Fondation Beyeler. Matisse – Invitation to the Voyage. September 22, 2024 – January 26, 2025. Riehen/Basel: Fondation Beyeler, 2024.

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“If I had to do it again, I would begin with culture” – Jean Monnet

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Arts have, without doubt, made an impact on different opinions and have made positive changes to many societies around the world. Being relatively special in the social category, art movement develops with socio-political and economic development. In the industrial structure, unlike crops or oil products, arts cannot produce food or functional tools; instead, they create innovation and develop an enhanced awareness and understanding of cultural dynamics that affect the whole societies. In terms of utilitarianism, arts create economic and social value; also, from the perspective of socialism, arts seem like a spiritual shelter that provides inclusive and safe condition; therefore, governments should provide full support for art. However, other than understanding the reasons for subsidy arts, the question we should be concerned about is how subsidies improve art industry and what its effects are.

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Considering why arts need to be subsidized is a necessity. First, artistic performances are irreplaceable and with extreme fragility. Visual representation, seen as the stepping-stone of understanding others, has been used to represent different ethnic groups in their special forms, vividly explaining the historical background of their race and ideology. Painting and any other kinds of visual art forms are crucial because they speak up the things that words cannot express and cannot explain. That is why Artists Meeting for Cultural Change (AMCC) announced in their early exhibition, “Culture has the power to shape not only our view of the past but also the way we see ourselves today (Baranik and Wallach, 1977).” AMCC also gave a good definition of an art museum today. The art museum inherits from past memories and histories, selects collections and viewpoints, and shapes the thoughts of future. For the collections selected by museums and galleries, people from every period of time would be able to peek into the historical and political background of the era through the creation of the artists. Second, during the technological information economy, the alliance between regions and the general public unleashed a combination of culture and power, resulting in the cultural charm that affects the world in an unprecedented and prominent way. In everyday life, many people cross country borders, communicate with people from different regions, of different colours, and interact with the people who speak different languages and have different habits. (Blanning, 2006)

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Government subsidies are reasonable from an economic point of view. The policy of every country promotes better economic development, and government subsidies help industry or individuals cover part of the costs of producing goods and services. Through the adjustment of funds, the government encourages and ensures that the public purpose is protected. Through tax credits and covering part of the cost, consumers increase the number of purchase and the overall price of the products will, in turn, be reduced. In economic theory, demand and supply can be adjusted by the government tax policy, thus, achieving changes in supply. However, government policies are usually just a starting point. If the art industry depended totally on government subsidies, without the support from the middle-class, that is, to rely only on a blend of funds, predominantly earned income and private contributions, the art industry would be unable to stay long. The art industry is attached to the society, the political and the economic centre. Policies should create demand and stimulate people to have interest and to increase purchasing power in order to enhance consumption and production development. (Marshall, 2013)

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To enhance the level of investment, tax systems in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan now are have loosened. The tax plan is aimed at consumer incentives as subsidies are not only beneficial to consumers, but also contribute to the development of the arts. For instance, in Taiwan, the value of the artwork is not included in the gross estate of collectors so purchasing artworks can reduce their inheritance tax effectively (Yang, 2014). In Hong Kong, auctions and art fairs are flourishing in a free and low tax-trading environment and individual buyers enjoy purchasing artworks because the city is a tax-free trade port. Shanghai is also a prominent city for selling and buying arts. Many collectors will leave the goods at the trading port to avoid tariffs and value-added tax (VAT) on arts objects. China levied a tax of a 6% tariff and a 17% VAT, whereas Hong Kong and Shanghai are exceptions from those regular taxes. This not only happens in Asian countries. Similar situations also happen in Western countries. The United States is also free from import taxes on artworks for over 100 years and the United Kingdom only collects low taxes. These standards of taxations in different regions or countries allow collectors to come up with creative tax-avoidance methods, such as holding exchange exhibitions and donating to museums. From the consumers’ point of view, government subsidies can help potential consumers spend less money through tax credits. Free art tariffs and consumption tax are beneficial for consumers as well, because when they buy artworks, the tax credits offset the high prices. Therefore, consumers are willing to learn more about the art market and the creation of artists, allowing more customers to buy art-related products and eventually, help the arts.

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However, art policies are not just for profit and value of output, but also for cultural purposes. Therefore, government needs to consider seriously about the art industry and its influences. Many art intermediaries profit from marketing masterworks, but many young emerging art workers cannot get the same amount of return from what they have invested in themselves. Unlike raw materials or the food industry, the art industry cannot make up for the problems caused by inflation by increasing production, making artworks or art careers seem to be just an option. The incomes of many artists are extremely unstable, and they have to give up creating artworks because of short of funds and lack of assistance in their lifetime. Many famous writers and artists in history lived in abject poverty while they were alive. The concerns about the value and reward of art labour are one of the most frequently discussed problems in the art world (Wageforwork.com, 2017). The art field not only pays less than other industries, but has a relatively larger fluctuation. In many developed countries, the cost of cultivating professionals, such as artists, writers, musicians and theatrical performers, is more than that of developing countries. Coupled with little change in demand due to the low price elasticity, the income of these professionals is extremely low. If art profession graduates can hardly support themselves by any art-related job, they will have to choose to teach, and to qualify for teaching means that they have to get an MA or PHD degree (E-flux.com, 2017). It means that they have to spend more money in order to have a chance of getting a teaching career in the future; however, there are no guaranteed teaching jobs in the art field. Art cultivation is an extremely slow process of value enhancement. If this trend continues, fewer and fewer young talented people will be willing to become artists or work in the field. When that happens, the gap of skilful practices will gradually appear, and the work they produced will no longer be valued. Such indifference to the art field will erode cultural values of our society.

