The Government of BC recently announced sweeping cuts to arts and culture programs throughout the province. These cuts fly in the face of pre-election messaging from the party, as well as ignoring a study the government itself commissioned finding that for every $1 invested in arts and culture, the government would see a return of $1.38 in tax revenue. (via [Spencer Herbert](http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/08/31/bc-arts-funding-cuts-gaming-grants.html)). What makes these cuts most significant is how out of sync they are with other line items from the Government’s [September Budget Update](http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2009_Sept_Update/). A fact that isn’t remotely apparent when wading through the densely opaque numbers provided by the Government. [Jer Thorp](http://blprnt.com/) has made a name for himself exploring and expressing complex systems and datasets, and in his recent [BC Budget Visualization](http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/bc-budget-visualizations) has done an incredible job of providing both context and commentary on what these cuts mean, and why they don’t make sense. I highly recommend reading through the entirety of Thorp’s [blprnt.blg](http://blog.blprnt.com/) (as I recently did) to get a sense of just how powerful a tool Information Design (and design in general) can be for decoding and contextualizing the world around us.