Funding for the Arts

"Migrant Mother," Dorothea Lange, 1936)

Imagine a world without color. Life without Art. 

The best slogan I ever read about Art:

ART

You can't spell SMART without it

Follow this link to MSNBC where Chris Matthews interviews Kevin Spacey about budget cuts to the Arts. Sent to me from the Media department at Dallas Theological Seminary, keeping me posted because I received a degree in Media and Communication from DTS, please take time to consider this topic.

My daughter teaches choir in high school in an area deprived of advantages, yet the school district still offers arts education classes in music, band and art. 

Arts provide a lifeline to people trapped in poverty, if nothing else, by helping individuals envision a way out.

Ordinarily, I avoid issue-driven policy. As the political climate grows increasingly heated over budget debates, choosing ideological battles becomes increasingly important. Is this another Civil War?

A lot of what gets funded in the Arts stinks, but the culture needs the Arts more than it realizes, for one thing, to maintain our sense of shared history and encourage civil dialogue. This article in Psychology Today discusses a number of other benefits.