It's the AGAC position that the very best way to make sure that the socio-economic conditions of the artist get better is to have a healthy art market. We don't have a very strong art market in Canada.
You are absolutely correct in saying that we make other nations very envious of the system that we have here, because we have managed to build a very strong public funding body that helps artists to create, and through the very important and recognized artist-run centres system....
We are very good at helping artists create and present their work, but we kind of forgot how to bring tools that would make people buy those works. Right now, artists have studios that are full of works that have no buyers. They have to destroy works because they just can't manage to store them anymore.
Recently, the Canada Council Art Bank had to vacate space and return works, especially large sculptures. Artists who were very happy to be part of that important collection are now stuck with artworks they sold 25 years ago, and they don't know what to do.
There is not necessarily a market for that. We talk a lot about art as an investment, but it's not a very liquid investment, let's say.