An assault on the arts

The US National Endowment for the Arts was one of the great creations of the 1960s, when US presidents like John F. Kennedy valued the arts. Currently, after decades of cuts and opposition, its annual budget has been reduced to US$148 million, compared with the $183.4 million the Australia Council for the Arts receives. Now the NEA, like the National Endowment for the Humanities, is threatened with abolition. Thomas P. Campbell, director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, had a strong op. ed. piece in The New York Times. He wrote: ‘I fear that this current call to abolish the NEA is the beginning of a new assault on artistic activity ... Eliminating the NEA would in essence eliminate investment by the American government in the curiosity and intelligence of its citizens.’ Read the full article on the New York Times website.

As one website comment asserts: ‘If the current regime has its way, the only artists that'll be actively supported by the government are con artists’.