What is our position? This is the question. It is the question I arrived at after reading several diaries and their respective comment threads regarding support for the Arts. Most of the recent diaries are concerned with funding for the Arts due to the inclusion/exclusion and the re-inclusion of funding for the NEA in the economic stimulus package recently passed by Congress. Funding as a focal point of discussion in regards to the Arts is not really surprising given recent economic events. What was surprising was the response to those diaries and my subsequent conclusion that, right now, we progressives do NOT have a defined position in regards to the Arts.
More after the jump ....
To be clear, I am nowhere near a longtime kossack. I had run across the site in the past and began to frequent Dailykos in the weeks running up to the recent Presidential election. I have stayed because the writing is good, the discussion is informative and can be thoughtful, the links are good and the news is phenomenally ahead of the curve. Because of Dailykos, I feel like I really do understand what is happening politically in this country, better than I have at any other time in my life. Up until now I have been a lurker because there are so many others here who are so much better at writing and they are infinitely more informed than I am. They said it better than I ever could hope to. Therefore, unless I could add something of substance, lurking was as far as I would go.
I was so engrossed in the general politics that the politics surrounding Art never crossed my mind. Then I ran across a diary concerning art and I thought "Well, this is something I can write about". In fact, I wanted badly to comment on a specific diary and could not because I was not registered. Registration ensued and then the waiting period. Meanwhile, I would lurk and read just a bit more.
This is probably not a surprise to anyone but, this issue is dear to me as I am a practicing artist and have worked in the Arts my entire life. I have opinions when it comes to art and probably more than my share of those opinions. More importantly though, I feel like the discussion of this issue is something I can contribute to and that contribution has good chance of being more than just more net noise. So, here goes .....
It became clear to me that this issue is way off of the radar. The few diaries concerning art would only garner a bit of discussion and then sink into obscurity. I guess there is a good argument why this is so; the state of the nation has spiraled far out of control. There are a myriad of seriously pressing issues concerning this country, it's leadership and the world in general. The logical response is "Art? Yer kidding, right?"
Just as in the overall culture, opinions about art and what to do about it (and in support of it) vary greatly. In fact, the responses in regards to funding issues were many-faceted. We should fund art and we shouldn't. The Arts had an impact in our economy and they didn't. The Arts were important and they weren't. I was shocked however, at how far to the right many of the opinions expressed really were. I could understand why it might not be immediately apparent that the Arts had a significant impact in the economy. What I did not expect were the people arguing that the Federal government should not fund the Arts at all. Then I saw posts claiming that "the free market" would determine what art and art institutions were viable. Of course, it was not long before the posts espousing value judgments appeared. It was then that I saw how far we had slipped.
The argument seems to generally fall into two categories; quantitative and qualitative value. It breaks down as follows:
Quantitative:
How much do we get back from our spending on the Arts? Do we get money back? Do we get jobs? Is the art that we are left with monetarily valuable?
Qualitative:
Does the art improve our lives? Does it improve our communities? Are we improved as people? Can we live without it or does not having art diminish us?
There are other perspectives on this issue. There have been several recent diaries that go into specifics that I will not recount and here are two particularly good ones:
Stimulus Art: What Obama Can Use from Roosevelt's WPA
Daily Kos Open Thread for Night Owls, Early Birds & Expats
Just to be fair, here is the opposition argument:
The Case Against Federal Funding of the Arts
As I said, the arguments are all over the map. It is obvious though, that there is no longer a roughly agreed upon progressive position concerning the Arts. This seemed odd to me. It also is a serious deficiency in the platform. The question is why? How did we get here?
The Arts are always the first thing to go when it comes to a budget crunch, followed closely by mass transit (?!?!?) (probably because not everyone uses it) and then I would say Welfare, social services and public health, because these things are expensive and, again, not everyone uses them at a given time. Therefore, someone always argues that we can do away with these things first. Looking at them in a list gives me reason to pause.
