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By Shirley L. Thomson
Director, Canada Council for the Arts
February 2000

If one ever doubted the old maxim that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, such doubts should be quickly banished in the wake of the latest furore over Canada Council grants.

By highlighting a handful of grants with provocative titles, the media are doing Canadians a disservice. Not the artistic possibilities in grapefruit, but fairness in reporting is the issue here. The dozen or so grant proposals that have been making headlines, however meritorious they may be, are by no means representative of the bulk of Council funding.

Almost 80 per cent of Council funding goes, in fact, to institutions, not to individuals. These institutions have audiences and sources of income, but not quite enough to be independently viable. Their willingness to take risks, to try out the new, will probably ensure that they continue to have "not quite enough." Having "not quite enough" is a common condition in the art world, for institutions and individuals alike. Artists tend to be their own biggest subsidizers, turning their backs on better-paid professions for love of their art.

Nova Scotia artist Michael Fernandes applied somewhat wryly "to work for 18 months without the usual financial strain." What the newspapers failed at first to report was that in this 18-month period he will produce three solo shows for galleries in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and that he has over 20 solo exhibitions to his credit all across Canada over the past 30 years. His grant (considered by Revenue Canada as taxable income) is $34,000 - which works out to an annual pre-tax amount of $22,666, not enough to support an excessively lavish lifestyle.

At the other end of the scale (Fernandes is the high end!) artist Myfanwy Ashmore of Toronto received a small ($4100) grant to create "a communication device to interact with rotting grapefruits." The basic chemistry of this piece is familiar to anyone who has ever attended a high school science fair. What is interesting is its exploration of the relationship or interaction between organic life and technology. This is a question that grips the imagination of many of Canada's younger artists.

Another Toronto artist, David Rokeby is one of the leaders in using technology to reflect on human issues. His Very Nervous System computer technology explores the relations between human intelligence and machine intelligence through interactive video art. One accidental spin-off of his work is that the technology, which he originally developed for art installations, is now being used in rehabilitation programs for the disabled.

Young people show a great interest in David's work. As he explains, "It is very exciting for kids to see the technology used in an artistic way. The boundaries between art and science/technology are not inherent, but schooling tends to separate these things. Seeing interesting art that uses technology keeps the possibility of that relationship across disciplines alive in their minds."

Art is very often about crossing boundaries, because creativity is about seeing things in new ways. Art opens people's imaginations to a wider world. And creative thinking, risk-taking and openness to the new are qualities that are valued in many fields besides the arts.

In his Massey Lectures, Northrop Frye said: "Art is a dream for awakened minds, a work of imagination withdrawn from ordinary life, dominated by the same forces that dominate the dream, and yet giving us a perspective and dimension on reality that we don't get from any other approach."

Contemporary art can be difficult. It approaches meaning obliquely; it uses weird images; it conveys information the way dreams do. It demands from the audience a willingness to step forward into the unknown.

Canada is very fortunate in the quality of its artistic community. Many of our artists have world-wide reputations. A lot of them attribute their success to the timely intervention of the Canada Council and other arts funding agencies, which recognized their potential early on and provided them the means to realize it.

Not all artists become international stars. Not all scientists win Nobel prizes. But in supporting the arts intelligently and diligently across a broad range, our public agencies ensure the modest maintenance of a vigorous artistic community that will nurture the young Ben Heppners and Margaret Atwoods in our midst.

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Shirley L. Thomson is the former director of the Canada Council for the Arts and a former director of the national Gallery of Canada.