The Art of Bonsai Project

Have anybody told the Japanese that they have been wrong for ... about a thousand years now? They wont be happy to realize that!
Maybe we should just use the word art in every second sentence, and all of the sudden Bonsai will be accepted as art, even in England and the rest of Europe. -:)
Good fun.
Best regards
Morten Albek (enjoy your art - what ever it is).

Using their logic I could qualify just about any art as a craft. Besides this has less to do with qualifying something as art and more to do with turning down a request for funding, which is likely in short supply to begin with.
I'm curious what would qualify, in their eyes, as "innovative in terms of bonsai tree growing"?

This has happened on a local level for me. I wanted to enter a bonsai in a government-employees contest in the Charlotte area. I was told it was be disqualified as it did not fit in any category they offered for the competition.
Now when the "Arts & Science Council" makes their yearly request for donations, they get a great big goose-egg from me.

Maybe some folks have a problem with bonsai as art because it's alive, and therefore changeable, not static.
Does this mean that if the bonsai dies, it may then be elegible to be called "ART"?
Mike

"At the end of a protracted dialogue with the British Arts Council the organization concluded that they could not accept bonsai as an art form because quote:
Bonsai tree growing is considered a craft and in order for it to be an art form you would have to be using your bonsai as part of contemporary visual arts practice. Growing bonsai trees is not an art form and therefore will not be recognized as such. If you want to apply for funding then the bonsai tree growing would have to be innovative in terms of bonsai tree growing or it would have to be used within an artistic project. An exhibition of bonsai trees would not be eligible for funding because it would not be considered an art form."
First of all,the art of bonsai has been simplified to 'bonsai tree growing'.
And I agree,the cultivation of bonsai trees is not art.It can be considered a craft.
There are those who grow bonsai material and others who cultivate a n d
style them.Where are the designers (assumed artists)?The "Killer Trees"?
The "Extreme Technicians"?Walter Pall in the gallery coexhibiting with a top American sculptor?Cheng,Kimura doing their magic?The "Trees with
Soul"?
They are all left out or were not properly presented in the argumentation.
Second,the council jumps from "Bonsai growing" right to the exhibition of
bonsai trees.
I even agree with that point,meaning not all bonsai exhibited are considered art.
I believe that the British bonsai "artists"were trying to apply for the status
in a properly prepaired and well planned manner.It would have been very important and supportive for the issue to express bonsai as a global
development including some historical background which roots back into
ancient art.
"It is not over yet til the fat lady sings.."...
Regards,
dorothy

Perhaps we should start building our own"Bonsai Art Museums"(statewide) and add some space for contemporary artists in a rental gallery to fund the place..
Everybody would be pleased!?
Regards,
dorothy

This is interesting, but not unusual.
A few days ago I was being interviewed on Japanese TV with Saburo Kato. He invited me to be part of this event. I mentioned that he was probably the only individual to have attened every National Bonsai Exhibition (Kokfu-ten) here in Japan. He said, probably he was and in the beginning the Japanese art galleries did NOT want to include bonsai because of the smelly fertilizer and mess with the soil and water.
It seems as though now about 70 years later they have changed their mind, OR the professional bonsai artists have convinced them that bonsai is an art form.
See, this even happens in Japan.
Bill