Kushner for Bush?
The Angels in America author isn't likely to overlook his well-publicized positions on healthcare, Iraq, and taxes when he goes to the voting booth this fall. But one of his most cherished causes, National Endowment for the Arts funding, has found a fellow champion in the same administration he is not alone in despising. Dana Gioia, the White House's NEA chief, recently made the case before Congress for boosting federal arts funding by a whopping $18 million (that's almost 20%). This is on top of the Shakespeare in American Communities initiative Mr. Ashworth mentions below. Dubya isn't exactly, er, beloved among the artistic community, but his administration has inarguably done more for the arts--and particularly theater--than any since, well, Nixon's.
Would John Kerry go even further than Bush? At present, it's not obvious that he would. The senator pledged last week to cap spending on everything but defense and education and pass a $450+ billion health care package and cut taxes for the middle-class. If he kept to his pledge--especially the part about spending caps--a President Kerry would have little room to increase outlays for a constituency as dim-voiced as the NEA. The current president spends as recklessly as he wishes and is under no such constraints.
I'm not telling anyone who to vote for. Arts funding matters to me, but it frankly doesn't make even the top five of my priorities in choosing a candidate. I hope there are plenty of other artistic types who feel the same way. But it's fascinating how, in an environment where political dominance means claiming the center, it took a Democrat to "end welfare as we know it" and a Republican to bolster the NEA.
Posted by Scott Reynolds at April 13, 2004 10:44 PM
Comments
I notice a long article in the Sept 7 New York Times about Dana Gioia and the NEA changes Scott mentions: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/arts/07gioi.html While not without his critics, Mr Gioia has sought common ground and found success with former NEA detractors.
No timely events are mentioned in this Times article. One wonders if the motivation for this article, then, was that Bruce Weber was browsing the web and got inspired for his next story by our blog entry?
Posted by: Kevin Ashworth at December 4, 2004 2:51 PM
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