{"id":2962,"date":"2024-02-14T05:09:40","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T13:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2024-02-14T05:09:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T13:09:43","slug":"museums-are-not-like-highways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/02\/museums-are-not-like-highways\/","title":{"rendered":"Museums are not like highways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a New York Times<\/em> op-ed, Laura Raicovich and Laura Hanna<\/a> call for a generous increase in the way the government, in particular the federal government, funds arts institutions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As policymakers in Washington gather to draft a new budget for fiscal year 2025, they could solve culture\u2019s current financial crisis and radically reshape how we think about sustaining the arts. They could do this by tapping into abundant appropriations that already enjoy bipartisan support. To make this possible, first we need to stop treating museums, theaters and galleries like sacred spaces that exist in some rarefied realm of public life. And we need to start treating them \u2014 and funding them \u2014 like interstate highways, high-speed internet and other infrastructure projects, using money that\u2019s earmarked to maintain the country\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There is not much evidence that the American public is wanting a general increase (or decrease, come to that) in government support of the arts, and so there is a hill to climb in making the case for it. And I don\u2019t think they succeed. Let\u2019s consider the argument they present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Certainly, some politicians will object to funding the arts as infrastructure, just as they object to funding the arts in different ways now. But other industries are already subsidized by the federal government directly, as with the farm subsidy, developed during the Great Depression, which supports agricultural corporations to the tune of more than $10 billion a year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Back in Canada I used to teach our department\u2019s course in public economics, and would present to students a gem from the mayor of Moncton (I have lost the source – so I am working from memory): the Canadian government was about to close the CN railyards there, finding it an expense that had no good economic rationale. The mayor said, \u201cthe government wastes money all over the country; we are just asking for our share of the waste.\u201d That the government wastes money in various subsidies across industries is not the way to justify increased arts spending. We really should have a second look at agri-business subsidies though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Federal funding for the arts is largely allocated through the National Endowment for the Arts, or N.E.A., a beleaguered and consistently underfunded agency. The N.E.A. provides funding only for exhibitions and projects, and for fiscal year 2024, its allocated budget is $211 million for the entire country, which is less than the amount allocated by New York City for culture for the same year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The NEA is not what I would call beleaguered. It has a steady budget<\/a>, which has increased, in real terms, slowly over the past ten years. It took a big hit back in 1995, but, that was back in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that New York City has a larger publicly funded cultural budget is a feature, not a bug, of the American system. This is a great big and diverse country, and it makes a lot of sense for a significant amount of the NEA budget to go to state and regional arts councils, who in turn funnel spending to local organizations, who can respond with much more local sense to what the community would like to fund. Public support for the arts is a good thing, but that doesn\u2019t mean the priority ought to be to increase the amount allocated to arts organizations nationally out of DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The N.E.A. is also a constant target of party politics over questions of content and appropriateness. Bad-faith actors earn political points by identifying the most controversial art exhibit in the country and using it as a cudgel to make all funding untenable. Political backlash over several N.E.A.-funded initiatives, including a 1989 exhibit of the photograph \u201cImmersion (Piss Christ)\u201d by Andres Serrano, who had received a small N.E.A. grant, led to attempts to defund the agency.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yes, there are bad-faith actors in American politics. I teach this controversy to my graduate students in arts policy. But I am teaching them about events from before they were born. That the Serrano exhibit was thirty-five years ago tells us something about the current state of affairs: when was the last time you saw a news story about the National Endowment for the Arts? It is not a \u201cconstant target\u201d. I work in a university – their weapons are turned in my direction now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s why we need federal infrastructure funding for facilities, salaries and other infrastructural needs that can be delivered directly to institutions through a separate grant system. Infrastructure funding is plentiful and appealing across party lines; in 2021, in a bipartisan bill, the federal government allocated $1.2 trillion<\/em><\/a> to national infrastructure projects over five years. If even 0.5 percent of those funds \u2014 $6 billion, or $1.2 billion annually over the same length of time \u2014 were marked to keep the lights on and pay salaries at the physical facilities that incubate, develop and present culture across the country, it would radically reshape our national cultural landscape.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I just don\u2019t see the logic in this. The NEA is a \u201cconstant target\u201d and so all we need is a different federal funding program? Would it also have peer review? Why would it not also draw complaints from the political world? And, again, the argument that the government spends lots of money on other things is not an argument for increased arts funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As with infrastructure projects such as the building and maintenance of highways, funding cultural institutions will directly support employment: Culture in the United States employs about five million people<\/a> and pumps about $1 trillion<\/a> into the economy annually.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

No<\/a>, no<\/a>, no<\/a>. \u201cEconomic impact\u201d is not an argument for public spending on anything. It is junk economics. Advocates for the arts: just stop doing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026it could defang some of the most pernicious culture-war arguments against arts funding, since it\u2019s much harder to object to paying to fix a museum\u2019s leaky roof than to paying to exhibit a photograph.