Art is to speak to people’s souls and minds so all kinds of new productions and reproductions are a natural outcome of people’s need to approach and understand art in the way that covers their personal questions on the mysteries of their existence, of their life, of their mortal journey. The aim of this essay is to present you with an answer to a relatively recent question which has risen in the field of Art and is on the issue of funding Art in the United States. How should the performing arts be funded in the United States? Is it important for the American government to provide financial support for the performing arts?
Berger (1972) has stated that ‘A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far less free to choose and to act as a people or class than one that has been able to situate itself in history’. Taking these words by Berger into consideration which were stated by him in his effort to prove the political aspect lying in the field of Art, one could also use these words as a motivation on starting thinking on the importance of Art. Is Art something which indeed holds a very important role in one’s position in his/her present? Is Art a significant factor holding its own valuable share in one’s prosperity? Is Art a field of top priority for a government’s budget and internal policy?
Art can be identified as the inner need of human mortality to prove itself eternal and deny its nature. It is simply a way of humans to leave their mark to the forthcoming generations. But Art is a lot more than simply that. If one keeps in mind how the field of Art provides people with the opportunity to express freely themselves or to fall into the trap of taking advantage of art so that masses of people can be drawn to specific beliefs or actions, then it is easily perceived that Art is an aspect of humans’ lives which is characterized by not only clearly individual but also political nature. Therefore, automatically Art turns from a clearly individual issue to a common, public one which draws people’s attention and causes lots of heated debate.
Art in its forms has appeared lots of times to have been used in such a way that it can conquer people’s minds or convince them towards something particular.
Apart from all the individual aspects involved in the artistic creation, there is an aspect of financial and economic nature which goes deep down to the theme of how Art is supposed to exist, operate and service people. Art is by all means a way of taking people’s thought one step forward and of contributing to their emotional evolution. Still there are so many people even nowadays who seem to neglect the significance of art in either the personal or the common welfare of a society.
As a result, Art has gone under lots of criticism as far as its representatives are concerned, its messages and its ways of being expressed in combination with the messages it is supposed to put across to people. Things become even worse if one thinks of the multiplicity lying in each artistic production. At first level, multiplicity can be seen as the ideal sought by every artist. The universe consists of multiple levels, elements, ideas, thoughts, theories. The universe is multiple in the sense that it is too complicated or at least it seems like it is. So if art is to be a tool used by artists in order to depict the sense and the meaning of the Universe, then Art is by virtue multiple. All artistic productions are created within this context of multiplicity by their artists and at the same time they are interpreted in multiple ways by their receivers, that is their audience. Art expresses artists’ multiple thoughts, multiple theories and experiences. Then in a deeper level Art awakens the multiplicity lying in each individual.
And if one holds in mind that the psychological world of each person, the soul of each person has multiple levels with the subconscious consisting of so many deep secrets, unrevealed and even unknown, untouched inner areas, then it is easily perceived that Art can work towards helping people, one by one individually, to get to know themselves better. Besides, each person is a miniature of the universe carrying within his / her soul the mystery of life which is a complexity by virtue. So Art once more is a tool in artists’ hands to write, to picture, to draw, to direct, to synthesize humans’ individual complexity.
Each one performing or enjoying art is a traveler to multiple levels who manages to fight against the feeling of isolation or loneliness that is generated by the dreadful sense of the universe being infinite.
Beyond any shadow of a doubt Art is irreplaceable and the quality in one’s life is dependent on his/her relationship to art, in any of its forms, either it is literature, sculpture, theatre, cinema, painting, or any other kind of traditional or modern forms.
So the arising question on whether Art performance should be funded by the government or not is seen once addressed to people under the perspective of what the top priorities for a governmental policy ought to be.
The specific question of this essay does not address the citizens of any country but it is on the governmental policy and art performance of the United States, so the governmental policy and existing situation in the United States ought to be taken into consideration. Since United States is foremost the country which gave birth to the worldwide myth of the American dream which motivated thousands and thousands of people to immigrate to the United States looking for their own chance to make their dreams come true, then the answer to the above mentioned question is made even more complex.
United States is not a small country. It is a wide multicultural environment which due to its range and geographical size as well as its population, deals with any kind of problem either of social or financial nature much more intensely than any other country of smaller sizes. Therefore the multicultural profile of the United States, the existing problems of poverty, high taxes, great gaps between social classes, as well as the existence of other social problems, - which unfortunately seem to be common social issues existing in all countries on the threshold of nowadays’ great technological and scientific development - lead to a great conflict as far as the funding of art performances is concerned. Art funding from one hand seems to be underestimated or looked down. On the other hand there are those who seem to put more emphasis on art’s invaluable contribution to people’s lives as analyzed above.
Conclusion
Any kind of social issue of great concern needs to be treated in such a way that the best solution and treatment is to be found and applied. The certainty is that art should be funded because culture is what elevates human existence to finding its meaning and scope in life. There are lots of alternative ways to be explored in the field of exploring the field of funding Art. Art ought not be the responsibility of a government’s budget but the funding of art could be allocated to both public and private factors. In such a way funding could be seen under a new perspective, as an action of social contribution to the common wealth.
Works Cited
John Berger, ‘Ways of Seeing’, British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 1972, retrieved from http://ramsites.net/~whitemm2/304/pages/waysofseeing1.pdf
Szanto, Andras, (2010), Funding : the state of art, The Art Newspaper, Issue 214, June 2010 retrieved from http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Funding-the-state-of-the-art-/20989
