The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

One Artisfs Rant by Keith Higgins have the intense feeling o f déjà vu that I've been having lately? I ' m talking about the most recent federal budget and its cuts to federal cultural institutions, not to mention the many ways in which it cuts social and Keith Higgins is a working visual artist living in Vancouver. He is one of the Founders of ArtsSpeak Gallery and has been asked to speak to arts groups because he is well known for his attitude. government services. When I look at things I said about earlier rounds o f cuts in the past six years, I find the exact same things are true about the cuts we are facing today. In 1989 I remember telling a group at a conference about the haphazard way in which governments address cultural policy. Instead o f having bureaucrats, wealthy patrons, Arts Alive will make this space available each issue for people working in the arts to express themselves -- or rant -- ofaout arts related issues. Call Gloria Loree at Arts Alive (984-9537) for details. and political hacks trying to stitch together the typical poorly conceived mess o f programs, wouldn't it be better to get artists and other cultural workers involved in planning and administering cultural policy? 1 mean, doesn't it just make sense that the people who do the work, and who do it with more efficiency than any business or government agency, have expertise that could be harnessed? Not to mention the fact it is glaringly unfair that working artists are not represented in the decision-making processes that affect their lives. In 1991 1 spoke at a rally where several people had already run down the list o f consequences the federal government's withdrawal from cultural institutions would have for the arts and the country in general. I pointed out the national cultural institutions weren't the whole story. They were only part o f an evolving neo-liberal agenda which included reduced social services, increased subordination o f education to industrial interests, reduced protection for workers -- all things which artists, and other low income workers, are vulnerable to. Every social service which is cut is also a cut to culture. Two years ago. we celebrated community support for the arts with a rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery. I told the artists in the audience what they already knew: it isn't government, or business, or wealthy patrons who subsidize the arts the most. The greatest subsidy to the arts comes from individual artists, through work for which they are underpaid or not paid at all. This means that every dollar government withdraws from cultural funding is "offloaded", but not to other levels of government, or to business -- the cost has to be borne by those who can least afford it, the artists themselves. The most malevolent thing about the 1993 cuts was they were applied to agencies (like the Canada Council) that were in the process o f addressing decades-old racial equity problems. In true Mulroney style, the effect was to pit community interests against each other with their competing claims for a new way of dividing a shrinking pie. In between 1993 and 1995, though, we had a change o f government at the federal level. A new party, with an impressive set o f policy goals (the " R e d B o o k " ) took power. G i v e n the opportunity to put some o f their policy ideas into practice, however, the Liberals have decided they would rather emulate Mulroney. to the point the usually mild-mannered Canadian Conference o f the Arts is referring to the plans in the 1995 budget as "the Martin-Mazankowski cuts." The only thing that doesn't give me deja vu is the frustration, exhaustion, and fear o f speaking out that I see around me. The "feel-good" hype machine o f the Chretien administration has been running 24 hours a day, cranked to the max. Don't let it fool you: i f you think the 1995 budget is an assault on artists and other people, you aren't the only one. That's T V , not real l i f e . ^ " 5 D,, 'oes anyone else out there BOOKLOVERS ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ The North Shore's Recycled Reading & Music Centre m B u y ' Sell* T r a d e ' Cons i gn 1103-1113 L o n s d a l e Avenue 986-9501 The Gallery For Recycled And New Art & Antiques · ^ ^ M ^ ^ M ^ ^ M & & & & & & & & »^ ^ ARTLOVERS & & & T h e G a r d e n Sculpture S h o w ® ^ (Rain or shine, come stroll through the garden and discove originalstone sculptures by Michael<Bin%Cey. (Designed t weather the elements in your garden, Michael's sculpture features benches, planters, fountains, gardening angels and & 4% masks. A} On Saturday, 'May 27 between 12pm and3pm, Sring your gardening questions for advicefrom JiHeyne Coo^ Master Çardener. & g May 25-26, 12pm - 7pm & May 27-28, 10am - 6pm P 535 East First Street, North Vancouver ^ For Further Information Please Telephone 984-8574