The Arts Funding Divide: Would ‘Cultural Rights’ Produce a Fairer Approach?

Abstract

It seems that the funding of arts practice is always a contested domain, whatever political view or system is dominant. In some contexts, for example, there is no government support for the funding of arts practice, while in others there are different interpretations of what this entails. In most forms of government, several sectors of society (agriculture, mining, manufacturing and sport) receive government subsidies. In a capitalist state this is sometimes described as ‘welfare capitalism’. However, those opposed to the government funding of arts practice believe the arts should not be included in this framing because they are regarded as ‘non-essential’ (Bell and Oakley, 2015; Brabham, 20..