Who says those the federal Conservatives aren't closet arts supporters after all? Why, just this morning, Jim Flaherty, the federal Finance Minister and a sworn enemy of paying for anything remotely resembling a boondogle, just cut a $460,000 cheque, on behalf of his colleague Josée Verner, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, to the Textile Museum of Canada.
The Textile Museum of Canada will use this $460,000 to create a section on its Web site called “In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture, and Art.”
“Canadians have made tremendous contributions to the arts, especially in the area of textiles, and now our rich culture and history will be proudly on display for all to see,” said Flaherty in a press release announcing the contribution.
Heritage Canada says “this site will engage people of all ages in exploring our rich cultural diversity through textiles. It will also allow the public to connect with Canadian artists, designers, scholars, curators, and makers.”
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Sorry – I'm still trying to imagine how anyone could possibly spend almost half a million dollars to add a section to a website. Who the hell is doing their web design, and how can I get in on the action?
So much for “maximizing return on money invested”. For that price, they could fly a thousand or more people to Toronto to actually see the textiles in person.