, so it is tough to make the case that there is not freedom of expression.

The biggest challenges facing artists now isn't opposition, it is finding areas of support so that you can make a living as an artist in an expensive city such as Calgary. Many artists would view this as a barrier to expression, and many decide to move to places like Montreal, where the cost of living is less, in the hopes that they can live AND work as an artist. The reality, many find, is much more complex. It is a balancing act between appealing to "the market" for your art and staying true to your artistic vision. Michael Green, the Curator of the High Performance Rodeo, is a great example of a local artist who has always managed to stay true to his vision, while building a very successful international festival of the arts.Thank you, we hope to hear from you soon! Jusleen, Ting & Emily.

As a class we believe that Calgary has the potential to become a Renaissance City in the future as there are equal arguments agreeing and disagreeing.

Please Enter Comments Below:


 * By Emily Pegg 8.2**

=
//Calgary, for the most part, do not face any important people who openly oppose the artists, though there are some things that do hinder the artists freedom to express themselves, as they please. These things are simple thing such as taxes or the government not giving funds to things with controversial names. This has been recognized recently by more and more people and may not be a problem for much longer. Some artists find it hard to live in such an expensive city as Calgary, so we lose a lot of our artists to places like Montréal, where it is cheaper to live and paint what they wish.//====== In response to the question ‘ During the Renaissance period, the people valued the arts and culture very much. In 2010, do you believe that we, as a society, support and appreciate the arts and culture as much as the people of the Renaissance did?’ Terry T. Rock thinks that arts and culture has changed over time, and that there are now many more different forms of art. “ It is MUCH easier to ‘consume’ arts than it was back then’ says Terry. By saying this, he is saying that artwork has evolved over time, and has turned into things such as music, or dance. Because of the new technology that we have today, such as iPods, mp3 players, ect., we are still able to support, and appreciate arts and culture. Another way that he stated that individuals support arts and culture is by purchasing artwork from young artists. By saying this, he is saying that we are supporting and encouraging young artists to carry on with their careers. -By Ting Ang, 8.2
 * Question 2: **
 * During the Renaissance period, the people valued the arts and culture very much. In 2010, do your believe that we, as a society, support and appreciate the arts and culture as much as the people of the Renaissance did? **


 * Question 3:**
 * In the Renaissance period, art reflected all the changes that were occurring in society. In today’s type of art, do we see more visual pleasure than real emotion and meaning throughout different pictures? Specifically, do artists use pictures to reflect how people look and feel about the world?**

‘This is a tough question for me, as I’m not an expert in visual arts. Here are some related ideas:’ states Terry T. Rock. The related ideas that she had stated was that sometimes, there are people that like to paint without any meanings behind it, but there are also people that create pieces of art that have meanings behind them. Like Leonardo Da Vinci from the time of the Renaissance time, there are people that like to hide messages behind their artwork. In the world today, there are also people that create works of art that have no meanings of emotion behind them, and are only simply for visual pleasure. -By Ting Ang, 8.2

Comments by a professional visual artist.
===1. During the Renaissance period, the Medici family, a powerful and wealthy family, supported local artist by funding art schools and providing them with money to create their pieces. In Calgary today are there specific professional fields or individuals that support local artists? ===

Not as much as they could. Alberta is nowhere close to what Quebec, for example, gives to local artists. ===2. During the renaissance period, the people valued the arts and culture very much. In 2010, do you believe that we, as a society, support and appreciate the arts and culture as much as the people of the renaissance did? === It depends how you define arts and culture. If you mean popular tv, pop music, and Hollywood movies we probably support and appreciate arts and culture more, both by dollar amount and by numbers who consume it. If you define it as contemporary visual art (my area of expertise) Calgary appears to be conservative and not forward thinking. We don't even have a decent contemporary art museum, as many of North American Cities this size do. ===3. In the Renaissance period, art reflected all the changes that were occurring in society. In today’s type of art, do we see more visual pleasure than real emotion and meaning throughout different pictures? Specifically, do artists use pictures to reflect how people look and feel about the world? === Yes. They always do, by the fact they do it during their time period. (I fully disagree with your idea that Renaissance period art reflected all the changes that were occurring in that society.) There is not a "today's type" of art. Art is anything and everything today, it may promote pleasure, emotion or meaning OR it may not. It may challenge you in ways you don't expect. But generally, some part of the world is being reflected. It would not be possible to create art without doing so. ===4. During the era of the renaissance, artists faced opposition from the church. In Calgary do artists face problems like these today? Specifically, do artists face barriers in expressing themselves? === Absolutely. A conservative government that does not fully understand or support art. Again, Quebec is a great model.