All good things must come to an end, or so the saying goes.

 There is a paging revolt charging through my heart these days. The rush echos into my mind, and I can’t shake this notion that I am about to become part of a legacy too soon extinguished. While the world churns around us, holding each of its inhabitants as an unwilling participant in this song and dance of evolution; small changes are occurring within Canada that are about to shake up the map of imagination. Perhaps this cryptic message is reading as confusion to the masses across this vast country, but trust me when I say, the feeling is mutual to those who it’s centered around the most. What I am speaking of is the battle currently being forged in Halifax, Nova Scotia, between an institution of historic legacy, and Governmental budgetary.

 The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) is under the penny pinching microscope these days, by the provincial government, and then some. In short, money is tight, there is nothing more to give, and NSCAD is staring straight down the barrel with two choices to beg for; amalgamate with Dalhousie University (known more for it’s trades and science degrees, than for the arts) or shut-down, ending a 125 year legacy. Prices are being placed on the value of education, of independence, of creativity and imaginary revolution. The epidemic of outlandish post-secondary education costs is no secret; to follow the seed of knowledge is to walk the plank into the ravenous sea of bankruptcy. Hoisting the highest tuition fees across the country (Full-time Undergraduate fees for the Winter 2012 Semester total $3229.05) already puts the province in a certain black listed category among up-and-coming post secondary prospects, fresh from High School. Yet, encouraging the extinction of the arts, while promoting the rise of Sciences with more provincial funding, advocation, advertising, and promises that yes, this is the job sector to become financially graceful within, also has the free-thinking “bleeding heart liberals” (as us artists are too often categorized) up in arms.

 Opening eyes to see the diminishing encouragement of the magical entities that is artists is happening rapidly. As if the human race has met in secret, agreeing to wash away the passionate freedom thinkers and optical activists, thus eradicating the natural desire to put honesty in the form of optical beauty. When did the world of logic, of science, become the one and only entity for our species to inhabit? When did Hollywood become the only acceptable art form to praise, to encourage? When did proclaiming “I am an artist” become coupled with the fear of being told one has the bubonic plague?

 To envision a world without thought or recognition, nay, love or encouragement, support and dedication to it’s artists is to accept a world void of magnificence. Each drop of brilliance produced from a brush, each stroke of genius emanated from a pencil, each word of candor penned for a performer on Broadway, each note birthed from a musicians mind, each caress from sullen fingertips draped along a musical instrument; now mythical talents hidden, revoked from teachers agendas. To deny art from being taught as a truly invigorating, original academic platform, is to deny the world the equilibrium of magic and science.

 I am angry to know that I am part of an outcasted breed of human, who is treated as nothing more than filth, in this era of misconstrued equality of talents. I am apart of a whole who view this world through a different set of eyes, who sees life in a new form, in a new space, than the reality we traverse. I am apart of humanity who is sharing new perspectives on dated ideals; now being punished for thinking outside the box.

How void of imagination this world is becoming, soon to be enveloped entirely of nothingness but template designs of genetically engineered “creativity”, produced by white coats in sterile chambers.