Eh 440: Tuning into the Effects of Multiculturalism on Publicly Funded Canadian Music

Abstract

In 1988, Canada enshrined multiculturalism into law, a democratizing manoeuver that allowed practitioners of non-Western and non-classical forms of music to agitate for equitable access to public arts funding. This agitation ultimately forced government-funded Canadian arts councils to re-examine their Eurocentric granting programs and to expand the parameters by which they fund music. Today’s arts council peer assessors must now assess applications covering a broad range of musical genres and differing aesthetic values, and must incorporate into their evaluations the councils' sociopolitical priorities emphasizing diversity and inclusivity. Yet, few assessors understand why and how identity politics informs the contemporary music-making of ethnocultural minorities and how collectively held stereotypes influence Canadians’ expectation for ethnocultural representation. In this thesis, I endeavour to separate the historical, sociopolitical and philosophical threads that have contributed to the current musical environment in Canada.\n\nI begin by examining the parallel histories of funding for high culture—which led to public arts funding—and early celebrations of multiculturalism. I then examine \nliberal democratic philosophy and how it fostered the “politics of difference” that characterizes Canadian multiculturalism. Although liberal democracy holds that each citizen be recognized as equal and have equality of opportunity to nurture his or her individual, authentic self, Canadians have historically treated ethnocultural minorities unequally, resulting in the latter pursuing politics of difference based upon collective characteristics. Collective difference politics, though, are prone to stereotype. In the Canadian music world these stereotypes are manifest in external desires for authentic ethnocultural representation, which can overshadow a minority musician’s ability to cultivate a unique musical voice.\n\nI devote the second part of my thesis to examining the effects of equity initiatives on Canadian arts councils. Based upon interviews with music and equity officers from the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, I show how the dichotomy between collective and individual authenticities results in unequal modes of assessment that perpetuate both ethnocultural stereotypes and Western classical music’s monopoly over funding, limiting our definitions of Canadian music.

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