Culture In U.S. Subsidised

"We Americans give a tithe", said Professor Norman Pearson, concluding his speech on "The Cultural Climate in the United States".

He went on to explain that it was such voluntary gifts that subsidised the numerous orchestras, theatres and art galleries.

Pearson, who is Professor of English at Yale University, spoke to an audience of about 200.

After describing the U.S.A. as a predominantly middle class society whose mass media had levelled the differences in class culture, he suggested that raising the level could pose a threat to the best, but further suggested that the U.S.A. did have a climate for excellence.

He described his pleasure at seeing the realisation of the potential of the common man.

This had been made possible by mass communication aided by the existence of an economy of plenty and the lack of the provision of a culture of plenty.

The presence of patronage had enabled music, fine arts, and architecture to flourish. Many American cities had art galleries as good as any in the world.

Pearson said it was possible that writing was suffering a decline because the U.S.A. had had so many giants in the field in the past.

But television has stimulated acting and given the theatre a new vitality.

Professor Pearson then mentioned industrial design: "Italy and Scandinavia may head us off in glassware [unclear: b] we do a very first-rate refrigerator" he quipped.

He viewed the proliferation of Universities as alarming in terms of the elite but satisfying as far as the use of formerly untapped potential was concerned.

The making of the uncommon common had, he believed, given rise to a refreshing new stream of the uncommon.

This element of the uncommon as well as mass production and mass communication was lending excitement to the American cultural scene.