I think one of the most disappointing things about the digital revolution, to me as an artist who started just as it began, was that we were promised a levelling of the playing field. We were promised artist to listener with no middlemen, or middlewomen, to be politically correct. But what has happened is that there has been a proliferation of middlemen in the past 20 years.
Grants are wonderful, and I feel so honoured to live in a country where there are grants. My problem with grants, though, is, then, who are the gatekeepers for these grants? What are the merits that we then look at to judge? We're just creating a whole other entity. So far we have the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council, one in each region. The granting body is trying to come up with a matrix and a rubric that will then give merit to some over others. What does that mean? That to me is a bit problematic.