Last week, I went on KUOW to talk to Ross Reynolds on The
Conversation about public art. The subject was an editorial in that
morning’s Seattle Times by state senator Steve Hobbs (D-Lake
Stevens)—an editorial in which Hobbs decrees that art is the enemy of teachers, the sick, and the poor.
If we could just cancel public art for the next two years, he
writes, we could save our state. Why, oh why, is art so damned
selfish?
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore! Hobbs
veritably yells in his editorial.
Then, on the radio, he declared public art a “luxury” and a
“sacred cow.” He said he didn’t want to kill it, he just wanted to
do some “cow tipping.”
Hobbs has the right idea: The legislation he proposed is as
intelligent as cow tipping.
Does any of this sound familiar? It’s the same debate we had when
the National Endowment for the Arts had to get on its knees and
beg to be included, for the miniscule price tag of $50 million, in
the $787 billion federal bailout. It’s the same debate we’ve been
having since Jesse Helms made it obvious that art, due to its
subjective nature, would be the easiest target for public ire—the
easiest way for politicians to distract the public from real
problems.
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. Please ask your newspapers and broadcasters to
stop idiotic, ancient, false debates.
I’m sorry to be belligerent about this, but it is infuriating to have this dumb conversation year after year after year, whether the
economy is up or down or in-between, and whether the politicians are
Democrats, Republicans, or space invaders.
Most important of all for every intelligent person out there: Don’t
let anybody, ever, say that art is preventing Americans from
being educated, fed, and cared for.
We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore. 
yeah!
Nicely done, Jen. It is staggering how small arts budgets are. Surprising that many more people attend art events than sports events. And surprising how easy it is for our government to fund the whims of sports teams, fans, and owners and how hard it it to fund the arts in every aspect. You’re right about the grandstanding of the politicians on an issue that will never play well with the public because the members of the public really don’t sense how often they come in contact with public art. Instead the public views public art as something they don’t see, can’t use, won’t need and didn’t ask for. And politicians love a public that doesn’t think clearly.
The thing that struck me most about that radio show was how disingenuous the argument made by the state art official (whose name is eluding me just now) was; as disingenuous as your statistics, Greg. I want artists to get as much financial help — from any available source — as anyone, but stating that this budget cut would hurt “jobs,” which is precisely what that bureaucrat did, and then sticking to her guns even when she is cornered into admitting the “jobs” that would be lost to artists number 35 does nothing but piss off a public who is already skeptical (to put it charitably) about the usefulness of publicly financed art. You know whose job she’s concerned about? Her job. And her receptionist’s. A damning loss to the art world, these.
Greg, your point about art events being better attended than sports events is just the same kind of cherry-picked misquote that ends up distancing artists from the public rather than integrating. The actual statistic is this: More people attend museums in this country than attend football games. Do the math, man; how many NFL stadiums are there in the U.S.? Less than 50. How many games constitute an NFL season? 13 or 14, plus a few playoffs. Now then: How many museums are there in this country? Open every day except Monday, minus holidays. And so: How many school groups are taken to NFL games? How often is an NFL game the site of a fancy dress-up ball, or drinks-and- disco night? Good lord, people.
That football/museum bit is a chestnut of a statistic, and it’s pulled out not to serve art, or artists, but museum boards and their constituents — people like you. And when folks who like football — but feel intimidated coming into your gallery because you won’t even smile at them, not to speak of engaging them in an edifying conversation — when these folks hear statistics like this, they just get more strident and pissed-off about their respective football-loving and snooty gallery hating. And who can blame them. You both, Greg and Jen, and lots of other people in this village, want your exclusivity cake when it suits you, and you want public funds to feed it to you when that’s on the table. And it’s the same goddamn issue. And ultimately, it’s not gallerists or art critics who bear the brunt of public disaffection with effete, “elitist” (don’t get me started again) freaks on the public tit; it’s artists.
What gives me further shingles is knowing that the only people likely to read this and give two shits either way are… well, you. And so an artist misses the opportunity to extend an olive branch to a shaken and suspicious public, who might really appreciate an olive branch being extended at this time, and might repay that offering with a slightly more charitable stance when it’s time to reinstate the budget holiday, which is what that legislator was proposing in the first place. So go on and bitch and moan about the philistine assholes withholding our crumbs; if you people weren’t working so hard to keep us — I mean artists here — under the table, we might be better-fed altogether.
Haha, Sean – (wow. The rage!) – I think your statements are a great example of what this conversation is really about; it’s not about art and its worth to the public, not really, even though people are justifying this and undermining that all over the place to win the argument. It’s about politics and funding. I have to say I find the conversation pretty fascinating, because even (maybe especially) as an artist, I can’t find a place to land on either side of the fence.
*Maybe partially due to such major problems in the public art process as Jen has written on previously:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/commu…
er…link FAIL.
see Jen’s:
“Communication Breakdown: A Recent Debacle in Olympia Illustrates How Not to Pick Public Art”
Mr. Hobbs gets one thing right: Art IS a luxury. So is liberty.
Art is a luxury AND a right AND a necessity in this nation if we have any optimisim left. Much like freedom of speech. A shame that art wasn’t mentioned as part of the bill of rights.
Mr Hobbs should probably trade his donkey pin in for an elephant or libertarian pin. In fact, the people we should contact BEFORE journalists and congresspeople is the state Democratic Party and petition the party to revoke his membership & drop this jackwipe.
This is not quite the article I was hoping for.
Jen; it’s not a dumb conversation unless what you brought to the table was dumb. Some of it maybe was. Some of it, like the cowtipping retort, is gold.
As an occasional poor artist, as a strained taxpayer, and as someone very worried about poorly-built and awfully-balanced gov budgets, I’m keenly interested in what Jen, Greg and Sean & others have to say.
And Jen, you lose some of us readers/citizens/people on the fence when you reinforce immature statements like “miniscule… $50 million”. I don’t know anyone who’s got that in their pocket, (or at ALL) do you?
It’s a substantial sum, and what should instead be pointed out is how well and efficiently it’s used for art, and how little admin/OH is coming out of it, compared to say, the military budget, or Seattle School Dist, or state Transportation, or Mayor Nickels’ office. I’d guess our state pays interest, or late fees, or penalties from contractors that are larger than that number. THERE is the way to show what you might have meant by ‘miniscule’ AND get me behind the argument armed with intelligent ammo.
Most of all, I’d love to see some more solid stats (than “if we fined… we could have paid ..teachers” – (How? What dollar amounts would it take?)) and stat comparisons, ala Freakonomics.
In particular, can Jen or anyone more industrious cite OTHER budget categories that take up .013% of the budget for a fun side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of expenses? Can we see links to the studies proving again and again how music, drama, arts all improve test scores, improve attitude/disciplinary problems, and help drop-out rates / college acceptance rates? Can we see the land-value and crime rate stats of areas with no public art vs. after public art was installed?
Attendance don’t mean shit: I want results-oriented stats so that I’m convinced to be happy to not only spend $50 million, but WANT to send another $100 million to a well-run, well-invested portion of the gov. Help me make that leap. THERE is an article I’d like to see.
Mayor Greg Nickels said, “Artists bring color and energy to our daily lives and share the stories of our diverse communities. We need the arts, especially in tough economic times.” Maybe Steve Hobbs should have dinner with Nickels?