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The various challenges art faces come not only from the internal structure of the industry, but also from the pressure of external competition. Being familiar with the history of art and understanding the creation of artists should be the fundamental requirements of the art community. However, due to the lack of demand in society, more and more interdisciplinary workers lack the understanding of professional knowledge. These people may simply fill the technical or manpower deficiencies, and bring limited agitation or progress to the industry. In the past, many short-lived art fairs and galleries were not really serious about art itself. If the industry only has limited numbers of experts, it is hard to see the progress of the art community or the possibility to achieve higher academic goals which hardly made the industry be more competitive. Because of the funding constraints, schools accept students who are not art-undergraduates and art fairs accept gallery exhibitors that are not professional. Lowering the acceptance criteria has undoubtedly brought more problems to the art industry.

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Some people object to the government subsidies, by only drawing conclusions from the cause and effect they see. These people have never really understood the operation of art or the entire community, arguing that governmental funds affect the freedom of artistic creation and that the support of the middle class is enough (McPherson, 2017). However, this is not the case. When we talk about sponsoring art, the art and art markets are quite different. Although perfect cases of combining work with business still exist, most artists reject the pursuit of commercialism and capitalism in their works. The creators have in common the hope of achieving individual independence, both conceptually and economically. On the other hand, the art market such as art fairs, art galleries and art auctions reflect the realities of social and economic values and have also led many art groups to rely on corporate funds and co-branding to get a wider audience. Subsidies allow more education to a wider population, create better art quality and even reduce the industry’s injustice through art education. The government’s point of view should go beyond the criticism of contemporary art organizations and really understand the art itself. (Gerrard, 2017)

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Today, e-commerce and logistics have changed the appearance of the world’s industry, it has also changed the creative methods of the artists. Policy development should take the development of science and technology into account. Art will affect the future of cultural industries, and art development is seen as a way to enhance national competitiveness. Culture, language and the values of the country are considered soft power, hence, investing in the art industry is beneficial to national development. Thus the construction of art has become a goal of national development. Take soft power as a diplomatic means to enhance the influence of the country, so that foreigners would accept the culture from another country. In the case of Asian countries, China has established Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese philosophy, and Chinese young people who speak English have created new vocabulary and ways of thinking. Japan maximizes its impacts of animation industry through the constructing of animation museums, festivals and large-scale celebrations. From the perspective of the government, the art-related industry has a glamorous fame and is able to be used as investment projects while also being regarded as the symbol of cultural development. This kind of attraction has turned many large-scale exhibitions into a tool, with the side-product as the extensions of the surrounding benefits. “Art is almost completely instrumentalised,” stated in the 2015 European Cultural Policies (Lind and Minichbauer, 2005). In the contemporary era and especially in socialist countries, it is inevitable that political power intervenes deeply in art production. However, the concept of soft power operation is far more sophisticated than what the government assumes. Instead of being guided by the power of the state, art should be created by society naturally. The freedom of creation involves politics and society, leaving a space where power struggles, and allowing art to develop in a diverse way. The art community attracts others to get involved, creating its own values and charm is a more effective way of advertising than merely creating commercial needs for people.

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In short, subsidy art is necessary since art makes a difference to politics and economy and has been pronounced more than ever. In addition to the tax adjustment and the development of cultural diplomacy, governments should also consider the unique nature of the art industry and the differences between personal values. This is true especially for emerging artists as they need more investment and encouragement from the government. Most importantly, governments should regard arts as a vital part of intangible assets, measure the rights and interests of the country from a higher level, pay attention to the value of arts and educate people about its significance and necessity. Arts are vital as it effectively helps people learn and understand other key issues in our society. Therefore, arts should be subsidised by the government.

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Bibliology

1. Baranik, R. and Wallach, A. (1977). An anti-catalog. New York: Catalog Committee of Artists Meeting for Cultural Change.

2. Blanning, T. C. W. (2006). The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660-1789. Oxford University Press.

3. E-flux.com. (2017). Art without Market, Art without Education: Political Economy of Art – Journal #43 March 2013 – e-flux. [online] Available at: http://www.e-flux.com/journal/art-without-market-art-without-education-political-economy-of-art/ [5 Oct. 2017].

4. Gerrard, N. (2017). Will funding cuts be good for the arts?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/apr/03/arts-funding-cuts-debate [1 Oct. 2017].

5. Lind, M, and Minichbauer, R. (2005). European Cultural Policies 2015: a Report with Scenarios on the Future of Public Funding for Contemporary Art in Europe. IASPIS.

6. Marshall, A. (2013). Principles of economics. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

7. McPherson, D. (2017). A critic’s plea: stop all arts funding now. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11630643/A-critics-plea-stop-all-arts-funding-now.html [19 Oct. 2017].

8. Wageforwork.com. (2017). W.A.G.E.HOME. [online] Available at: http://www.wageforwork.com/home [13 Oct. 2017].

9. Yang, S, (2014). Discussion of tax issues related to art auctions, Tax Journal, 2256, pp. 27-30.

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