Look­ing around lately, it seems every­one is suf­fer­ing a crisis of con­fid­ence of one sort or another. There’s the global credit crisis, a man­u­fac­tur­ing slow­down, bail­outs, just about every­one could use some assist­ance. The city of Ott­awa had pro­posed a massive cut to arts fund­ing in the budget for this year. Not all the news is bad though, today I received this note from my city councillor:

“I am writ­ing to let you know that City Coun­cil has rejec­ted all of the pro­posed cuts to arts, cul­ture, her­it­age, museums, and fest­ival fund­ing. This will restore the stable multi-year fund­ing that was prom­ised sev­eral years ago.”

When you’re pas­sion­ate about some­thing, be it art, auto­mo­biles, or aard­varks, I think it’s nor­mal to feel a little alone some­times, like you are the only one who cares about the thing you’re inter­ested in. Its dif­fi­cult to keep going when you think you’re going alone. Thank you City of Ott­awa for keep­ing arts fund­ing, I hope you don’t have to close too many skat­ing rinks!

Art is worth it, whether you’re an indi­vidual or a city.