You’ve gotta click the “Read more” jump link on the NY Times‘ ArtsBeat blog page (10:17 a.m. entry) to find me, but Dave Itzkoff today links thrice to CultureGrrl, in his post on Rock-the-Boat Rocco (my new nickname for Landesman, not theirs).
Top billing in Dave‘s blog item, With First Interview, New NEA Chairman Stirs the Online Pot, deservedly goes to today’s Bloomberg commentary by Jeremy Gerard, who is as tired as I am of the defense of arts support based on the economic-engine argument. I believe, as Jeremy does, that the arts should be supported for their own intrinsic value.
Gerard had previously commented knowingly on Landesman:
Shaking things up is in Landesman’s nature.
Today, Jeremy correctly observes:
The payoff for encouraging them [the arts] will rarely
be measurable in economic terms.
True enough. But if Rocco’s “Art Works” slogan floats the Congressional boat, so be it. The only harm comes if grants are predicated on a project’s likely economic, rather than artistic, impact. That’s what I strongly dislike about Landesman’s notion of providing subsidies for artists’ housing—supporting neighborhood gentrification, not cultural vitalization.
Speaking of art as economic engine: Landesman’s wife, Debby, is not only “a philanthropic advisor to corporations and foundations,” as Rocco’s NEA bio describes her. She was also recently a panelist for theater grants that were funded from the $50 million allocated to NEA under the American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Yesterday was Landesman’s first day on the job as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe that’s why I’m still awaiting answers to the Peoria-related questions (confirming that he’s going there and asking for further details) that I posed yesterday to two of the agency’s spokespersons. (Both had assured me that responses would be rapidly forthcoming).