When it comes to art and culture, the relationship between practitioners and their supporters, funders and sponsors has always been complex...
When it comes to art and culture, the relationship between practitioners and their supporters, funders and sponsors has always been complex and fraught with concerns around power, influence and hegemony. It is indeed ironic that often people and entities who have profited and built their wealth from the very ideas and their manifestations that the arts challenge and question are also its key proponents and patrons. These include industries and industrialists, royalty, governments, embassies, funding bodies and, in some cases, even the military.
So, invariably, the lines between and around these conversations become tentative and arduous. They remain largely and simultaneously influenced by the contradictions between the ideological positions of artists and the pragmatic necessity to keep their practices alive. The questions that often come up have to do with the length and strength of the strings attached to the funds and its colour; and whether there are safe mechanisms to resist the pressures.
The possible casualties are often freedom of expression, challenges against dominant narratives, and work that creates ruptures in status quo. The one aspect that stands out clearly in my experience for decades in this contentious zone is that no answers are easy – and yet one has to...
