Waiting for the Outrage from the "Arts Community"

Carol Platt Liebau | September 08, 2009 10:09 PM

Big Hollywood's Patrick Courrielche updates the reports about the Obama administration's attempts to persuade the government-subsidized "arts community" to propagandize on its behalf

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So far, the response from most artists has been silence. To the extent that continues, it puts the lie to any notion of artistic integrity -- and suggests that many of the people who were so ready to keep their integrity inviolate by spurning Laura Bush's celebration of poetry have no concerns about some of their peers taking orders from the Obama White House.

Perhaps artists haven't thought through the ramifications for funding of the NEA. If the agency ends up simply being a mechanism for funneling taxpayer money to supporters in exchange for partisan propaganda, that's the most powerful reason since "Piss Christ" for abolishing the entire notion of taxpayer-funded art.