Recommended: Michael Wheeler on Return of the Canada Prizes (and Related, Soon to End Online Consultation)

Michael Wheeler has written a great post over on the Praxis Theatre blog about the return of the Canada Prizes this past week, the new version's pluses and minuses, and the ridonkulous 2.5 week online consultation period the feds have slated for everyone to provide feedback on this $25 million initiative. As he puts it,

It’s hard to have a single opinion about all this: In some ways putting this cash in the hands of The Canada Council is the best, smartest, depoliticized way to distribute arts funding. So fundamentally I’m not sure that the specifics of the award will be all that controversial as long as it is distributed by an arms-length jury. The crazy part about this whole process, and the media coverage of it so far, is the lack of attention to whether the prize is a good idea to begin with.

The stated goal in the Ministry’s press release is to “brand Canada as a centre of excellence”. Which is a good idea – except for one thing – after we’re branded as excellent, we will have to create things that are excellent. Things aren’t looking so hot on that end – between the policies of current Federal and Provincial governments and the economic crisis – actual monies for art going to artists is way down. Farewell DFAIT, Trade Routes, PromArt, small magazines, endowments, and BC artists. Bonjour a huge amount of money to an artist at the top of his or her career and the administrative and production costs of a massive international ceremony.

So more than anything this just seems like putting the cart before the horse. We would like to be branded as excellent, we would like to be perceived as excellent, but we are going to reduce the funds that would lead to excellence. (We will however throw you a big party if you ever get there.) It is a common approach to Canadian cultural funding these days that is a lot like encrusting the tip of a melting iceberg with gold. It should also probably be noted that it creates an inverse relationship between the creation of art and “fancy galas“.

He also talks about heritage minister James Moore's recent Twitter-hockey-basic-Canadian-geography gaffe. Please do read the whole post here.

Image of what looks like a serious money-party-gala from FastCompany.com - and hey, what a coinkidink, it links to a story on whether contests spur innovation.