The Obama Art Scorecard
Posted by ben on 25 Mar 2009 at 09:40 am | Tagged as: arts organizations, politics
The New York Times has a good overview of changes in arts policy and funding in the new Obama administration. This is the first I’d heard of the new White House arts adviser position, which seems similar to an idea Tyler Green proposed just after the inauguration. The arts adviser may have a bit less scope than Green envisioned, however. From the Times:
Mr. Ivey, who led the transition team devoted to the arts and recently met with Mr. Dale, said he expected the White House position to involve coordinating the work of the [National Endowment for the Arts], the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Now here’s just one paragraph from Green’s intelligent discussion of the arts adviser he hoped for:
For example, in the wake of the No Child Left Behind law, arts education in America’s public schools has become a federal issue. There are internationally important arts treasures on government land, including Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah and Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota. Both face conservation issues. American museum directors increasingly run into thorny diplomatic issues while negotiating the potential return of antiquities to their countries of origin, but they have no place in the federal government with which to consult even though there are diplomatic implications to their decisions.
This would take someone with quite a bit more authority than just coordinating NEA, NEH, and IMLS. But we can hope that with time this adviser could become responsible for helping non-arts-specific agencies such as the Dept of Education, Pentagon and the National Park Service deal with tricky art-related issues that fall into their laps.
Much of the rest of the article deals with funding, pointing out that although Obama and the Democrats found $50 million for the NEA in the stimulus bill, and another $10 million in the omnibus spending bill, its funding is still lower than it was in 1992 (when it received $172 million).
There’s also the issue of not having appointed a chairman to the NEA, but this is a problem that is hardly specific to that agency; the Obama administration has been plagued with empty desks throughout numerous agencies, most troublingly the Treasury.
One thing not mentioned in the article is the immense quantity of bad art Obama is inspiring.
1. ArtPace to debut Sunday – Paris, N.Y., S.A. artists to be featured
January 13, 1995 Page (457 Words)
Dan R. Goddard Express-News Arts Writer San Antonio Express-News
ArtPace, the new home for the Pace Roberts Foundation for Contemporary Art, will have its grand opening from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday with an exhibit featuring Annette Messager of Paris, Felix Gonzales-Torres of New York and Jesse Amado of San Antonio.
The 1920s-vintage car dealership at 445 N. Main Ave. has been renovated by Lake/Flato Architects and contains three studios, two apartments, a woodworking shop, offices for the foundation and other support facilities for visiting artists….
more on prez art
http://justinelai.com/statement.html
nice comments, nice article, 172 mill in ‘92 was worth more back than because of the inflation of the dollar today.
obama ain’t gonna help us, he got bigger fish to fry, taking all that heat from his banker bailout scam. can you believe that shit? he swindled the tax payers to support the stim package, and than what do the bankers do with that money? million dollar bonuses to top execs! plus other bull shit.
that ass hole has done nothing but lie. all that hope has crashed landed like wall street.
obama is a puppet. obama is a liar. like george bush and bill clinton. all they do is lie. they are manchurian candidates. they are scripted politicians.
Only way to win at roulette is using a System
Q: the only way to defecate?
A: is using a system
I want to play the role of someone who uses artistic intuition alone to select objects which come from totally different cultures, … But obviously, I also want to incorporate into that process the critical thinking which contemporary anthropology provides on the problem of ethnocentrism, the relativity of culture, and intercultural relations.