Economics vs culture: 21st c. boxing match.

We had a rousing good discussion in cultural policy class last night on the issue of globalization as it affects the arts. It's a tangled web of economic and governmental interests versus a variety of artists, local and small-country governments, and nonprofit arts advocates and managers, trying to negotiate terrain that gets more complicated every day as the digital capabilities of the world increase.

It comes down to money versus culture. Two interests speaking different languages. At present, there is no authority who decides. The World Trade Organization versus UNESCO. Just as the "culture wars" of the 80s and 90s were so much about women, sex, the gay movement, and religion under the guise of arguments about art, the "trade wars" of the 2010s might well be about big money vs little (and individual culture), under the guise of "free trade" versus "protectionism." There's a lot of work to be done -- advocacy, education, scholarship, negotiation, just plain thinking. Keep the artists at the center and much will be gained, not so much lost.