The Boston Globe celebrates today the creation of an innovative new $20 million program of foundation grants to nurture individual American artists. But it can?t help taking a swipe at conservatives for ?political disputes over controversial art? and at Congress for ?federal spending cuts? at the National Endowment for the Arts. Oddly, the Globe describes the new grants program ? funded by the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential, and Rasmuson foundations ? as ?armed with private money that frees it from congressional budget axes.?
I?m not saying that it?s odd to see private funding for the arts as liberating. That?s always been the best consequentialist argument for eliminating government largesse for artists ? that private funding protects them from oversight by politicians. Forcing taxpayers to fund obscenity and stupidity is bad enough, but more common is that government funding distorts the arts by favoring some trends, subjects, and personalities over others. That?s obscene and stupid enough.
What?s odd is that the Globe finally gets this. It predicts that the results of the new initiative could include ?a great play or a new building? but ?also a sound, unapologetic investment in the nation?s artist soul.? Yes, made privately and voluntarily.
