By Tara Khoo
The Ontario government’s call to cut OSAP funding denies access to education and undermines the validity of the arts, and Premier Doug Ford is behind it. His reasoning was to place greater focus on healthcare and trades. This decision leaves many students with no choice but to put their futures on hold due to debt and financial cuts to our arts education.
In a world driven by visual culture and media, the arts shape everything around us. Limiting access to arts education doesn’t just affect individual students; it affects the future of creativity.
Following the announcement, @studentsprotestontario posted a video on Instagram and TikTok that gained a lot of traction across platforms. The clip uses a scene from the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, encapsulating how many students felt:
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
By N.H. Kleinbaum in Dead Poets Society
Ford’s dismissal of art degrees as “unsustainable”, along with his mockery of “basket-weaving” courses, is both insensitive and out of touch. The arts are the backbone of so many things throughout our day-to-day lives. Every advertisement, movie, book and song is shaped by creative intent and artistic expression. These courses provide the resources our youth need to express themselves freely, making it harder to get a job and creating more debt.
As a student in Creative Industries completing my final year at Toronto Metropolitan University, I am saddened to know how difficult it will be for future students to find opportunities and support throughout their education. Going into the this industry is already a difficult task. Especially if you have a lower income, are a person of colour or 2SLGBTQ+ can impact and limit your opportunities. OSAP is supposed to help support students’ education to enable them to learn to the best of their ability. This makes you question whether you can even sacrifice your future for your passions.
It’s devastating that we have to sacrifice our enjoyment and willingness to engage in our education for job security and financial freedom. Why do we have to choose if our passion for the arts and education is worth more than the stability of our future? Before arts students can begin their career, they are burdened by debt before they even graduate.
Everything is art. The value of writing, reading and making art is what makes us human. Creating has been with us for centuries; even basket-weaving courses are fundamental to our Indigenous history and craft. We need the arts to thrive, and our world would not be the same without them. We understand ourselves and the world around us through art. We express ourselves and make sense of our lived experiences through emotion. From a simple advertisement on the TTC to the food that’s served to you at a restaurant, it all carries weight, creates a story and starts a dialogue. When was the last time you heard a piece of music?
TikTok creator @jewelinthegallery explains how art fosters self-reflection and offers insight on other subjects to explore: “When you look at a piece of art in a museum, you can investigate different details that then teach you about different subjects.” From economics, science, and social history to the artist’s motivation and the pigments used to create the art, all of these aspects form a visual language for the viewer to explore. She also mentions that looking at art helps craft arguments and our individual opinions.
In a time when we are already dealing with low attention spans and declining media literacy. Arts education is vital. Classes such as art history, painting, dancing, acting and singing may seem unsustainable, but they’re a vital way to understand visual language.
As I reflect on my final year in university, I’m frustrated that my peers and I can’t do anything but remain stuck in this cycle of sacrificing our well-being to support our education. Even in the scope of technology, the amount of work and time it takes to write and create art is reduced to a simple click with artificial intelligence. It matters more than ever now to continue creating and fighting for the arts.
To be creative is to be able to express yourself, and that shouldn’t be something we have to sacrifice.
Riadh Magazine 
Leave a comment