[NEohioPAL] Keep Government out of the Arts

[M.A.B.]

If you're going to go begging anyone for money, how is the government
telling you what you can AND CAN'T do with their lump of money any
different than a private foundation telling you what you can AND CAN'T
do with their lump of money?

Does taking funding from the gubment with usage stipulations some
special mysterious uber dark dread sort of censorship that DOESN'T
exist when a philanthropic organization puts the exact same sort of
stipulations on their grant?

A nation without creative expression is not a culture; it's little
more than a horribly frustrated breeding population.

If you want full creative license, not even slave to the box office,
be a wage slave 40hrs/wk so that you can afford to be creative 100%
out of your own pocket.  There are a lot of people who do exactly
that.  Many thousands of them are affectionately called Burners.

If you want to earn a living SOLELY within the arts, unless you choose
the path of self-subsistence off of the grid, you will always be AT
LEAST PARTLY slave to what the patrons want.  You have to pick your
battles.

If the current stimulus package can create new jobs in the arts,
giving berth for programs that encourage Americans to express
themselves creatively, IMNSHO: I see that being just as valuable --
and being in a locale with public transit -- potentially even more
valuable than throwing more money into "heavy" industries that shriek
when asked to "get with the times".

Funding the arts, whether by government, by private foundations, or by
tickets at the box office / sales at the local gallery / etc. is
crucial.  I know a LOT of people who would not mentally tolerate their
own wage slavery so long if such did not afford them the disposable
income to be creative however they please during their "non-working"
hours. (a number of them Burners)

We need programs to help people develop creative outlets, lest they
fall into destructive outlets.  Those programs need
appropriately-skilled employees.  There's your job creation!

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As simple as it can get: creativity breeds happiness.  Last I checked,
the Pursuit of Happiness is pretty important in the USA.

Like it or not, "government" has been "in the Arts" for a lot more
centuries than the USA has existed.  Somehow, somewhere, some barbaric
ruler some aeon long ago discovered that human beings are strangely
willing to tolerate really crappy circumstances if they can simply
find an outlet that affords them some happiness.

If you're looking for funding but you DON'T like the specific
stipulations on the gubment handout for the arts, drop by the
Foundation Center -- they have tomes of information about vast numbers
of grant writing organizations just itching to give money to somebody
who is willing to work under their various flavors of strict
stipulations.

~marie