A cultural subsidy is a payment to cultural industries to ensure that some public policy purpose in culture (e.g. multiculturalism, bilingualism, Canadian Content, the French language, preservation of ballet or opera or circus arts) is preserved or perhaps overtly promoted as superior.
They are considered a form of industrial subsidy usually by their opponents, and a form of public interest communication, such as public broadcasting, by their supporters. A common means of providing a cultural subsidy is to have public broadcasters pay for program development.
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“Hard times accounted in large part for the fact that the exposition was a financial disappointment in its first year, but Sally Rand and her fan dancers accomplished what applied science had failed to do, and the exposition closed in 1934 with a net profit, which was donated to participating cultural institutions, excluding Sally Rand.”
—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)