03/04/2026
I've tried writing something three days in a row and couldn't find the right words, so here I am on the forth day trying again.
In light of recent budget cuts removing funding from cultural and arts based programs (and more, but my area of knowledge is more arts based) I needed to speak up.
One of the best things that came from the creation of Cuts and Paste Gallery was community. I found like-minded people and we communicated openly during collage nights, made art that shared deeply personal stories, and supported one another in all sorts of ways. Although there is no more Cuts and Paste space, this community keeps me hopeful to find another.
It is my firm belief that the making and sharing of art in any form is the deepest level of communication we have as humans. It is the greatest and most vulnerable exchange. Somebody feels something, or enjoys something and through a painting, collage, stories, poetry or dance, says to the world 'this is how I feel, what do you feel?' So, when a government blatantly restricts the arts, they are restricting communication, shared experience, the passing of knowledge. It truncates the human experience. I think it hurts so many artists because we are vulnerable enough to capture our own feelings and share them with others and this is the government saying 'nobody cares'.
It also exemplifies a historically repetitive notion that art is for the elites, not common folk. Historically, when a new land was conquered, the art was seen as treasure that was to be taken and brought back to the 'homeland' as a sign that an entire people was conquered. 'Behold! We have their statues, their scripts, their paintings, their jewellery. They are ours!' It has always been understood that these artworks and creations represent us, humans, and the landscapes we live in. We easily recognize that all art represents and reflects humanity.
To defund art making spaces is to chomp at community making and building. To defund artists is to remove our collective stories and limit communications about how everyday humans view the world. It is, in my opinion, to say that the elites should get to enjoy it, while the commoners are denied. It feel very us/them in a time when it really needs to be 'us'.
It is a heartbreaking and cruel message to Nova Scotians that this government abides by capitalistic ideals and is not concerned with preserving or supporting the human experience that a body elected 'by the people, for the people' should be protecting.
