{"id":2097,"date":"2016-08-23T18:30:06","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T01:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2097"},"modified":"2016-08-23T18:30:06","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T01:30:06","slug":"about-that-italian-e500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/08\/about-that-italian-e500\/","title":{"rendered":"About that Italian \u20ac500"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"I'm<\/a>The Italian government has announced that it will give all eighteen-year olds, on their birthday, a \u20ac500 voucher to spend on books, film, music or theatre. The Independent<\/em> reports here<\/a>, and The Atlantic<\/em> here<\/a>, which says:<\/p>\n

The initiative \u201creminds [youth] how important cultural consumption is, both for enriching yourself as a person and strengthening the fabric of our society,\u201d the Italian parliamentary undersecretary Tommaso Nannicini said in The Local<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think cultural vouchers are an interesting idea: they fund the arts by giving directly to arts consumers rather than to the organizations and artists that would produce the work. The presenting organizations are reimbursed by government according to the vouchers redeemed at their shows. It raises interesting questions about who decides<\/em> where public money for the arts ought to go. But …<\/p>\n

I can’t cheer this policy, whether vouchers are a good idea or not. The Italian economy is in pretty bad shape. Its banks are on the edge of collapse<\/a>, its government debt is one of the highest in the world relative to its GDP<\/a> (i.e. its ability to finance the debt), and the economy has been stagnant<\/a> while the rest of the world recovers from recession. Giving this kind of money away on arts vouchers does not suggest a government that is serious about grappling with genuine fiscal problems.<\/p>\n

Artists do not do well in a collapsing economy. Greece might have more public arts funding per capita than the UK or Canada, but that doesn’t mean artists have it good there. When I visited Portugal a few years ago, another country with reasonably generous arts policy, the artisans I spoke to were in bad shape, saying no one had any money to buy their wares.<\/p>\n

And this is why I think arts policy people get too wound up over what political parties promise regarding that small slice of funds known as ‘arts policy’. It is the general state of things that has more influence on the arts – a stable economy, full employment, a strong safety net – than whether the arts council budget rises by 1% or 3%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Italian government has announced that it will give all eighteen-year olds, on their birthday, a \u20ac500 voucher to spend on books, film, music or theatre. The Independent reports here, and The Atlantic here, which says: The initiative \u201creminds [youth] how important cultural consumption is, both for enriching yourself as a person and strengthening the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eighteen.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-xP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":731,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/lotteries-should-not-be-used-to-fund-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2097,"position":0},"title":"Lotteries should not be used to fund the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Blog neighbor Greg Sandow posts about the relationship between arts funding and gambling, especially regarding early Italian opera. It's tongue in cheek, but he concludes: For those without a sense of humor: I know very well that gambling raises moral questions, and legal questions, too, not to mention questions involving\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/lotteries-should-not-be-used-to-fund-the-arts\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"no way to fund the arts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/powerball-lottery-ticket-604ds032513-300x162.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":796,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/05\/scalpers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2097,"position":1},"title":"Scalpers","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Observer reports that scalpers (or touts) are making a killing on tickets for the Proms: One unofficial online site is offering seats for the Doctor Who-themed Prom on 14 July for \u00a3500, compared with the official flat-rate price of \u00a312. 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It included this (now oft-reported case): ... thus far, the people who create the music on which others build their fortunes often receive mere rivulets of reward.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"We'll all listen together","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/family-radio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/family-radio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/family-radio.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2294,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/02\/artists-as-speculators\/","url_meta":{"origin":2097,"position":4},"title":"Artists as speculators","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A new working paper from Amy Whitaker and Roman\u00a0Kr\u00e4ussl suggests a new model of finance for visual artists (described by Isaac Kaplan in Artsy here). 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