Oh, Berlusconi....

What Berlusconi gets away with in Italy would get a US President drawn, quartered, and the pieces burned. I love reading these articles because they're so funny and, in a way, alien. Also, seriously? Call girl bribes?

Google is charging people lots of money to advertise on my Blog to....no one.

I have made, via ad revenue, over the course of the 4-ish months I have been blogging, $0.06. That, my dear friends, is six cents. count them. *rolls eyes*. I don't even know why I bothered putting in the Monetize app.

But you know what's really awesome? That those links introduce me to new and cool things. Yeah, I clicked to go to a website of a foundation that interested me. Whee!

Reasons why I wish I was in Philadelphia this weekend

The Fringe!!

Not only is there the new Pig Iron show, but my friends are doing two shows: one comedy and one avant-garde theater, and then there's a Gonzales Concert Opera!!!!

omg omg omg.

And then I saw a picture of the Philly skyline and got a little homesick. Dammit.

My Post on the NEA got Hijacked by a More Important Issue

So, my "post rate" will probably be much more occasional, a factor of being a new employee in a very time intensive job that requires a humongously steep learning curve. I hope to regularly post once a week, with extra posts as time and enthusiasm allow.

So, now onto the big issue of the day. This story is the first post on Arts Journal, and it makes me 1) very sad and 2) very nervous and 3) not surprised at all.

Some background: The Obama administration invited a large number of prominent arts officials and rising artists to a conference call on how the Government and artists could "work together" on prominent issues of the day, and encouraging them to use their talents - essentially, "steering the art community toward creating art on the very issues that are currently under contentious national debate."

Anyone who either knows me or has read this blog knows that I am a huge fan of government subsidy for the arts. If you tell me that art (theater, painting, dance, etc.) is a form of personal expression, intended to express the inner soul of the artist, I will show you 500 examples of artists, both male and female (but mostly male) who relied extensively on Government patronage, or business patronage, or, heaven help me, religious patronage, and managed perfectly well to make beautiful, well-respected work that nevertheless endlessly pushed a strong, active agenda. And that is the way that art always has been and probably always will be.

In an ideal world, and with a perfect government, this is the way that government subsidy of the arts would work: the government would evaluate the potential of an artist applying for a grant, and decide if their work was worth subsidizing regardless of the message it espoused or the politics the artist held. Thus, the money that the government offered would be based solely on talent and promise, not on the message the artist believed most important. Thus, the US would be helping beautiful, powerful or emotionally devastating art come into being without placing artificial standards on it.

And given my hopes for the first administration that actively acknowledged the arts in its platform, I truly desired that this administration would act in a way that held to my utopian vision. But, all things being the way they are, Obama's actions are not surprising, even if they are disappointing.

Which man in power, knowing that a huge number of artists of all types and genres had energized themselves on his behalf would not hope that the same energy would be devoted to his agenda?

The fact that Obama is utilizing the NEA to try to invigorate the artist communities is not surprising. Given the immense reluctance of the US government (puritanical at its core - have I talked about this? let me know if you haven't heard my rant) to acknowledge the power of art of all kinds, the NEA is the only tool Obama possesses. The NEA is the largest artist grant-giving organization in the nation. It spurs other organizations to give as well - imagine! It's so much cooler to give money to an artist that has already been granted money by the NEA! You don't have to do research on their work yourself!

And mostly, the government has viewed artists as opponents rather than as tools. But now it finds itself in a unique position - possibly the only time since the 1930's that the greater proportion of artists have been in agreement with the president's agenda rather than opponents to his agenda. As the Honda TV ads say, Mr. Opportunity is knocking. So, to Mr. Courrielche, who asks:

"But the art community must... ask itself about the proper role of government agencies created to promote the arts. And if put in the wrong hands, could a message machine built by the NEA be used in a nefarious manner not currently foreseeable?"

YES. Because it's happened before. In Soviet Russia and in Fascist Germany art was suborned to the political agenda. Those are the obvious examples. My favorite example of art being squashed because of politics is actually Moliere's Tartuffe. Louis XIV actually prevented the play at first because it criticized the church, but then later allowed it because at that point he wanted to shame the church where he hadn't before. And read the ending of the play. A more blatant piece of propaganda I have never seen.

Artists should be cautious about accepting Government funds. Artists should be cautious about accepting any funds. Because along with Patronage comes obligation. If you agree with the message, great. Fine. Make art about the greed of the Health industry. Mock the system that awards money gaming more than teaching arithmetic to young children. That's what the government wants now. But don't get complacent. If you can make great art within the limits of what the government wants, fine. But if you can't, don't accept the money. Because you'll be at the mercy of the one giving it. Because that's what accepting any money does to you.

