Art and culture isn’t something a government check creates

Robert Pratt photo Copyright Pratt on Texas

Robert Pratt

A good thing you can credit the Texas Legislature with is cutting so-called “arts funding” by twenty-eight percent in the new state budget.

“The shallow Texas pool of money for cultural projects keeps shrinking,” read a summary-point on a story on the subject in the Austin American-Statesman reiterating the lie many have accepted as truth: That arts and culture is something that comes from, or is funded by government.

Art and culture come about naturally, neither is something that is created by an entity, least of all by a government official.

Art is individual expression and culture is the unique blend of custom, art, and achievement of a particular nation, people, or other social group. Art and culture come about naturally, neither is something that is created by an entity, least of all by a government official.

What has happened is that so-called “arts and culture” has become an industry with people making a living working near the creation and expression of art as well as setting themselves up as guardians of a given culture. People now confuse the peripheral activities of the arts with art itself.

People now confuse the peripheral activities of the arts with art itself.

I love art. I love paintings; I love grand opera; I like stage plays and musicals; I marvel at excellent sculpture; a range of music that would surprise many is very important to me, and; I appreciate architecture and design enough to devote leisure time to such but, I do not accept the idea that it is moral to force my neighbors to pay for my hobbies and enjoyment.

Maybe there is a place for some public funds being used to commemorate important cultural touchstones but even our national monuments in DC are almost all funded by private donation.

I do not accept the idea that it is moral to force my neighbors to pay for my hobbies and enjoyment.

Government funding of arts perverts the market for art by funding things individuals would likely not fund and thereby creating art that doesn’t actually reflect or respect the culture from which it comes. Maybe that makes it anti-art or anti-cultural and that’s why such is so loved by the Left.

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