How we Spend in the Arts

Here are a few thoughts based on observation, and discussion. I have been on several arts and social assistance boards over the decades as well. I have watched a lot of well meaning people try to make things happen.
I often wonder if the community would be better off if there was one major facility to centralize the availability and focus of the cultural community?
Would it spend its available dollars more efficiently with fewer but bigger facilities.
I often ask myself why we spend so much on “non producing” administration and not very much on the actual living breathing producers of all forms of art, visual and otherwise. There are only so many dollars available, and this won’t change in an austere economic environment for years to come.
I guess it depends on one’s priorities but perhaps we need to look at things like a “show and buy local artists only policies” in our publicly paid for facilities., Perhaps some dollars now being spent on “non producers ” could be . better spent on an art bank where good art is purchased at reasonable prices from artists, to allow them to exist here economically.
Let the big guys show the historic art contributors, both domestic and international, in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Waterloo Region may be too close to a big city to compete.. Really, how many people in this Region come out see the exhibits? Why do I sometimes feel that it is a artificial competition when all the money is tax payer money.
Also, with the maturation of the Internet and all that is available we need to examine what we show locally. Perhaps, our role as a community is to be the best at supporting arts at the grass roots level.