I was just ranting about art as a socially subsidised activity, which to be fair I could support if the institutional gatekeepers were removed and all artists got equal treatment.
I don't believe he was.
Yep, this is pretty much what I've been warned about Switzerland: Unwelcoming and cliquey. I'm hoping it isn't true.
I wouldn't be expecting handouts: I'm not some wastrel sitting in a garret demanding that my esoteric art installation is funded by the state. I'm a working author, screenwriter and graphic artist with international clients (but of course the value of wages earned outside Switzerland plummets as soon as one crosses the border).
It's just that some countries support the arts and creative industries in different ways. I was making a casual enquiry. Never mind. Sorry I asked.
Thank you to those who responded with helpful, pertinent information
Sorry, I think that the OP's question was perfectly reasonable. If you google (in English) about this subject it is highly likely that EF will come up as a place to ask, to do research. It is why EF was set up in the first place.
In your first answer you said "Dream on", his reply was that he wasn't dreaming, just asking. And I agree, there is no need for condescension. But then again, this is EF so I guess condescending answers can be expected.
OP, if it's any consolation, being self employed here will give you enough benefits (such as being able to claim for all sorts of expenses to bring your taxable income lower) as well as tax being pretty low anyway and I find the locals, certainly here in ZH, very welcoming, and willing to help, creative types.
EF can be very unwelcoming and cliquey, the country much less so. The complaints you might read about the country here on EF, take with a pinch of salt. people are much more likely to complain than praise.
I know and I can rant about the same.
I actually think gatekeepers are there to make sure bad artists get the deal (through connections and corruption), while good art is almost always the starving one. Which feeds into some theories I have been digging in on serendipiters. So, whether the good starving artist is good because he is being starved, or not, is actually interesting. I am not saying OP will be good because he will have to fight for his visions and hard. Lol, hungry satire is probably pretty biting. But, the amount of good art here might be on the rise because there are more subsidies, grants and better conditions than 20 years ago. Contracts are respected and valued. Ideas are starting to be promoted, not just precision skills. Without any funding, art becomes completely functionalist and utilitarian, ordinary, as opposed to serendipitous and thought provoking. The support is just distributed in other ways than tax cuts, etc. Grants, competitions, community tenders, community roles, etc.
Thank you. Yes, that's exactly what happened. When researching the ins and outs of relocating to Switzerland, this forum usually appears high in the results, which is why I thought it would be a good place to start.
...where you are finding sincere respondents it might be worth persisting sincerely while respectfully ignoring the fluff. The "social media" society seems to be taking over everywhere so you might have to decide what's worth your time and what's not.
This is what crippled Canadian art, because the criteria have become completely politicized. If you sell, no grants possible. If you express a viewpoint other than "my art promotes the politically correct view of social conscience," no grants.
Maybe its changed since I was there, but I remember when one set of resident artists at Banff were chosen because they were Chinese sexual minorities. (the gay Chinese guy was a friend, and refused. The Chinese lesbian who only painted red stars went).
Bear in mind, these were the selection criteria, not artistic merit.
Thus I am cynical of any govt funding of the arts.
Do you know this for a fact? I am curious, I have met people who are foreign nationals who have recieved kantonal funding as artists (painting) not sure how the went about getting the support though? Although they did also work part time in bars/hospitatlity to meet the balance.
I know. And it most probably makes you a better artist, in the end, anyways.
The scenario you have described is not far from the social realism I lived, the autonomous thought provoking aspect craftily edited out. It is only used to cognitively assonate not confront, just offer what consumers expect. It is a social contract, soothes our desire to cooperate. And kills creativity and inventiveness.
Anything that needs support of a political agenda, is suspicious, or criples the credit people might want to give, before they even start thinking about it.
I can hear the biggest artistic influence on my life, giggling "that is not art, that is reflex".
And that is entirely your opinion of arts funding in Canada, which is probably not the actual case of arts funding in Canada, nor is it relevent to arts funding in Switzerland.
Every commune has a department of culture that is cooperative and informative, then there are grants running - look at webs of art schools and CVs of profs, they will list the competitions. Private businesses offer competitions and grants, too. Art museums, galleries and curators are also worth contacting for info, or to see who won what and where. But it is better to think first how to contribute to the community, participate, maybe teach or run courses for charity organisations and community related activities, network, and then think where to sing up for support.
Not all arts funding is about politics or gender identities or as many would put it "liberal snowflake" issues. In many cases, state funded institutions, art schools and educational establishments will sponsor foreign artists, writers and poets. Usually on merit of their work, i.e. if it is relevant. You could paint a picture as pretty as a Rubens, does not mean that you will be chosen, that sort of art is not relevant anymore.
This is the sort of comment the OP was looking for, not a running debate on what is good or bad art.
It is indeed my opinion, and it certainly was the case back in the day (god knows what Harper did to it, he certainly went after the Canada Council the same way he went after most things), but finding 20 year old news articles is a challenge if you're looking for citations. In the 90's, social conciousness was an open criterion for grant selection. I believe the exact term was promoting the Canadian way of life or something similar, it's been a while. Read the wiki on Canadian cultural protectionism , and remember that pre-Harper the mandated inclusivity thing was in full swing.
