Being There

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.