On the highly debatable issue of government funding of the arts, one might very easily come across spiteful comments such as ‘taxpayers deserve better than a program exporting nonsense art to the world’, a blatant attack that appeared in the Herald Sun in 2009.1 While the editorial ridicules tax-payer-funded artistic projects such as a forty thousand dollar ‘game of snakes and ladders’ and twenty thousand dollar ‘hip-hop-style Shakespeare plays’, the importance of government funding of the arts remains evident. With contemporary Australian artists like Vernon Ah Kee receiving funding to represent Australia at the 2009 Venice Biennale, the topics presented in his art that are relevant to the modern Australian identity are highlighted and invigorate discussions and ideas within the general public, and in particular in young minds. All in all, the arts in Australia provide opportunities for us to gain insight into the many perspectives that make up our multi-faceted society, and for this reason, support from the government is vital.
Attacks on government funding for the arts have always been prevalent; many question the merits of spending money on art rather than on important areas, such as infrastructure. However, it is worthwhile to note that Australia has had a long tradition of supporting the arts and artists in order for our culture to continue to flourish and become recognised. An excellent illustration of this is Australia’s thirty-year-long participation in the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s oldest and most important art forums for contemporary visual art, courtesy of funding through the Australia Council for the Arts. Every second year, Australian artists, like Vernon Ah Kee, are given the opportunity to represent Australia and showcase some of their... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline