The Arts and Politics
Periodical profile published 1977

Publisher:  Institute for Saskatchewan Studies, Canada
Year Published:  1977  
Pages:  8pp  
Inactive Serial

Resource Type:  Serial Publication (Periodical)
Cx Number:  CX328

This newsletter summarizes the discussion from a seminar on the arts for the purpose of providing political education.

Abstract:  This newsletter summarizes the discussion from a seminar on the arts for the purpose of providing political education. The question of national identity was posed within the context of artists serving American imperialism or producing an art rooted in local culture from which a Canadian identity can be formed. The problems of earning a living as an artist were discussed. The seminar demonstrated that, while the creation of Art is essentially a private matter, its distribution is a public concern. Recommendations were made for Canadian control quotas, and co-operatives were identified as being the best way for artists to market their work. There was some disagreement between one point of view that sees art as illuminative and therefore to be kept separate from rhetoric which is seen as political persuasion. This was countered by a critique which showed the artist as necessarily political because of economic need. Examples of overtly didactic art which are not compromising were given.

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