Arts and State Arts Funding

So, as you know, Pennsylvania is idiotic and doesn't realize just how important funding the arts actually is.  Well, the problem of arts funding goes deeper than that:  Here's a blog post that talks about the Arts and how politicians use the miniscule funding for the arts as bugbears when they talk about "streamlining" the budget or to prove that they're "fiscally responsible".

PUBLIC-ART FUNDING IS A RED HERRING, PEOPLE. If we'd fined every politician who tried to use public art for his or her own gain in the last 20 years, we could have paid for art/music/dance/etc. teachers in public schools this whole time. Imagine!

The state spends about $2 million a year, out of an approximately $15 billion operating budget, on public art. Public-art spending accounts for .013 percent of the state's budget. Please ask your legislators to focus their time and money on fixing the other 99.987 percent of the budget. 

So, she's a little bit angry.  But it happens.  Doesn't make her point less applicable.

Also, if you head on over to The Playgoer, he has a nice little thread about Texas, and how they nearly outlawed Theater Lighting Designers.  Haha - idiotic Texans.