Does art only have merit if it is financially successful? Robert Mapplethorpe was a wildly successful artist financially. I’m not saying I love the NEA, it’s probably not a thing I want the federal government to be a part of, and so long as we have a federal government with an NEA, I’d at least like more of the grant awards to be decided at a more local level. But we could liquidate the NEA tomorrow, shift the entire budget to the southern border wall, and it would only get 20 feet longer before funds had dried up.
It’s like if you were trying to lose weight and asked for a banana split, hold the sprinkles.
Some of the most iconic American Art in the 20th century was paid for by Roosevelt’s WPA, and wouldn’t exist otherwise. You can approve of the New Deal or not, but the artistic legacy of the WPA is now priceless.
Does art only have merit if it is financially successful? Robert Mapplethorpe was a wildly successful artist financially. I’m not saying I love the NEA, it’s probably not a thing I want the federal government to be a part of, and so long as we have a federal government with an NEA, I’d at least like more of the grant awards to be decided at a more local level. But we could liquidate the NEA tomorrow, shift the entire budget to the southern border wall, and it would only get 20 feet longer before funds had dried up.
It’s like if you were trying to lose weight and asked for a banana split, hold the sprinkles.
Some of the most iconic American Art in the 20th century was paid for by Roosevelt’s WPA, and wouldn’t exist otherwise. You can approve of the New Deal or not, but the artistic legacy of the WPA is now priceless.