When are you going to figure out that the key reason for Oprah, Martha, etc. being billionaires is not the US or the Finnish government, but the instant access to the wallets of millions and millions of bored American housewives with nothing better to do than surf the shopping channel? On the other hand… who knows… if they all had had access to government provided world class education, maybe they would have something better to do, and maybe Oprah would be just a measly millionaire

so the left wing, is OK, the right wing asking for a return on investment is not?

Sig Heil, my friends.

Are you counting the enormous VAT rates and car taxes? And who would pay those rediculous consumer prices in Finland?

That “60% of your income” figure is pretty close, I’d say. But hey, don’t let me stop you from funding art, if you think it’s more important than improving your crappy healthcare and underfunded education system.

I guess everyone has their own priorities in life.

I agree. But being an artist is still just a job. I know many entrepreneurs who all have to market their services even if that’s not what they do best. They don’t complain or demand my tax money, they just do their job.

I’ve also done 3D modeling work myself and knew a lot of people in the digital arts community. Many of those people were pretty mediocre at what they did, but they still managed to earn a decent living because those skills were badly needed. I don’t think it’s unfair that the market works like this. And I REALLY don’t think giving grants based on the artists’ political opinion produces better art than a free market. As pointed out already, Kiasma is proof of this.

I wish I knew. I have a napkin here that I am dying to crumple in the name of art, but I’m lacking the funding in order to purchase the inspiration to do so. (I had met a friend at Helsinki University for lunch after visiting Kiasma the first time. She asked me how it was. My response was to crumple a napkin and declare that I am a Kiasma artist. This elicited an angry response from a woman in the next table.)

wow, in the USA a black woman, Oprah, is a Billionaire. NO Gov grants needed.

Get a clue, cut the government out, guys. The Gov puts you in poverty, and keeps you there.

*snerk* Ain’t that the truth. Jesus christ on a pogo stick Kiasma is a shining beacon of all that is horrible in the art whore scene…especially in a country with 2 degrees of separation. Both the building and its contents are an eyesore. If only I were related to some Uudenmankatu new media whore scenester and had a set of finger paints I, too, could have something framed up on the walls of the shining steel beached whale of a building known as kiasma.

Money kills artists and their creativity. I get sad every time I discover some unknown artist and find a while later they are so successful that they’ve not done anything new or original in a few years. Popularity and money dictate that which the artist used to have the freedom to choose for their own amusement.

Exactly.

Who is giving the grants?

Use your artistic imagination to envision me playing the world’s saddest song on the world’s smallest violin.

Well for one that “Take care on theyself one” or “Self Reliance” is disturbing.