Why We Need An Arts Section by Robert Crew

THE POOR old arts are under siege yet again. The rhetoric may change but the charges remain fairly constant: The arts are a luxury we can't afford in hard times, they have no practical value, they are elitist.
Consider this example I found in a recently published
Canadian collection of essays by Rod Dubey called Indecent Acts In A Public Place: Sports, Insolence And Sedition.
In the introduction, Domhnaill M'Grath writes:
"High art is said to liberate, to broaden, to open the mind. But does art and literature and music not abound with political apologists, sexist fantasies, racist stereotypes and self-indulgence? Even when it is self-aware and politically correct does it speak to anyone except the converted? High culture, left or right, mainstream or avant garde, historical or post-modern, is exclusionary, cliquish. It gives what it has to give to those already believing or ready to be converted from one sect to another."
Oh dear. Has M'Grath ever read a novel by Dickens or Margaret Atwood, listened to Stravinsky or R Murray Schafer, seen a play by Shaw or Michel Tremblay? Far from being comfortable, great art should be dangerous, subversive and question the status quo. Great art is necessary.
Faced with such sweeping condemnations, people who cherish and value the arts have two possible courses of action. The first, bottom-line approach is to point out that the arts generate at least three dollars for every dollar pumped into them, That they are an industry that attracts tourists and foreign currency to our cities, that they provide employment for tens of thousands of people. .
The second line of defence is to celebrate the arts as a positive force, as an Integral part of life rather than a frill for the leisure hours of the rich and sophisticated.
Culture, it seems to me, is one of the truly powerful forces that brings this country together. It is one of the key ways In which we express our identity as Canadians, a means of defining who we are as a nation, where we came from and where we are going.
"The arts are always the index of social vitality, the moving finger that records the destiny of a civilization;" art critic Sir Herbert Read once said. Artists truly believe - and there's a ton of evidence to support it - that the arts can be an instrument of social Change, a way of broadening horizons, of making us more sensitive, more understanding human beings. And if
anything; the recession makes such concerns even more pressing.
At a theatre conference earlier this year, the public-relations director of a major U.S. theatre came up with a fascinating image to describe the effect of great art. She compared the minds of audiences to rubber bands; you can stretch them, twist them and turn them and most of the time they won't break But when the process ends, when the curtain falls and the audience leaves the theatre, that rubber band is just a little bit bigger than it was.
The arts are essential to our spiritual wellbeing, to the growth of a balanced and healthy society. And that's why The Star is launching its Arts section.
The focus of the new section will be predominantly Canadian but will also examine other cultural and intellectual trends, the forces and influences at work worldwide. Our "Other Voices" column will feature opinion pieces contributed by members of the arts and entertainment community as well as by our own staff of writers.
We also plan to explore cultural politics, literature and poetry, even to present the occasional "work in progress."