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EDITORIAL: Keep
politics out of arts funding
The focus of the presidential campaign turned to culture and arts funding on
Thursday, and, while it was great that such a subject was thought worthy of
presidential involvement, it also showed what has long been wrong with cultural
administration in Taiwan.
The three candidates spent an hour offering their ideas and taking questions at
an event sponsored by the Preparatory Institute of the Foundation of the
Inaugural Year for Culture, and without getting into the specifics of what the
candidates pledged, the name of the event’s sponsor sums up what is wrong with
the cultural industry in this nation: It’s too bureaucratic — and too political.
It is great that the government supports the arts, but far too often the running
of arts programs is left to politicians or others who have no background, and
sometimes very little interest, in arts administration, theater, dance, music or
the other forms of art.
For example, the government, over several administrations, has spent a lot of
money building cultural centers and performance venues, but these centers are
underutilized, because the funding has focused on the facilities, not what goes
on in them.
Funding has also become very political, with little regard to long-term
planning, which is the key to arts management. Former Council of Cultural
Affairs minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) lost his job because the amount of money
spent on the rock musical Dreamers (夢想家) — NT$215 million (US$7.1 million) — was
excessive for a show that ran for just two nights as part of the Double Ten
National Day and Republic of China centennial celebrations.
However, one of Sheng’s predecessors, former council chairwoman Wong Chin-chu
(翁金珠), came under attack in October 2007 from then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), who felt the council was being “daring, ridiculous
and extravagant” for having the temerity to propose a four-year budget when Wong
could not be sure the then-Democratic Progressive Party administration would be
in office for those four years.
An arts and culture administrator having the nerve to think long-term — what a
heresy, given the year-to-year funding that most government agencies live by.
However, arts and cultural management needs to be long-term. One of the problems
with the programming for the National Theater and Concert Hall is that there is
so much staff turnover every time a new head is named. Foreign companies and
orchestras plan their international tours three to five years in advance, not
for next year.
Speaking of shortsighted planning, one of the council’s proposals that will
hopefully be rethought now that Sheng has gone is the plan to offer post-show
grants based on 75 percent of overall box-office take, not just pre-show grants.
Sheng said the new scheme would give performers a stake in the financial success
of their shows.
Obviously, Sheng had very little contact with the performers and creative people
he was supposed to represent. They always have a financial stake in their shows,
because the council’s grants rarely cover the entire budget for a show or pay
for enough rehearsal time. This proposal would ensure that directors and
producers play it safe with things they know will attract large audiences.
The dance collective Horse (驫舞劇場) would not have been able to mount its
three-weekend-long production of Successor (繼承者) at Huashan 1914 Creative Park
last month if it had not received a grant ahead of time, a grant that was less
than it had asked for and that did not cover all its up-front costs.
Sheng’s “play it safe” thinking is why promoters invariably want foreign ballet
troupes to perform Swan Lake instead of another classic or modern romantic
ballet. Audiences in Taiwan are already drowning in a sea of swan feathers.
Audiences for all artistic genres lose out as a result of such shortsightedness
and political stratagems, and the nation is poorer for it.
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