However, shall I tell you stories from my time working in publically funded galleries in Montreal? The woman sitting in the kitchen with the curators, laughing about how she got a 17k grant, went on vacation to the Caribbean, then (direct quote) "threw together some trash I had in my storage" to justify it through the final show?
How about the photographer friend who was rejected for funding with the cited reason of having had a show for profit (he was, and still does support his art as a wacom expert, but had a sale to make ends meet)?
The comics artist who used to laugh about how "Club med for artists" (Banff center) kept trying to recruit her for artist in residence because they needed a prominent bisexual visual artist who was also Allophone?
Anecdote, I know, but there you have it. And as for the relevance to Switzerland, I know it isn't - but it is relevant to the interesting (to me, at least) subconversation with Musicchick that this thread spawned.
EDIT. OK, a quote direct from the Canada Council site - excerpted to highlight the direct relevance of social criteria in making funding decisions . Read the whole thing to understand the corrective social concience nature of the way it works. Emphasis mine.
Those who have been following, if only from a distance, the efforts to reposition, transform and reinvent the Canada Council for the Arts over the past year and a half have noted that our arguments in favour of major government reinvestments have been built around the importance of: innovation in the 21st century’s digital economy; the primacy of Indigenous issues for the country’s future; issues pertaining to diversity; a focus on youth; a concern for public engagement in the arts; and the importance of international outreach, and reciprocal international exchanges.
[....]
For this diversity to be fully present and active, our equity values need to be authentic, visible and incorporated into our everyday behaviour, our policies, the design and delivery of our programs, our communications, and the way we operate. They must also influence our budget allocations. This is absolutely essential for us.
[....]
It still enables us to analyze whether the population, in all its diversity, truly has access to Council programs and services, and if not, to properly determine how to fix things and take action.
Over the years, the constant updating of the equity concept led to the establishment of specific programs, innovative partnerships and targeted initiatives not only for Indigenous artists and people from the various ethnocultural communities, but also for artists in official-language-minority communities, disabled or Deaf artists as well as artists from underserved regions. In short, the Canada Council’s Equity Office has always performed a monitoring role and has had a direct impact on Council’s actions. The Office also monitors linguistic, ethnic and regional representation on Council’s staff, its peer assessment committees, and, where possible, its Board of Directors.
[....]
We have gone even further by p lanning targeted investment in our new programs to ensure that organizations formerly supported directly by the Equity Office will be able to build capacity and scope more quickly over the years covered by the Strategic Plan, and we will be publicly reporting on our actions.
[....]
However, much more remains to be done. We are also aware that the monitoring and ongoing promotion of equity principles requires determination and a keen understanding of the demographic changes shaping our communities and society. Equity and access affect everyone. This means equity and access both for artists and the public.
Over the next five years, we will continue to proactively ensure that all artists have equitable access to our programs and that all Canadians, and particularly arts organizations and activities financed with public funds, feel represented in our country’s arts landscape. This means that our actions must be precise, tangible, identifiable and measurable. Our Research Division has been investigating best practices that Council might be able to implement in order to gather information about the internal diversity of arts organizations.
Now I'm all in favour of equity and representation, but what is being described there is targeted allocations - quite literally that the first criterion in funding isn't merit, but identity. And that I don't agree with.
The art of EF is the ability to offer the practical info together with personal opinions and experiences of members from diverse places. At least one of them will be closer than not to what is happening here. There are other dimensions to the debate, the ratio of expected and not expected answers depends on a question pretty much. Restricting the opinions does not make an issue more intelligent. It makes it restricted. EF context is quite a palette, thankfully.
I cant believe you bothered to look that up to, to copy it and to paste and to bold those bits. I am not going to read it, as this thread was about funding in Switzerland. Sorry.
No, it was about social support for artists, not grants or funding. It went to grants and funding through organic conversational drift, and if you think that it's the first EF thread to do that I have no idea where you spend your time.
And you made assertions about my experience, and I just disproved them. (which was your starting another conversational drift, by the way). Doing a drive-by natter and then refusing to come out to play when called on it is a little shifty.
If you don't like the digressions, don't read 'em. This is EF, not wikipedia, and its the conversations that make it fun!
I was specifically asking about social support (in whatever form it comes, or doesn't come, as the case may be) for artists and creatives in Switzerland.
Digression is fine, of course - who am I to say otherwise? - though it does make it a bit more difficult and time-consuming for newcomers to threads to filter out the less pertinent information and find the information they need.
This was the issue I faced when I 1st joined anyway. I couldn't find the info I wanted, despite having found the appropriate threads. I was then chastised for posting and not searching well enough. I did eventually find what I wanted: it was buried on one page of a vast, multipage thread, which had diversified and become about something else entirely.
This is a living community, and not a telephone directory, so please, bear with the organic chaos
That said, the answer to your inquiry was delivered promptly - it was a clear "none". No need to wade through the usual EF sauce, which is by itself quite entertaining.
Touché you are right, but you did kindof stray well off the mark.