At a time when municipalities are laying off firemen and cops, when legal aid is shutting down, when health and housing benefits are being withdrawn from the poor, non-profit arts organizations petition, demonstrate, and politically intimidate for more money. The cultural benefits they enumerate come from the creativity of people in the community who probably also work day jobs, while they get along quite nicely with just forty hours.
If the community is going to invest in art, more money needs to go to the artists. Instead it goes to organizations that are all overhead, doling out drabs to impose radical-chic agendas on artists seeking their recognition, any recognition, while keeping the audience at bay. Performers need community support to supplement ticket sales, but community response is part of the equation. Supporting visual art means looking at enough art to get to know the artists in your area, and buying some simple piece of original art, sometime – maybe a hand-made print or a watercolor. The money will go to a good cause, and you can keep the art.
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