Ross Weeks's electrons arrived as:

>Of course, this is an idealistic and impractical way of viewing the
>Guliania/Helms/etc. agenda for the arts.  The Constitution has no provision
>that encourages government financial support for cultural expression.  The
>decision to provide such support has been, from the start, a political
>initiative (pork barrel in many cases).

Ross -

I agree it is political -- the recognition of which only exposes a lot of
disingenuous moral posturing that goes on.  But for purposes of
discourse, using what the Constitution says as a means of critically
examining social behavior, even behavior not directly named by the
Constitution but only implicated by it, is neither idealistic nor
impractical.  In the matter of public opinion and attitudes (which is
what this "battle" is mostly about!), it can and often does have an
effect.  And once the fray rises beyond rhetoric and enters the courts,
such implications are certainly relevant.  Public money for the arts is,
in effect, a conscious and proactive funding of the 1st amendment's
intent.  The government cannot say, on the one hand, that minority
expression is so important to a healthy intellectual economy that it is
protected by law against oppression by the majority, and on the other
hand take money from everyone and then deny its use to those viewpoints
with which the majority disagrees.  Public arts funding is the currency
with which the 1st amendment grinds out its freedoms -- they are
inseperable.

>> Public funding for "self expression," on the other hand, represents. . .
>>. the public.  "The public" doesn't mean one group or another --  it
>> means EVERYONE.  In a society that values freedom of expression, it MUST
>> mean everyone -- or we surrender to the tyranny of the majority --
>> exactly what the 1st amendment seeks admirably to avoid.  You cannot
>> separate the intent of the 1st Amendment from the responsibility that
>> public funding has when it supports the expression of ideas -- they are
>> inextricably linked and mutually dependent.


     ______________________________________________________________
     S t e p h e n   N o w l i n     V.P., Director,
                                     Williamson Gallery

                                     Creative Director, ACCD online
     Art Center College of Design    www.artcenter.edu
     ______________________________________________________________

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