In today’s Wall Street Journal “Sightings” column, I talk about how to jump-start a post-pandemic revival of the arts in America. Here’s an excerpt.
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As everybody with even the slightest interest in the arts knows, the coming of Covid-19 has had a catastrophic effect on creative institutions in every part of America. According to Americans for the Arts, a Washington-based advocacy group, one out of every 10 nonprofit arts organizations in the U.S. reports that they “doubt their ability” to survive the pandemic….
Calls are being made for the re-creation of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, a mammoth New Deal relief program that, among countless other things, gave jobs to artists through such programs as the Federal Art, Music, Theatre and Writers’ Projects. Others want to see the U.S. emulate countries like France, where freelance artists can qualify for long-term unemployment support and direct state subsidy of the performing arts is common, while still others have urged the new Biden administration to create a cabinet-level Department of Arts and Culture.
The NEA is plugged into many major arts institution in America and already has in place the bureaucracy needed to funnel funding throughout the country, while the foundations have the cash. What they need to do is think more creatively….
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Read the whole thing here.