Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 9. May 4 1981

Value of Arts

Value of Arts

It appears likely that Reagan's budget proposals will also effect the current social arts programme. The Conservatives have questioned the merits of an artist-in-residence in the Oklahoma prison system, and have doubted the value of the blues guitarist Fenton Robinson taking part in a "Blues in the Schools" project, which aimed to reach black children and tell them about their cultural heritage.

Later this year Reagan is expected to replace the chairmen of the arts and humanities grants. It seems likely that the President will appoint men who have so far criticised the grants that make "social statements", especially the arts programmes which have made awards to prison projects and to neighbourhood and minority communities.

Regrettably, the influential Heritage Foundation report to Reagan criticising the arts and humanities for compromising "their high purpose by funding programmes that dilute intellectual and artistic quality in order to expand their popular appeal" has made its mark. This blatant elitism must be questioned. So too must the attitude of Richard Bishirjian, (a professor in political science at the College of New Rochelle in New York) who as head of the humanities team believed that the fund was "inundated with junk". Criticising a $753,000 grant to make a film about textile workers in North Carolina he praised a smaller grant for a film about Carl Sandburg saying: "The life of Carl Sandburg touches millions. I'm not interested in the lives of workers."

For those in monied and powerful decision making groups at the top, the cuts are not likely to be felt. "It's not the people who pay top ticket prices who will be hit; it's the people who can't afford them" commented Martin Segal, the Chairman of New York's Lincoln Centre, announcing his campaign against the budget proposals.

Furthermore, it appears that the President's men have failed to realize what lobbyist Anne Murphy has pointed out: "an unemployed artist is just as unemployed as an unemployed steelworker." Congress appears not to be concerned. The arts are considered elitist and of little importance compared to the social welfare, energy and massive defence programmes the government have planned.