Whose Art?

There was some recent political wrangling over the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and whether it should be a funding item of the federal government. Republicans say no. Democrats say yes. It is a bargaining chip in the greatest show on Earth: "Who wants to be a Partisan Douchebag?".

However, I think that the time has come to revolutionize the NEA. It's current incarnation has to go. I don't say this because I dislike art. Or because I want to save money in the budget (there are a lot better ways to save money). But because it subsidizes a certain kind of art at the expense of other kinds. And unfortunately, the kind that it subsidizes is archaic. It is making bad choices about spending money.

As far as I can tell, the NEA subsidizes what is generally referred to as classical art; painting, sculpture, orchestral & other classical styles of music, poetry, literature, theatre, etc. And while I think that kind of art is great, it is not popular. Not in our country. Not in very many other countries either. I enjoy the theatre, but I enjoy movies more. I enjoy painting on canvas, but I enjoy digital paintings more. I enjoy sculpture, but I enjoy sleek modern industrial design more.

But this is not about me. Even if I liked those arts, I shouldn't get government funding for my pet art projects. Or about popularity really. Movies are popular. They don't need government funding either.

The question of government funding for the arts comes down to cultural dominance. It is in the interests of the State / the Government / the Nation to have OUR vision projected out into the world. Hollywood has been the greatest diplomat the United States has ever had, even at it's worst. Culture is the most important export of the United States. And NEA funding does essentially nothing to further that goal. The NEA funds last century's art forms. It doesn't move us forward into the future.

So if we are going to subsidize art, I feel that we must do so in a way that puts our people on the forefront of technological change and modern sensibilities. We need to be creating scholarships for students to study digital design techniques, providing tablet PCs for students to draw on, put Photoshop in every classroom, put every high school kid through a web design class, we need camps where kids learn about video game design, stuff like that. We need to be using modern tools to make modern forms of art.

Kids are passionate about art. Just not the art we are trying to sell to them.

We need to dump the Band/Orchestra model and teach kids how to play contemporary music someone might actually be interested in listening to. We need to dump the art class full of oily paints and pottery kilns and replace it with a digital studio to let them create fantastic movies and render CGI. We need less Shakespeare and Beethoven. We need more Industrial Light and Magic.

And if the NEA cannot be reformed to fit this vision of the future of art, it needs to fall by the wayside as well. The future is now. Put up or shut up.