So, I'm back

So, I'm back almost a full month after going off the air - it's been a tumultuous few weeks.  I moved back home after thinking that I was going to be in Philadelphia for nearly a year.  So, unfortunately, I don't get to talk about the Philadelphia Fringe, because I'm Not There.  Which is a huge sadness.

BUT - making up for it are some lovely perks, like my rent has decreased by 200 dollars, and I am now the proud owner of a baby blue vespa named Simone (de Bouvoir, if you want to act like my mother and make everything more literary and fancy-schmancy).

So, in honor of my return, I provide the lovely links of wonder (i.e. I don't want to write 30 posts, but still think that all these things I missed are cool).  Just so you know, Arts Journal on my blogroll is the primary source of many of these articles - they do a really amazing job of filtering out valuable arts content, so check them out.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2009/aug/26/theatre-critics-artists - This link takes you to a British article on how blogging, artists and critics are all getting really up close in each others' business right now and changing the way criticism is viewed and told.  So it's pretty important, at least as far as this blog is concerned :).

A recession hits everyone differently - especially non-industry cities.  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2009752523_actors30.html?cmpid=2628

Maybe this would be a great movie, or maybe I assumed the movies would get to the topic first.  In that case, I think I'm happy that live theater is doing it instead.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090826/ennew_afp/entertainmentfrancetheatrebankingcrime_20090826190728

Oh wonderful wonderful (and then past all hooping) would this make an interesting avant-garde theater project...http://playgoer.blogspot.com/2009/08/what-if-woodstock-had-tweeted.html

And, to top it off, an article on my favorite Philadelphia Group, Pig Iron - http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090827_Pig_Iron__unalloyed.html

I Can't Believe I Missed This

Rocco Landesman's interview in the New York Times!! It's wonderful, and now there's finally more about how he views his role in the NEA. If I wasn't in the middle of trying to move cross-country, I would have a lot more to say about this, but in the meantime I'll post a few quotes:

The new chairman said he already has a new slogan for his agency: “Art Works.” It’s “something muscular that says, ‘We matter.’ ” The words are meant to highlight both art’s role as an economic driver and the fact that people who work in the arts are themselves a critical part of the economy.

“Someone who works in the arts is every bit as gainfully employed as someone who works in an auto plant or a steel mill,” Mr. Landesman said. “We’re going to make the point till people are tired of hearing it.”

Even more interesting is how Landesman got involved in the position in the first place:

Mr. Landesman wasn’t tapped for the job. “I’d love to say the president drafted me, and I had to answer the call of duty, but no,” he said. “I put my hand up for this.”

“Everybody I talked to said, ‘This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard, put it out of your head immediately,’ ” Mr. Landesman said. “The idea of running a 170-person federal bureaucracy seemed crazy.”

But it’s an unusual moment in history, he said, and he wanted to be part of it. President Obama was “the first candidate in my memory who made arts part of the campaign,” Mr. Landesman said. “He had an arts policy committee and an arts policy statement and arts advisers.”

It's true - Obama, despite how little in regards to the arts he had posted on his campaign website (and now has posted on the White House website) has been one of the few truly culturally sensitive candidates for office. The fact that Obama decided to place this man in charge (he's described as a general in the interview) is indicative that there's someone taking the arts seriously.

Please read the entire article - there's so much I would quote, but...

Illinois is in the same situation as Pennsylvania

So, a long time ago, when I began this blog, I heard really sad new - Pennsylvania was in grave danger of cutting major (read all) arts funds from their budget. And the news hasn't improved - indeed, it's just plain miserable. On the 4th, Pennsylvania cut ALL arts funding out of the budget. Yes, all. So Philadelphia, which is increasingly a truly vibrant home for impressive and imaginative theater (please check out Pig Iron Company - they're in the links on the right hand side) is really just completely demolished by this.

Well, via my friend Daniel, an article saying that half - yes, half - of Illinois' arts funding has been cut. And if anything, this is even more awful for Chicago, a larger city with more great theater. I truly approve of this article's language...

In craptastic but unsurprising news, the Illinois Arts Council (IAC) got kicked in the proverbial balls by the 2010 Illinois budget. Its $7.8 million allocation is 51% less than that in the 2008 budget, which, thanks to Blago’s veto of the General Assembly’s approved $23.1 million appropriation, was $15.2 million.

The IAC is very blunt about the gravity of the situation - in a letter sent to recent grant applicants on July 29, IAC Chairman Shirley R. Madigan stated, “I have been privileged to be a member of the Illinois Arts Council for many years and I have never seen our situation so dire. Without additional state revenues, we may well have further cuts in the months ahead, and next year will be worse.”