Exposure is surest way to breed appreciation in the arts

I don't think I've ever been chastised as gently as by Toronto Arts Council executive director Claire Hopkinson yesterday afternoon. I'm sure she would describe our 90 minutes together a get-acquainted session (I had never visited the council's offices, and hadn't spoken to Hopkinson since she left Tapestry New Opera Works five years ago), nothing more. 

Hopkinson had read my blog entry about culture, and was eager to point out that dollars-and-cents are not the only way in which the arts try to justify themselves, and, similarly, an appeal to vanity is equally one-dimensional.

We talked about a lot of different things yesterday, but what left the deepest impression was needing to have faith in the power of persistence -- and confidence in the power of each artform to speak to those people who have made the journey to experience it.

If our mayor, the budget chief and everyone else who helps shape policy in this city, were to see and experience how the arts make a difference in our community centres and parks and auditoriums and galleries and libraries -- and how they build bonds between children as strong as those fostered by sports teams -- perhaps we would need to worry less about the dollars-and-cents.

I guess we have to make sure that not only our politicians but also the rest of their staff always get invited, introduced and exposed to our creative efforts.

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Here's a clip from the launch of the Toronto Arts Foundation's Neighbourhood Arts Network, last year: