Taking the NEA Out of the Stimulus Package
Over at Parabasis, Isaac quotes two Reps' opposition to the $50M for the NEA in the stimulus package:
I have highlighted the key sentence. There are TWO theatres in Indiana listed on the TCG website, both in Indianapolis, which is not in Pence's district. Jack Kingston is from Georgia, which has 15 TCG-listed theatres, most in Atlanta, none in his district. Both rightly see this money as likely to go to a few major metropolises, none of which they represent, most of which are probably centered in the Northeast or California. This is an illustration of the connection between artistic centralization and the weak legislative support for the NEA. Until the arts, and artists, decide that the rest of country is a worthwhile place to create art, no amount of huffing and puffing about Republican cretinism will have any effect. Time to wake up and smell the real coffee. This is too big of a country to have a centralized art scene.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) was typical of the opponents to the stimulus legislation who seized on the arts to discredit the overall package; he told the House chamber, “It included wasteful government spending that has nothing to do with creating jobs. As I asked on this floor last week, what does $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts have to do with creating jobs in Indiana?” Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) was even more emphatic, saying, “We have real people out of work right now and putting $50 million in the NEA and pretending that’s going to save jobs as opposed to putting $50 million in a road project is disingenuous.”
I have highlighted the key sentence. There are TWO theatres in Indiana listed on the TCG website, both in Indianapolis, which is not in Pence's district. Jack Kingston is from Georgia, which has 15 TCG-listed theatres, most in Atlanta, none in his district. Both rightly see this money as likely to go to a few major metropolises, none of which they represent, most of which are probably centered in the Northeast or California. This is an illustration of the connection between artistic centralization and the weak legislative support for the NEA. Until the arts, and artists, decide that the rest of country is a worthwhile place to create art, no amount of huffing and puffing about Republican cretinism will have any effect. Time to wake up and smell the real coffee. This is too big of a country to have a centralized art scene.
Comments
I doubt that you meant this post to support Pence and Kingston, so if the above paragraph implies that I thought that, I'm pretty sure that's not where you're coming from. I'm just wondering what you think should be done in the short term.
Seriously tho... Let me make two points... first off, your post and subsequent comment assume good faith on the part of people who are not good faith actors. They're simply trying to demagogue a bill so they can vote it down. The Republican Stimulus package is made up entirely of tax cuts. That's not, BTW, an exaggeration, it's actually only made up of tax cuts. Their version of a stim. bill is massive redistribution of wealth to the richest Americans. The congressional republicans actions have been so extreme that business leaders and Republican governors are starting to turn against them.
My second issue is this... there is no one component of the stimulus bill that will create economic activity everywhere. Some of it will work in some places, some of it will work in others. THis is a large, diverse country with large, diverse needs. (I believe that to be true w/r/t the arts as well, btw, which is why I've been a proponent of increased state-level arts funding with some portion of it coming from the federal gov't). I'm okay with a huge portion of that money not being spent in New York City or in any other city come to think of it. What's the matter with $50 million (less than 1% of the total bill) going to an industry that largely exists in urban areas? I think having the expectation that an elected representative from Indiana would understand that not all of the money is going to directly benefit his district in Indiana isn't unreasonable.
I totally support the broader point you're making here-- that the arts need to be present in more people's lives to be important to enough people to actually fight for. But absent more funding that's very unlikely to happen. It was Ford Foundation money with some Government coordination and support that created the regional theatre movement, after all, it didn't just come because a bunch of people got resentful of Sinclair Lewis and decided to do something about it.
http://nonprofiteer.net/2009/02/10/second-and-third-thoughts-about-public-funding-for-the-arts/
and b/t/w, I think if you could make your case without bashing ny, chi, or la, then this would not be true:
commenter after commenter have used the "that's just the way it's always been and ever shall be" trope.
Who in the theater doesn't want theater to be everywhere in the world all the time? But usually you were not capable of making your case without putting other cities down. Here's to a new era of Theater Ideas.
However, if art funding came from the state government, rather then federal, then each state could have it's own centralized art scenes.
I'm from baltimore, so my experience with art scenes’ is a bit limited to only Maryland art districts, but from what I have witness, the art here has been expanding in all types of mediums. Theater as defiantly taking some advancing steps with the various theaters that have been doing very new shows that are not all economically "safe” or "appealing". I guess in this resection, art has found a way to become popular again. I also believe that The Wire may have been beneficial as well.