The Government of Canada has recently agreed to support the establishment of its own international annual prize for the arts and creativity

Government of Canada has recently agreed to support the establishment of its own international annual prize for the arts and creativity. It will be awarded to novice authors and artists working in the following areas: dance, music, theater and visual arts. To finance this project in the federal budget has allocated 25 million Canadian dollars (20.4 million U.S. dollars).

The idea belongs to two businessmen from Toronto - Tony Gagliano (Tony Gagliano) and David Peko (David Pecaut), which are also the founders of the Festival of Arts Lyuminato (Luminato). As explained in an interview with CBC Television Peko, the competition will be open to young artists and performers from different countries, and then 12 finalists will be selected, among which the international jury will select the winners. All of them come to Canada: nominee will speak and show their work, and the jury members - to conduct master classes. All activities will surely be broadcast on television.

According to the authors of the establishment of such a prestigious international award, which should be closer to the status of Nobel Peace Prize should encourage «promotion» of Canada as a center for arts and culture. This will attract more tourists to the country, and should interest the world's leading organizations involved in art and culture, which will undoubtedly open up more opportunities for Canadian artists and performers.

Despite the many obvious advantages, this project has caused much controversy among the public. Last autumn, Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Stephen Harper) has reduced the funding of culture and arts in the 45 million Canadian dollars (38 million U.S. dollars), argue that the need to protect the interests of taxpayers. And now, many are outraged that the money from the public coffers will be spent on rewarding workers from other countries, while the actual Canadian artists and performers hardly able to make ends meet. Some experts believe that the provision of such a large amount of the international competition indicates that Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore (James Moore) does not understand what the real needs of the national art community.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Source: cbc.ca , artinfo.com , artinvestment.ru