On Thu, 12 Jan 1995 Eric Siegel <[log in to unmask]> said:
> What if the NEA and IMS were dissolved, and the Fed's made
> block grants to state arts agencies?
Eric and friends,
We must ask what is the difference between national and local support of
the arts, if any? I tend to think of national support as somehow
disembodied from the events and issues of local interests. When decisions
for funding are made on a national level, we tend to think of the resulting
agenda, no matter how rooted it is in local events and programs, as
addressed to national concerns and to issues of the discipline -- hence,
subject to the criticism of elitism. Reflexively, I see nothing wrong with
fostering arts on state and local levels, but would regret the resulting
loss of a national perspective and the loss of a national coordination of
themes and issues. But is this view correct? Does it hold up to analysis?
In the arts themselves, practioners and critics have often wrestled with
the notion of national versus regional styles. The more broadly aimed an
art form, the more universal it seems, and the more susceptible it is to
the criticism of non-relevance. The more finely focused an art form, the
more accessible it may be and the more susceptible it may be to the
criticism of being out of touch with larger audiences and mired in local
subjects and questions.
What does the study of the history of art tell us? (Not to use it as a
perscription for the future, please.) In my generation we were taught that
universal themes often came from the study of the particular, that local
artists, approaching local subjects (Michelangelo's Sistine Vault), the
Raft of the Medusa, the pediment of the Parthenon, etc. were able to
elevate their messages to the realm of the universal. We see the same in
the art of the political poster and other ephemera.
The great fear in "regionalism" is that it will foster development of a
backwater for self-serving and isolated practitioners. Is it possible that
recipients of state and local funds for the arts will foster an isolation
and a lack of creativity? Today, when everyone seems to be in touch with
everyone else, is it possible to ignore the national perspective when no
natitonal funding exists?
I don't have the answers to these questions. But if I've phrased them
correctly, it should be clear that the competing interests of "national"
versus "local" partisans may tug against each other for a chance to impose
its vision on an audience. This conflict -- between, let's say, the
macrocosmic forces and the microcosmic forces, I believe is a vital and
ultimately enriching phenomenon. The destruction of any single element in
this struggle may cripple the other. So I say, fund at the local and state
level -- by all means. But don't give up the chance to be the patron of a
national arts funding program.
One caveat. We draw a distinction between national support for the arts
and a national art. The NEA (as I understand it) has written into its
charter a method of protecting its projects from political influence. But
even in the best of circumstances it can never be fully guaranteed that the
power to dispose of grant monies will have no overall influence on the
direction of arts. It is naive, I guess, to believe that arts can evolve
devoid of such influences. After all, historically, he who has the money
calls the shots. Seen from another perspective, if you want to get that
grant, there are certain things you must do or say to convince the grantors
that they should place their money with you. These forces must tend to
focus the direction of the arts -- not as a funnel chanels liquids, but
rather as a sieve passes its contents selectively.
There is a camp that claims that political patronage is ultimately
destructive to the health of a national art form because it tends to exert
the kind of pull and selectivity described above. But I disagree, the very
nature of the notion of something "officially sanctioned" in a free society
will tend to foster its nemesis. I believe that in the West we still
sometimes respond to the Hegelian evolutionary Thesis -- Antithesis --
Synthesis. We must pray for patronage of all kinds, hoping to develop
camps of attractors and detractors.
=====
As I reviewed the above, I suddenly thought of "Big Brother," who financed
his own opposition.
______________________________________
Robert A. Baron
Museum Computer Consultant
P.O. Box 93, Larchmont, NY 10538
[log in to unmask]
|