A few weeks ago I linked a story to my Facebook account. It was an opinion piece entitled “Art Lessons for Obama” by Judith H. Dobrzynski posted to Forbes.com. I thought it might inspire some interesting conversation about art in times of economic distress. Being that I work on a photography magazine, and being that the majority of my Facebook friends are artists in their own right —granted I haven’t hit the five hundred mark like my editor (popularity has never been a virtue of mine)—I thought it might be a hot button issue. However, my artist-friends apparently had more important things to worry about—like their shrinking 401ks and their eternal abhorrence for Anne Coulter.

Maybe I was being presumptuous in thinking that art deserved equal time in the spotlight. If I couldn’t even get other artists to read a link about Putin drawing in pastels for a St. Petersburg cultural group, then the “a” word must really be a dirty word, especially when there are bigger issues at hand, like the Wall Street meltdown. Then I watched the Academy Awards, and listened to Penelope Cruz talk about art as a unifying agent, and even cheered when the Slum Dog Millionaire kids climbed the stage, and finally remembered my point… Is art all we have? Just thinking about some of the artists I know, and some of the artists I’ve studied, and their somewhat sporadic, somewhat maddening nature, it’s almost funny, or maybe even scary to consider art as the last stabilizing force in a world gone awry. However, artistic expression is the single most loyal counterpart to human existence since well, we’ve existed—so maybe I’ve just put myself in my place.

President Obama allotted $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts in his economic stimulus plan. Amidst some of his toughest critics was Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, who, as an even tougher critic of the arts said “I just think putting people to work is more important than putting more art on the wall of some New York City gallery frequented by the elite art community.” Mary Chapin Carpenter questioned this statement in the Washington Times, “according to Americans for the Arts, Mr. Kingston’s congressional district last year had 778 arts-related businesses that employed 2,663 people. Are all those people in his district who work—professionally or as volunteers—in the fields of painting, dance, photography, singing, writing, filmmaking, pottery, poetry writing, computer design, art, architecture, history, acting, stage design and crafts part of the elite?”

I think not Ms. Carpenter. Our entire industry from capture to print to sales is in one way or another reliant on the arts. And though the photography industry doesn’t have an Academy Awards, we should still remember, while walking our own red carpet of trade shows— from Photoplus to WPPI to PMA— that art isn’t just an afterthought. It is the thought. Now, as I step down from my soap box, I want to ask for your opinion… How does art fit into your life?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Tara Propper. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.