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Well, maybe. But there is a lot unanswered here. Who decides which museum has the roof most in need of fixing? How do we know such a bill would be in any way equitable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And would it solve the problem of funding controversial art? On that I\u2019m not sure. When Ms. Raicovich stepped down <\/a>from her position at the Queens Museum, we read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere are so many big things that art and culture have to contend with that are so wrong in the world,\u201d Ms. Raicovich said in a telephone interview. \u201cThat\u2019s where my focus and energy needs to be, and at the end of the day, I just felt that my vision and that of the board weren\u2019t in enough alignment to get that done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was not one specific precipitating event, Ms. Raicovich said, though she did mention that some board members had objected to her decision to close the museum on Donald J. Trump\u2019s Inauguration Day. The museum instead invited members of the community in to make protest posters, buttons and banners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Ms. Raicovich said, she recently proposed to the board that the museum \u2014 in collaboration with other institutions \u2014 consider becoming a kind of sanctuary space that connects immigrants with social services. \u201cIt was made very clear to me that that was not something that was of interest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now, if this is a direction the board of a museum wants to take, and believes it is consistent with the mission of the institution, then that\u2019s fine. But I\u2019m not sure how long this proposed new \u201cinfrastructure spending\u201d would last in such a world. I don\u2019t want the 1990s \u201cculture wars\u201d to return either, but, as in that era, a result would have to be a clause something like what the NEA created in the 1990s, a proviso that grant recipients are not to frighten the horses. Even when there are so many things wrong with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe<\/em> there could be funding for museums that have that old-school notion of exhibiting great art as a priority. But the highways department doesn\u2019t get to protest the inauguration of a president they don\u2019t like, and neither would a museum receiving \u201cinfrastructure\u201d funding be able to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote a book <\/a>about making the case, or not, for public funding of the arts. It needed book-length treatment because the arts are not<\/em> like ordinary public infrastructure: art museums, live theatre, the symphony and opera and ballet are minority tastes – a well-off minority at that – and it is a challenge, though not impossible, to find justifications for taxing people who have no interest in any of these arts to fund them. Highways and water systems and internet-connectivity are different – there is a very broad consensus that we need these things. We cannot evade this distinction simply by calling <\/em>arts subsidies \u201cinfrastructure\u201d. This hints at trying to slip by the public, keeping the spending in a place where it is hidden by the crowd of spending on other projects. To really justify to the American public increased government spending on the arts, we need something more than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-posted on Substack: Arm’s Length | Michael Rushton | Substack<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a New York Times op-ed, Laura Raicovich and Laura Hanna call for a generous increase in the way the government, in particular the federal government, funds arts institutions: As policymakers in Washington gather to draft a new budget for fiscal year 2025, they could solve culture\u2019s current financial crisis and radically reshape how we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-LM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/09\/local-arts-funding-and-urban-design\/","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":0},"title":"Local arts funding and urban design","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"September 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the United States, most public funding for the arts happens at the local, rather than the state or federal, government level. And there are good reasons for that; this is a big, diverse, dispersed country, and local arts councils are best placed to respond to residents' tastes and cultural\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"No services","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Detroit-empty-street.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Detroit-empty-street.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Detroit-empty-street.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Detroit-empty-street.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Detroit-empty-street.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2097,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/08\/about-that-italian-e500\/","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":1},"title":"About that Italian \u20ac500","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Italian government has announced that it will give all eighteen-year olds, on their birthday, a \u20ac500 voucher to spend on books, film, music or theatre. The Independent reports here, and The Atlantic here, which says: The initiative \u201creminds [youth] how important cultural consumption is, both for enriching yourself as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I'm a boy and I'm a man","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/eighteen.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3824,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/07\/the-search-for-the-very-nice-arts-philanthropist\/","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":2},"title":"The search for the very nice arts philanthropist","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, the Scottish government came up with a\u00a0one-time grant of \u00a3300,000\u00a0to cover the Edinburgh International Book Festival, after pressure from environmental protestors caused the previous sponsor, Baillie Gifford, to back out. This week in Canada, its premier book award, the Giller Prize, having lost its primary sponsor, Scotiabank, after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3667,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/12\/on-indirect-support-for-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":3},"title":"On “indirect” support for the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas Wolf has\u00a0posted a short piece\u00a0on the history of the National Endowment for the Arts, whether it is likely to survive the coming second Trump administration, and the tax deduction for charitable contributions. I\u2019m going to focus on that last bit\u2026 People who itemize their income tax deductions can claim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4667,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/03\/should-there-be-a-tax-deduction-for-donating-to-the-nonprofit-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":4},"title":"Should there be a tax deduction for donating to the nonprofit arts?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I was at a seminar yesterday given by Professor Philip Hackney of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, given (via web) at the Marxe School at Baruch College, on \u201cTax Policy Toward Arts Nonprofits: Democracy or Plutocracy?\u201d It\u2019s a good question! I won\u2019t try to summarize what Professor Hackney\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-3.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":731,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/lotteries-should-not-be-used-to-fund-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":5},"title":"Lotteries should not be used to fund the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Blog neighbor Greg Sandow posts about the relationship between arts funding and gambling, especially regarding early Italian opera. It's tongue in cheek, but he concludes: For those without a sense of humor: I know very well that gambling raises moral questions, and legal questions, too, not to mention questions involving\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/04\/lotteries-should-not-be-used-to-fund-the-arts\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"no way to fund the arts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/powerball-lottery-ticket-604ds032513-300x162.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2969,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions\/2969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}