Denmark: Our arts are the envy of the world. So let’s cut the budget.
mainThe Danish culture minister Bertel Harder has written an article extolling his country’s recent triumphs in global television and architecture:
‘Outside Denmark, Danish culture goes like hot cakes. Danish TV series are popular and world renowned designers and architects are in demand – and the Danish art world now refers to a new golden age, because there are so many excellent break-through artists.’
All the more reason, he proceeds, to inflict another 1 percent budget cut. ‘We must make the most of the remaining 99 percent,’ he argues, adding that he wants Danish funding to drop to Italian levels.
What was it Hamlet said about the state of Denmark?
That man is nuts somehow. What is he smoking?
This is a very minor attempt at subsidy cuts if you compare it with the Netherlands, where over the last years a kind of cultural suicide has been going-on, with artists and projects fleeing the country, orchestras forced to merge, budgets shrinking at any cultural institution, etc. because of the influence of populism on every level of society and government. Denmark is merely following the example of small and smallminded countries.