Public Funding of Art
Received last night.
Dear Ester:
Alas, this is my second attempt to respond to your last message. Apparently,
I was writing to slowly for my service provider. It inquired whether I wanted
to stay online, and despite my assurance that I did, I was promptly
disconnected--losing my draft in the process.
What I was writing about was your initial discussion of art and funding, as
represented by the Brooklyn Museum dispute. Frankly, I sidestepped the issue
because I am of a very mixed mind about the whole thing. On the one hand, I
treasure the principle that artists should be able to express themselves in
relatively unrestrained fashion. On the other, I have concern about public
funding of art. I am uncertain about the extent to which public funds should be
used to fund art--whether that art be kitsch or politically controversial
statements.
Likewise, I am perplexed by public funding of churches to provide certain
kinds of social or other kinds of public services. In each case my concern is
not just on the impact on the public or public policy but also about the impact
on artists or the church. Is it possible that the public funding of art or
church social services (or schooling) has a deleterious impact on their
integrity? Moreover, should the state be funding activities that the general
public finds offensive or services that compete with public services? As I
noted above, I find myself really quite confused in each case. School vouchers,
alternative schools, charter schools, and church schools all compete with
public schools and probably challenge public schools to improve. Moreover, such
school programs offer the working class and the poor the same opportunities
that the wealthy have to send their children to alternative schools. Yet, it is
fair to ask whether the diversion of public funds from public schools weakens
and further threatens what was once a powerful institution of upward mobility
for the poor and immigrants.
I guess that pushed to the wall, I would choose school choice, if only
because schools have suffered from the same kind of stifling bureaucratic
climate that has so hindered so many public services. Yet --.
So, as you note this is an awfully late breakfast. Tomorrow, my response
will be at breakfast.
Be well,
George