Yet, most people really don't believe we can do completely without the Arts. Arguments against support are almost always qualified to one extent or another. As a culture, we want it both ways; we want art but we don't want to pay for it. We certainly don't want any controversy and we just don't really like to look in the mirror that art holds up to us. After all, who wants to pay to be made to feel uncomfortable?
I think, though, the reasons are bit deeper than a lack of understanding of the value of the Arts. There is a long rooted history of undervaluing intellectual pursuits in the United States. For a really great read on this subject, I would refer you to "The Age of American Unreason" by Susan Jacoby. The most recent and serious damage was done with the attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts during the culture wars of the 1980's. It is almost as if we have given up this terrain to the Right Wingers; it is just too hard and there are no easy answers so, let's not even go there. It was argued to me that "we just open ourselves up to an attack if we support art that is controversial. Then we lose ground on a really important issue.". We have thrown in the towel.
My retort is that this IS a serious issue. We just need to look around and ask "What have we given up?". There is ample evidence left over from the money spent during the WPA years. Arguably, due to Federal Arts investment from the WPA followed by emigration from Europe during World War II, the center of Western art production shifted to the United States in the mid-twentieth century. The home of High Modernism was here. What remains from that investment in the Arts is wide ranging and has often been cited; public buildings, parks, sculpture, National monuments, murals, local theater and symphonies. Then there are the archives, photographic, audio and others. We still have much of this legacy but most are not being replenished and many of these things are in disrepair. Some are limping along and others have been lost forever. Local arts organizations are often surviving hand to mouth, only a bad month or so away from ceasing to exist.
Now, I don't suggest that the U.S. could once again become the art center of the world. I am not trying to reclaim the past. But, I don't think re-upping this investment would hurt. I think that we have shorted support for the Arts long enough and our culture has suffered for it. In many ways, artists face the same issues that other American workers face; Our incomes have declined. We have serious issues with health care. Competition from overseas production and cheap labor has devastated high craft production in the U.S. Not many ever consider what the effect of Ikea imports is on local American Art potters. Should we really allow "the free market" to squeeze this tradition out of existence? I have even seen the catalog for a mail-order "art" company where one can order handmade art objects, pre-framed and have them shipped to your door. Of course, this can only loosely be called "art" but, you know these things are all made by hand and they are not made here. I would not go so far as to argue for protectionism but, this is exactly the same problem of cheap labor produced goods being imported by large companies at the expense of long term sustainability that the American worker faces elsewhere in our society.
At the very least, it is certainly time to examine what the "plank in the progressive platform" is concerning the Arts. At the moment, I have no idea where we stand. If we don't know where we stand and if the Presidents administration is a "bottom up" administration, how can he know what we expect his position to be? It is up to us to let him know.
I guess this diary is a call to examine and redefine our position. It is time to push back against the culture wars. I would argue for a much more liberal and clearly defined position of support for the Arts. I like the idea of a secretary position for the Arts, someone who can clarify what the position is and what the Nations needs are. We lag far behind other Industrialized nations in financial support for the Arts.
I would suggest boosting the support to 1 billion dollars, a nice, round number. Or, even better, model the support after the "1% for Arts" program that a number of States and municipalities have adopted over the years. Expanding this idea to the National stage would do wonders for the Arts in the U.S. How about pegging the support for the Arts to the military expenditures in the U.S. budget? Support for the Arts in the United States is equal to 1 percent of the Federal budget allocated to the military. When defense spending goes up, so does spending on the Arts. If we can afford to destroy, we can certainly afford to create. This would certainly be a first step in changing how we are seen in the eyes of the rest of the world. I would also suggest that aesthetic criteria be expressly written out of the legislation; no value judgments, just monetary support. These two actions would constitute extremely enlightened viewpoints and an attempt to lead once more.
I hope to begin to pull these various threads together in the future. I would like to try and do a semi-regular posting of what is going on in regards to the Arts and the politics surrounding them. What do you think? How can we make this better? We begin by asking these questions and kicking around what the answers could and should be. Thanks for your time and attention.