Dear Csteele,

If you are after welfare and occupational therapy, then why not call a spade a spade?

Photographers - who only replicate what already exists,
Fashion designers - to corrupt the youth with materialism,
digital artists - to increase our dependence on junk technology and annoy our vision with distracting moving patterns whenever we simply look for information.

With exploding population, too many people are left with nothing productive to do. Inventing fake and useless jobs (at the expense of others) instead of accepting this reality, does not improve anything. As much as you try to trick those poor people into believing that they are useful, down below they know the truth that they are not really needed. Some do need occupational therapy following traumatic events, but therapy is designed to improve and heal, not to last as a lifetime crutch.

Much better being penny pinching sods than outright thieves and robbers. However, it's not about the penny - but about the principle:
Helping others in need is a privilege and honour. One who is being robbed (which is just what the government does when it takes away money from its rightful owners for non-essential purposes) is robbed not only of their money but is also being denied the opportunity to help, is being denied the opportunity to express the goodness of their heart, thus blocking it forever and converting generous loving and caring people into penny-pinching-sods. Now those who receive stolen money are being denied the opportunity to show gratitude. Those who are being helped should at least say "thank you", not "you filthy dad - how much more are you hiding in your pocket?"!

"We should be damn proud that our country is a strong supporter of the arts. I mean the US art scene..."

I may be proud of helping others in need, but the above is sickening primitive competitive pride, of "our" art-team beating the corresponding American team. Moreover, this "victory" is achieved by immoral means, by striking under the belt - even a true sports-person would feel ashamed of his team in such circumstances.

Dear Yuyutsu,

You may need to clarify your post because to me it reads as if you would have preferred Newcastle didn’t have government money spent on securing its rejuvenation because you and people like you are "being denied the opportunity to help, is being denied the opportunity to express the goodness of their heart, thus blocking it forever and converting generous loving and caring people into penny-pinching-sods."

I'm not sure we should be in the business of providing destitute and down and out people for others to feel good about themselves. That in my book would be 'immoral' and 'sickening'. I am much happier about my taxes going to projects like the Newcastle rejuvenation effort, making sure those people are not created in the first place.

Besides the substantial intangible benefits of a thriving arts scene within a community like Newcastle the tangible benefits are plain to see, less people on the scrap heap requiring government assistance, less social upheaval, less crime, less blighted lives, property values retained and even strengthened.

I'm not saying that these are the only reasons to promote a thriving art community but they do answer some of your points. Nor am I saying the US isn't attempting to follow the same path;

http://cityofphiladelphia.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/city-of-philadelphia-unveils-plan-to-rejuvenate-commercial-corridors-through-art/

But they are trying to do it on less than 10% of the funding per capita we make available for our Arts.

Dear csteele,

Beautifully stated!

Taste in The Arts, as we know is subjective.
And you can't please everyone. However, this doesn't mean
that we should stop supporting public funding. Some of us
obviously feel that that we cannot find much to enjoy in
one art or another. But most of us can find aesthetic
satisfaction in some of the arts - if we know how to go
about it. And many of us find that music, painting,
theatre, et cetera -
provides an inexhaustible source of joy for a
lifetime.

At the same time, we may discover whether we ourselves
have the ability to create art. If we do, we have a
source of satisfaction we do not want to miss.
Children take music lessons, learn to sing together, and
study drawing. Many persons try amateur acting, or write
stories and poems. Some have great talent and become
professional artists. Others, remain amateurs. And even
those who conclude that they don't have much creative
ability find that trying to paint or write sharpens
their perceptions and adds to their enjoyment of the
arts. Without public funding - the arts would not be
encouraged and maintained in society - and life would
surely be the lesser for it.

It does not have to be a choice between extremes. In my experience arts funding can become a bit of a black hole to some extent and like many funded areas of society, can foster many self-fulfilling and self-sustaining empire builders.

While art and culture are important aspects of a society, much of it can come from individuals, voluntary groups and sponsors. Indeed it used to be very much on that basis especially in my own experience with amateur theatre groups.

I would think most people would not exclude Arts from funding altogether such as State and National Galleries or as Lexi offerred, the Opera House.

However, much of the other discretionary spending on Arts is less scrutinsed and the waste is mind boggling. Distribution of funding is often through other Arts bodies and as such up to their discretion including generous payments to the management structure.

Arts is primarily an individual activity and as such the funding for the Arts is too high IMO. This is especially considering the lack of funding in other areas which are sadly under-funded such as some areas of health care and disability care. It behoves that governments will put essential services such as energy and communications in the hands of the private sector (usually foreign owned) yet overspend on activities that are ostensibly in the realm of private activities.

Funding for Sport and Religion is equally overdone, governments often forking out big sums for stadium redevelopment when sporting codes who rake in the big dollars and salaries then stick a hand out when it comes to facilities. Or repairs and restorations to Church buildings which could easily come from the huge stores of wealth in some of the bigger religious organisations.

Not everything worthwhile or good for society has to come from government. In the past music, poetry, literature, religion, art and storytelling were a rich part of many cultures yet not a government farthing to be seen.

Would Da Vinci have managed to be such a genius
if he'd been spending his days working retail or
waiting tables?

When the funding goes away - the quantity and the
quality of the art being created will suffer.
It's hard being creative and expressive when
you're working a crappy day job (or two) to pay the
bills.

The stereotype of the "starving artist" is so
ingrained in our collective psyche that some of
us can't envisage a well-funded artistic
lifestyle.

The lack of arts funding out there becomes especially
painful when held up against the other spending and
splurging that the government does. Money is being
shelled out for corporate bailouts in some countries.
Then there's government and industry
conferences and retreats, sports events (like the disastrous
Grand Prix in Victoria - to name just one), and so on. Not counting
the TV and other commercials reminding us how deeply
the government cares about us and so on.

Without funding - how many paintings would go unapinted,
plays unproduced, and masterpieces of literature go unwritten -
simply because the artists simply don't have the time?

Something to think about. Just because art will not go
away, doesn't mean there's any reason not to fund it.

Art forever is a measure of humanity's success.
I doubt more than a few have concerns about government support and spending on art.
Books are art as too are movies statues even old buildings.
Songs and poems, I suspect some link art with the left.
Let them do so, I see it as part of every thing that matters.
What a blank boring world without it.
Patrons of the arts for hundreds of years have helped preserve it.
And do today.
Governments such as Whitlams Blue Polls purchase, cop rubbish yet that painting is worth many times its purchase price.