“The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy”

by Max Wyman Cormorant Books

Governments have always had wide freedoms to spend public money in ways they consider effective and wise, and the cultural sector now needs the support of enlightened political and bureaucratic leadership that recognizes that the common civic good includes fostering and funding cultural activity. It is not and never should have been a matter of either-or. In a compassionate society, the provision of access to arts and culture is neither an imposition of taste nor an act of charity. It is an investment in the health of the community and the nation, like roads and schools and hospitals. It’s not something we underwrite off the side of the desk with the dribs and drabs that are left over when everything else has been taken care of; it’s part of everything else.

If you are asking how we can afford to do the things this book proposes, when so many other priorities clamour for our attention, you are asking the wrong question. The money is there; the central issue is how we decide to spend it.