Is This A Good Use Of £215,000?

[Deskdiary]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8870099/Drag-artist-Le-Gateau-Chocolat-handed-215k-coronavirus-culture-fund.html

[waterboatman]

NO!

[Theland]

We can always depend on the arty faarty type luvvies to take hard earned taxpayers cash, and lotto money which is just another tax, and waste it indulging their fantasies.
Many a hospice or hungry child could have benefitted from this money. Disgusting.

[Spicerack]

Ditto.

[douglas9401]

'Drag artist' seems to translate to 'unsuccessful pub act finds bandwagon'.

Never mind the money, what's the point of the niche? It's generally just unattractive men putting on ridiculous makeup and ill-fitting womens clothes.
Where is the entertainment?

[emmie]

don't get it at all, so a resounding no

[tiggerblue10]

I don't think so. Would be more use spent in funding food banks, charities and other causes in the local area.

[emmie]

tigger, totally agree

[aelmpvw]

doesn't even make the effort of having a shave does he?

[tiggerblue10]

That amount of money may be a drop in the ocean for the council but it's a lifeline to those seriously in need.

[ToraToraTora]

Radio Rental.

[Old_Geezer]

I guess an Arts Council can fund whatever it considers art, that it wishes. We all know that there have been some weird definitions of art in the past. Although funding individual performers rather than establishments with expenses to pay, seems doubly weird. Can't performers access the welfare net anyway ?

What's less clear though is why an arts body has something called a coronavirus culture fund. One would have thought they had a budget for supporting the arts already, regardless of viruses.

[Bazile]

He really ought to do something about those spots/freckles .

[aelmpvw]

when he becomes rich and famous after a world tour he'll probably pay the money back and some . . .

[iluvmargie]

When I think of all the good causes around these days that would benefit from that money, giving it to him makes no sense at all!

[LadyCG]

What a shameful waste of tax payers' money, no doubt in the name of 'diversity.

[naomi24]

The world of the Arts doesn’t consist solely of luvvies - it also employs thousands of people who take no direct part in producing art or performing - and everyone needs to earn a living - even luvvies. Whilst I do think the Arts must be supported - the country would be a poorer place without it - I can think of far worthier recipients than this man. Not the best decision.

[andy-hughes]

It's lazy journalism to prod the outrage of the great British public by finding something that will stoke their ire with minimal effort, and this is another tiresome example.

Pick a subject on the fringes of entertainment with a garish image and you will have a rampaging mob in seconds.

The standard knee-jerk reaction, already posted on this thread, is to compare the money with a more 'deserving' cause, comparing something life-threatening with this frivolity is a usual winner.

But let's take a step back and think for a moment.

If we start discriminating against entertainment simply because it is something which causes an adverse reaction, where do we draw the line?

Stop subsidising opera because it is elitist? Or Shakespeare because it has no modern relevance?

That's not how art operates, nor should it be.

Yes there are plenty of deserving causes, so let's stop funding the BBC to make EastEnders, and send that money to a hospice ... as I say, where do you draw a reasonable line.

In a civilsed society, there should be funding for necessities, and for culture, which is necessary in its own way, even if not a life-saving way, but to simply deny something because you or I don't think it's valid or worthwhile is not how a rich and varied cultural word is going to survive.

I vote they stop making You've Been Framed because I think it is an appalling abuse of children.

But it's not just my opinion that matters, is it?

There are millions of art and culture projects that may or may not deserve funding and appreciation, picking one at random and getting all het up about it is simply an exercise in lazy pointless provocation.

[iluvmargie]

09:25 totally agree.

[rowanwitch]

He was probably very good at filling in the grant application form. Those turned down may have missed out one of more criteria. It's not a question of why he got it, more why the others didnt. If you tick all the right boxes they have to make the award.

[Bazile]

LadyCG
What's drag acts got to do with diversity ?