Art and Politics: take DC for example

 

The Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the marvelously placed circular venue across the street...where you can walk toward a gentle passage leading you UNDER a street and within the main museum ahead (photo). Unlike (1/28/09) the latest 100% Republican vote AGAINST the NEA within the bailout recovery package and without the open minded approach to change needed in Washington, many out-of-touch Republicans are guaranteeing their end(goodbye Eric Cantor i.e.)in politics when the next election cycles. Life is cyclical, as are the seasons and the architecture of the Hirshhorn itself. However, when you return to the beginning, simply biting your own tail and learning NOTHING from this seems to be what makes the USA repeat mistakes, fail and beg the question: How did we get to this financial meltdown?

Artists, even before Picasso, have funded their efforts with or without the help of their politicians. Blood is the artist's fuel; vision is an artist's hope and few realize how art can affect change in life. Money is paper, sometimes the medium itself if you make collages. What's a US dollar worth anyway? It's worth MORE in Argentina where they are stuffing them under mattresses, a cautionary mode due to world economic reports. Japanese have always saved 17% or more of their income. Hi Ho.

As for thinking spending money on art is a luxury and adds nothing to our environment addresses why travel answers that question. How long ago was the Italian Renaissance? Even Rap Music marketed Machiavelli. How much public art was generated from this historic period of politics. How many of the textbooks U.S. public schools use contain no photographs of these forward thinking innovators which inspired our America culture? Try to sell anything without a visual image (unless you are a windbag like RUSH). You can't trim down the poster visual in your mind.

Every dime an artist earns returns immediately to the economy. Art is the known center of the visual universe. Every dime spent by our government to fund the arts comes back in growth in all areas of our society. Compared to the one-trillion figure being batted around by these soon to be extinct congress people the NEA is literally asking for a DIME!