Obama’s calls for arts funding increases
When the Regan Revolution started decimating everything with the word "government" in it, many of us sat on our hands. But in 1989, when war was declared against the National Endowment for the Arts by the religious right, artists were up in arms. It was quite a fight, a culture war, actually. Regardless, the flap over Karen Finley, Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano had a chilling effect, and while funding has ebbed and flowed over the years, the NEA never fully recovered.
Which is why its meaningful that Barack Obama's proposed 2013 budget includes a 5% increase in arts funding, to be funneled through the NEA, the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center and the National Gallery. This doesn't make up for the slashes the Republicans made in 2011, and it's barely half of the ground lost in the late 1980s.
The cavalry is not exactly charging. But the White House appears to be quietly bugling.
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