69. Needed: conservative values

Unpublished
23 July 1998

Re: Artistic heritage feared crumbling along with church ceiling— Arts, July 23. So “no one has the money to pay for” the $2.25 million repairs for St. Anne’s church and its paintings? Are the Group of Seven (and God) now considered to be risky investments ? Are there no profitable corporations left who need to buy a little public will, no advertising budgets that could not be more gainfully re-directed?
Having won cuts to public funding where are the compensating cultural committees of the National Council of Business Issues or the Chambers of Commerce? Where are those otherwise loud and visible conservatives that in this project of conservation are given a ready-made opportunity to prove the sincerity of their core values? Where are the vociferous protectors of the conjoinment of art and spirituality (and St.George)?
Can this unique site of the Group of Seven’s ‘community work’ only be saved by re-naming it “The Seven-Eleven ™ Chapel” or “The 7-Up ™ Picture Dome?”