The State of the Arts

I am wondering about what the "state of the arts" is right now, and where the arts are heading. Last month NPR reported that the NEA was scheduled to receive $50 million in the stimulus package which Obama signed into law last week, but I don't know what the real numbers are. The economy stinks all around. Local funding has been hit hard. Illinois' budget has been slashed, Chicago's budget has too. It seems that a lot of organizations and individuals are trying to decide how/if they want to reconfigure/change direction.

Artists have contributed a lot to neighborhoods like those on Chicago's West Side, and that will continue into the future. But more funding is needed. A lot of artists don't get the kind of monetary compensation that they deserve -- for their roles as educators, curators of cultural programs, and other aspects of their involvement in the community. Artists are part of the "new economy"; Chris Carlsson writes about this phenomenon in his excellent book Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-lot Gardeners Are Inventing the Future Today. (Incidentally Richard Florida, who has written extensively about role of the arts in society, will be giving a talk at Columbia College at the end of April.)

It will be interesting to see how things progress, with the Obama administration. How will decisions on the federal level wend their way down to the state and local levels? We can be certain that the days of "trickle down" Reaganomics are over, but still it's hard to see how the funding will hit the streets in constructive ways. And artists / creative types can't just rely on federal funding. However it is pretty remarkable that only a month into his presidency, Obama and his administration have set a tone which have positive ripple effects through different layers of society.

Going back to the role of the arts in society and how that relates to Chicago's West Side (as well as its other neighborhoods), I'm wondering what are the latest developments with Obama's National Arts Policy. A year ago Obama released information about the National Arts Policy Committee, but I'd like to hear about how much of these ideas have been implemented as initiatives. Does anyone reading this blog know about recent developments?

Throughout history creative types have questioned the system and offered up alternative approaches. Here in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S. there has been lots of evidence of this. Individuals, loose associations, and formalized organizations have been playing around with structures for a long time. It will be interesting to see how change happens.