The Value of Public Funding in the Arts
The movement to provide public funding for the arts from federal, state and local resources began in earnest in the 1960’s as part of the ground swell of grass roots civic and civil promulgated by the Kennedy administration and implemented under the Johnson administration.
In current times, the Maine Arts Commission receives an appropriation from the state legislature and additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts on an annual basis. These funds are used to make grants to individual artists, for arts in education programs in schools and to supports arts programming for communities and arts organizations.
Trends have shifted over the past 40 years. Support of different kinds, to different sectors and representing different percentages has come and gone. And the public, both in Maine and on the national scene have at times applauded efforts with great enthusiasm and also waged cultural wars that nearly defeated any publicly-funded access to the arts. And yet, in 2008 the premise is still alive. All 50 states and many U.S. territories have legislatively sanctioned arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts, which has survived several attempts from factions in Congress to be eliminated, received an in increase in its budget for 2009.
Back in Maine, the commitment to provide assistance to build Maine cultural infrastructure has remained steadfast. Knowing that some barriers exist legally, what kind of grants do you think the Maine Arts Commission should make? How should state funding for the arts be prioritized?
Filed under: Grants/Development and
I believe that in these current times, with Maine’s dominant anti-business climate working against the arts, that there needs to be a focus from the MAC on our larger cultural institutions as its top priority.
Many of our treasured institutions are having an especially hard time securing private funding to the levels they need, particularly from corporate sources.
The larger organizations … ballet companies, theatre companies, symphony orchestras, choruses, cultural centers, etc. support the smaller arts in so many ways (partnerships, seeding, profile, in-kind), and their strength is in the best interest of everyone, large and small.
Having grants cycles that are more frequent, rather than only annual, and offering funding for “innovative stability efforts” might help fill the need, too.
I also feel that we have an anti-business climate in Maine but I don’t understand how you connect that with the arts. Many of the arts take the form of non-profit organizations. The current Maine government administration supports non-profits, if not small free enterprise businesses
Pre-Robert Maplethorp, NEA grants used to be given to individuals but now they go to organizations that distribute the grants, which means a lot of the grant money probably goes to management.
I would like to see the Maine Arts Commission fsupport non-juried shows on a regular basis, at least four times a year, in various locations around the state. Non-juried shows are the direct expression of the artists of Maine and make showing an artist’s work in a public format more accessible. Non-juried shows are a direct and open dialogue of artists.
Less of the funding would have to go to the bureaucracy and so more could go to serving the community of artists. Furthermore, many of the Maine art collectors are not the high-end ultra wealthy collectors found in cosmopolitan areas A middle-class collector is intrinsic to the Maine economy. These collectors buy what they like. Artists deserve to have their work exposed to this market on the open basis that non-juried shows provide.
Mackenzie, I completely agree. Trickle down works about as well with artists as it does with the economy in general. As Maine considers itself a center for visual artists, promoting us with well-publicized regional exhibits would foster enthusiasm for less well known, but talented Maine artists.
Glad to hear another voice in support of the non-juried show.”Trickle down” has been the term of choice in my mind for quite some time for the governor’s Richard Florida-inspired creative economy initiative. When the creative economy was a list serve for all the people, it was impossible not to notice that every submission that got by our government “jury” credited Richard Florida, and only Richard Florida, and Florida is not even a Maine author. I haven’t seen Richard Florida mentioned lately though, which is not missed by this Mainer.
I have mentioned before that The Boothbay Art Foundation has remained an un-juried show, thanks in no small part to June Rose, The Foundation gallery manager, who comes from a long established Maine family. This year the foundation has really blossomed with an outburst of creative energy and imagination and many different styles. Unlike the many other non-profit organizations, which the Boothbay Region hosts, the Boothbay Region Art Foundation does not support itself through fundraisers, but through sales of the work that it exhibits and so there is a healthy community of artists and collectors, many of them of the middle classes.
I think the visual art community can learn something from shows like American Idol and Nashville Star, which have a panel of successful professionals who voice their opinions, but the deciding vote is by the voice of the people. This is also the way a free market economy works, and the way non-juried shows work, in the event that the non-juried shows also offer work for sale. And of course there is nothing that encourages and enables an artist more than selling their work.
Regarding the American Idol-Nashville Star model.
If the Maine Arts Commission sponsered regular non-juried shows, MAC would likely have the influence to get the media to review the shows,The non-juried shows could incorporate a public vote, with the winners receiving awards and also featuring a yearly exhibit of the winners work, and eventually a winner who receives a one person show.
I noticed my website has a typo. It doesn’t appear in my account and so this is just an attempt to see if I can correct it here.it should read http://www.andersenstudio.com