One sport which receives no govt funding whatsoever [as far as I am aware] is ballroom dancing. Yet Australia regularly produces world class dancers, in various categories. Those people who represent Australia at top level, often overseas, do so at their own expense. They usually start as young teenagers and have no income, so the very considerable cost is borne by their parents and subsidised by fund raising events and raffles.

Some people may regard this kind of dancing as art rather than sport and some may dismiss it altogether. Yet those who wish to excel, at top national or international level, are dedicated athletes in every sense of the word.

The Yarts get quite a bit of funding - the opera, the symphony orchestras, writers, pitcha painters and others; if you listen to some they get too much.

The accolades afforded to sports people via the Austrlian of the year is reflective of our cult of the celebrity addiction - if most of our actors werent resident overseas they'd probably get the gong.

And another thing ! If 8% of the gongs went to sports people over all what percentage went to medical practitioners/members of the legal fraternity - methinks a hellava lot more - I might even be moved to go back and add them up

Sport actually offers us as much as any other pursuit - maybe more: we get entertained, diverted, motivated, some get fitter , some get employment and others get imbued with national proid - it offers us a lot.

Easlakes observation that the private sector spends more on sport than the yarts is note worthy; the private sector get more out of sport than the yarts; they get tickets! and lots of them! and they get corporate exposure on a grand scale.

Their has never been a particualrly altruistic or visionarly thread in the Australian private sector traditionally it has focused on short term selfish gains - investment in R and D has always been limp and half hearted; the only real cultural cringe remaining in this nation is vested deep in the hearts of the captains of Australian industry who think all the good ideas come from over seas - and that includes the yarts.

The Yarts does alright Saul except when it comes to relevance in the Australian psyche.

I agree with Saul about the undue prominance given to sporting people. His analysis of their share of AOs and other awards was very interesting. If you add to them the number of those who get awards for simply doing their job public servants, police, military etc you will see that our award system is overlooking many great contributors to our community.

Brent,

What about this:

"ABS surveys for 1995 showed that 8 146 800 people visited a museum, art gallery or library in 1995, compared with 3 730 700 who attended all football codes and 1 165 900 who went to cricket matches."

Excellent work solomon! A very heartening statistic, there’s life and creativity in society still.

I don’t dismiss sport kartiya, there’s quite a few sports I’ll watch if there’s nothing else on. Sport is good for the economy, it’s very important in combating the growing (so to speak) obesity problem, and so on. But for me personally at least, art can really mean something. It can change the way people think, it can affect culture and society outside it, whereas sport seems to be entirely enclosed, that is, what happens in a sport never has an effect on the outside world (except maybe for advertisers etc, but it’s best not to think about that).

It just seems like everywhere you look, the importance of creativity is being either played down or just plain ignored. We have reality shows instead of…you know, shows with actors and scripts and stuff. People are reading less and less, and if they do, it’s mindless stuff like Who Weekly or…the Herald Sun. The biggest selling music is usually the least creative. People would rather see the latest high budget brainless explody movie than the critically acclaimed artistic lower budget movie. So much of the most cutting edge ideas and creations go unnoticed or recognised by the majority of the public.

I believe a lack of funding has a lot to do with this. There is simply too much for artists to compete with, especially when a lot of them can barely pay the rent. If this were to change, who knows, maybe Australia will one day have an actual culture to call it’s own.

Ok, I’m poking fun a bit here. It’s just frustrating when you consider all of the unrealised potential, all the songs that could have been written but haven’t, for example. We’re missing so much there is to offer out there because we’re distracted by men in short shorts chasing a ball.

spendocrat , we actually have a culture here - its the Aboriginal one, that's been here for a long time . most new Australians [us] don't know much about the art and culture that sustained the first Australians for thousands of years . if you get a chance you might like to study strewlow's Aranda "Songs of central Australia " for some rare insight . home-grown and beats shakespeare for mine .
more money for arts - why not, it is important .
however ,one thing that sport beats the arts in is its ability , depending on the coach and club,to give rigid team discipline and organisation to young people often when they need it most . for footballers usually three times a week,six months of the year, often for 10 years plus. there are some negatives , but they are outwayed by the benefits - and who needs national service??