What's the Matter With Sweden?

[sabriel9v]

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7776-whats-the-matter-with-sweden/1/

 

This is a long and winded article. It addresses the issue of government funded arts programs in countries like Sweden, Norway and Canada...and then somehow the author miraculously goes into the healthcare debate Good read nonetheless

 

Sweden has its own assortment of groups that sponsor the arts and culture. When it comes to music, the Swedish Arts Council is the body that awards money to music ensembles, orchestras, and other groups, while the Swedish Arts Grants Committee makes awards to individual artists. The Swedish Arts Council grants about 11.5 million SEK ($1.65 million) each year to about 145 music groups out of 250 that apply, plus about 24 million SEK ($3.3 million) to venues, 222 million SEK ($30.9 million) to regional music organizations, and 64 million SEK ($8.9 million) to Concerts Sweden, says Hasse Lindgren, an administrative officer specializing in music; Concerts Sweden, however, is in its final year. The Swedish Arts Grants Committee allocates about 19 million SEK ($2.7 million) to musicians annually. There's also Export Music Sweden, which organized two all-Swedish SXSW showcases with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Austin, Texas. In Sweden, labels apply for recording funding twice a year, and that money pays for only part of the recording, not the full budget, says Martina Ledinsky of Stockholm-based Razzia Records, which has used grant money toward releases by Hello Saferide, Firefox AK, Dundertåget, and Joel Alme. "When I received the recording funding for my second album, Waiting for the Bells, from Kulturrådet it enabled me to use a real strings orchestra and I could spend more time in a very good studio with a good producer, Mattias Glavå," Alme says.

[daddymack]

what's the matter with Sweden, you ask?

...well, it is cold and dark most of the time..

[boxorox]

I met a Swedish guy once. He had really nice shoes. Sure wish I could get some of those Swedish shoes.

 

Well, the bug in the blancmange is that any system of grants, governmental or private, is based on a review of the applicants work by a committee whose criteria are arbitrary, personally prejudiced, and generally ignorant of the current state of the arts.

[LondonSi]

The problem with Sweden is the women are far too hot, and it makes everyone else who visits do strange things.

[Opus Antics]

Just think of how much angst there is in the US over funding public television and public radio. No think of all the hoopla that arises when something "offensive" is shown in an art exhibit. Public funding of the arts in the US is not something that can be taken on on a major scale. It would be too politicized.

[ermghoti II]

 

Just think of how much angst there is in the US over funding public television and public radio. No think of all the hoopla that arises when something "offensive" is shown in an art exhibit. Public funding of the arts in the US is not something that can be taken on on a major scale. It would be too politicized.

 

 

 

And what a shame. Otherwise, the US could fund the type of outstanding music we see coming from Canada. Nickleback, Celine Dion, the list just goes on.

[BlueStrat]

 

And what a shame. Otherwise, the US could fund the type of outstanding music we see coming from Canada. Nickleback, Celine Dion, the list just goes on.

 

 

 

Not a shame at all, IMO. Funding of anything almost always just becomes an arm of whoever is doing the funding. Publicly funding art and music is as bad an idea as publicly funding the press.

[ermghoti II]

 

Not a shame at all, IMO. Funding of anything almost always just becomes an arm of whoever is doing the funding. Publicly funding art and music is as bad an idea as publicly funding the press.

 

 

My sarcasm is unappreciated around here.

[BlueStrat]

My sarcasm is unappreciated around here.

 

 

Oops, I missed it. My bad. It actually was pretty funny!

[ermghoti II]

Oops, I missed it. My bad. It actually was pretty funny!

 

LOL, no problemo. I figured that must have been a skim/read, I laid it on pretty thick.

[johns7022]

Nothing wrong with Sweden...they have hot girls and fast guitar players...

[Scafeets]

Nothing wrong with Sweden...they have hot girls and fast guitar players...

 

Yup. As for the other stuff, I don't really see much of a choice between "gummint panels" deciding who gets the dough and the "free market." The free market makes artists appeal to the lowest common denominator while, I suppose, those living off government grants learn how to appeal to snobs and trendies.

 

Maybe we need to go back to the day when royalty just selected a few Mozarts and everyone else was just an unpaid folkie. So, who wants to be Art Czar?