The Government and Arts Patronage

Abstract

Perre Elliott Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister, commenting on patronage of the arts by governments today, asserted that governments have a responsibility to ensure that the arts, which are an essential grace in the life of civilized people.. .be available in full measure to those who want them. He further observed that is only by constant acquaintance with the works of artists that we can acquire an understanding of their means of communication and hence come to know and enjoy them.l The professional arts cannot function properly without substantial government patronage; in the future, their very existence is likely to depend upon public subsidy. Success in arts patronage is determined, in part, by the adequacy of financial provision; of crucial importance, however, is the effectiveness of the administrative devices used by governments to extend assistance to the arts. The operations of the Canada Council, the Arts Council in Great Britain, and the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States, the principal patronage bodies in the three Atlantic nations, are examined in this study to obtain insights into the intricacies of arts patronage administration. More specifically, this article seeks to accomplish two objectives. First, it analyzes and evaluates comparatively each administrative method or device employed by the three governments to support and encourage the arts. Second, it proposes a viable package of devices, integrated and multifaceted, which governments everywhere can use to discharge their patronage responsibilities more successfully.