One interesting note in an otherwise dull (read: Rihanna-less) Grammy Awards show last night (I don't really wanna hear the names Allison Krauss and Robert Plant ever again) was Neil Portnow, Pres and CEO of the Recording Academy, pretty baldly asking Obama to create the position of Secretary of the Arts, and asap. I thought the idea seemed pretty reasonable to ask of a pres who hired himself a chief of technology and has racked up a couple Grammys. However, hard at work this morning at a financial website, the editors disagreed that it was an important position to create, especially given the expenses of adding a new Cabinet position, and had me write about it from the other point of view. Finally seeing the upside to my curse of indecision, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense that there isn't a government-established and -run Department of the Arts. After all, how can art be that inspired if there are guidelines to follow and a staff to check in with?
It seems like having Arts be a part of the administration's Cabinet is a little like coloring inside the lines.
Anyway, I clearly see both sides to the argument here. More funding for the promotion and creation of arts would be fantastic. Art continuing down its thus far successful path of being a limitless form of expression that tends to flourish in times of economic hardship equals just as good.
SIGN THE PETITION TO GET OBAMA TO SELECT A SECRETARY OF THE ARTS: Here.
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1 comment:
i think a sec. of the arts is a load- who can say what is art? is art art? are we art? but seriously, it's a slippery slope
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