They’re a coming -- pitchforks and torches, so all you artsy folks better take cover, crowd on to small quiet campuses or look to other occupations interested in fluffy degrees. The art racket is busted, subsidies shrinking, cultural enclaves shutting down. They’ve decided to slash and burn, make way for new growth, and art’s copy planet of mutual affirmations is in the way. It isn’t me saying this, everyone with income derived in some form from government largesse, grants and subsidies and tax credits, on and on, feels those shutters down the spine just watching the evening news.
Try to imagine what it would be like if the NEA were suddenly yanked out by the roots to buy more guns, to build a wall, and on top of that congress restructures the tax code, lower rates for the rich but with no deductions for donating to museums, such as that -- the money hose runs dry. Foundations and non-profits would deflate and pass out notices, public art would cease to educate, and an elitist and totally dependent industry bites the dust, so sad. Seems unlikely to happen, yet still might be worth considering since it’s in the proposed budget. What would happen to art?
Well guess it would just fade away, lost in a carnival midway of advertising and war footage, movie trailers and YouTube, the whole idea reduced to posters and celebrity photographs, why does this sound so familiar, anyway that’s all we’d have. On the other hand, a new movement might arise, a populist awakening from among a harried general population, reduced to statistics by giant algorithms, battened on by bots unctuously feigning concern while really not caring at all. They’re the ones who have to take an interest if art is to become a functional element in the broader society, a means of expression and signifier of conviction for home and office, and a source of enduring mental nourishment and cumulative pleasure and satisfaction that gains value and weight with age.
Try to imagine what it would be like if the NEA were suddenly yanked out by the roots to buy more guns, to build a wall, and on top of that congress restructures the tax code, lower rates for the rich but with no deductions for donating to museums, such as that -- the money hose runs dry. Foundations and non-profits would deflate and pass out notices, public art would cease to educate, and an elitist and totally dependent industry bites the dust, so sad. Seems unlikely to happen, yet still might be worth considering since it’s in the proposed budget. What would happen to art?
Well guess it would just fade away, lost in a carnival midway of advertising and war footage, movie trailers and YouTube, the whole idea reduced to posters and celebrity photographs, why does this sound so familiar, anyway that’s all we’d have. On the other hand, a new movement might arise, a populist awakening from among a harried general population, reduced to statistics by giant algorithms, battened on by bots unctuously feigning concern while really not caring at all. They’re the ones who have to take an interest if art is to become a functional element in the broader society, a means of expression and signifier of conviction for home and office, and a source of enduring mental nourishment and cumulative pleasure and satisfaction that gains value and weight with age.
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