The Misvaluing of the Humanities in the Policy Realm

Originally published in the Public Policy and Governance Review Online

Two weeks ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof extolled the virtues the humanities bring to a civil and progressive society; which is fair, just, and absolutely correct. The humanities should be extolled as that branch of human endeavour that gives shape and heft to the rest of political society. However, Kristof’s column also inadvertently displayed the poverty of current thinking about the value of arts and culture.

photo by Peter Morgan

The State and Impact of Canadian Arts and Culture Funding

The role Government plays in shaping the culture of a country is an uncertain one. On the one hand is the critical importance of forming a coherent fabric with which to build common values, and on the other is the danger that something critically important to the happiness and unity of a country is treated with a venal cynicism, as a political tool.

In every economic downturn the arts and culture sector is the first on the chopping block, and suffers a more severe proportional blow than any other. After all, even in surplus years it’s a favoured pastime in Canadian politicking for arts funding to be publicly denounced and the resulting projects ridiculed. But in this latest wave of austerity, the Harper Government showed a planned vision for the future of Canadian arts and culture – one that we as a society will hopefully learn to reject.

The 2012 Federal Budget shows a planned budgetary reduction of 191 million dollars between now and 2015. But it is the distribution of these reductions that are more telling than any amount of money.