In the 1990s, when I was a struggling songwriter back in Ottawa, I remember discovering an opportunity that promised to help me progress as an artist. It was a grant from FACTOR. That’s the same organization that recently gave Grimes’ record label a $90,000 arts grant. One of their representatives encouraged me to apply for a $2,000 grant to help get my music off the ground. Why was I, some random teenager, deserving of free money? Who knows!? But it sounded awesome!
I never did apply, but I’d considered it, and just the idea that it existed gave me hope. Many young artists do take advantage of these arts grants as they should. It’s a great way to assist with levelling up your work.
So, is FACTOR basically just a magnanimous benefactor to society? Making the world a brighter place by funnelling tax dollars into the arts? Not quite.
The Corruption Dance
You see, not just any artist is allowed to collect their share of this primarily public money. It’s only for those who are good at composing grants applications. And of course you must appeal specifically to the FACTOR selection committee. These cultural gatekeepers are probably good people, but their role as government middlemen and arbiters of taste is questionable. That’s because on a basic level, they’re working for the ever-increasing bureaucratization of our country and of the arts. It’s also because, whether they realize it or not, they’re attempting to shape the Canadian narrative according to the will of their government benefactors.
Some smart and fair public funding for the arts makes a lot of sense. Thinking small scale and on a local level, most Canadians appreciate public money going towards beautifying a city with a mural, or supplies or gear for a community arts centre. And on a large scale, they also appreciate funding going towards the operations of our treasured institutions, such as the National Gallery of Canada. But attempts to manipulate the commercial side of the arts by government-backed organizations like FACTOR is too-often simply an elaborate pantomime performed to ensure the elites gain more and more control over our tax dollars and over our lives.
At the End of the Day, Artists Lose
When a private company or individual offers money to an artist for their work, that’s a wonderful natural exchange. At Culture Pledge, we commission work from independent artists and writers frequently. While we are on some small level an arbiter of taste, we avoid corruption by spending our own money. We certainly lay no claim to money forcibly taken from hard-working Canadians by the government via taxation. Which is also money that could (should?) be going instead to other important things like infrastructure, healthcare, defence, welfare, and education.
Our goal at Culture Pledge is to become profitable. Part of that is to shoulder the burden of taxation. Speaking as the company’s founder, I don’t mind that arrangement at all. In my view, Canada is a beautiful country that we must protect. I’m proud to pay taxes. What I don’t love is how arts organizations like FACTOR earn their revenue not by direct success in the real world, but rather by their deep association with government. At the end of the day, these organizations are complicit with diverting large amounts of public money to the bureaucratic class and away from average people, including independent artists.
The Grimes Factor
This story on Grimes’ grant that broke yesterday shows the insidious side of these government-backed arts funding programs. All across Canada and the world there are valued independent artists who earn little or no money from their art, doing it because they’re passionate and believe in the work. Meanwhile, Grimes is a world-famous artist millionaire who doesn’t even live in the country, and her label is receiving a $90,000 arts grant? What planet are we on? Mars?
We have evidence here of why we should strive for a government that is more capital efficient and supports small business and average people a whole lot better. I’ll end with my recurring call for a universal basic income (UBI), both for Canadians and for the world. Let’s forget all of these Byzantine funding programs and just put money directly into the hands of the people, so that they may do what they were put on Earth to do, and create.
