Arts funding is the system by which a culture decides, imperfectly and politically, which creative work deserves support beyond what the market will pay for — which means it is inevitably a system of taste, relationship, and blind spots as much as merit. Applying for grants is a skill distinct from the skill of making, requiring a translation of creative work into institutional language that sometimes illuminates and sometimes distorts. The grant is useful; it is not a verdict.
Mura