Iowa Arts News is a monthly publication of the Iowa Arts Council. If you would like to subscribe, please send us a blank e-mail.
Director’s Spotlight: Support for the Arts Finds Common Ground
By Anita Walker, Director
Alec Baldwin, meet William Safire. Hold that thought. I’ll come back to
it later.
Left and right. East and west…and middle. All converged in Washington D.C. in March to advocate for federal funding of the arts. I joined the Iowa contingent with Linda Von Bank of our Arts Council Board, and Rod Scott of the State Historical Society Board and the Iowa Cultural Coalition. Just as there is new energy and a sense of community when we gather in Des Moines for Cultural Advocacy Day each year, you feel part of an even bigger whole when joined by arts advocates from across the country. Rod, Linda and I vowed to build an even bigger Iowa delegation next year.
This year Iowa got the spotlight at the Americans for the Arts Congressional Breakfast where our Congressman Jim Leach (R) was honored for his long standing support of the arts. This is not an exercise of politics or practicality for Leach. It is truly a passion, firmly held. You can see it in the work of Iowa artists in his Washington office. You can feel it in the way he talks about the arts, honestly.
We are truly blessed in Iowa to have the support of people in high places. Our Governor Tom Vilsack (D) was honored at the annual Conference of Mayors in Washington D.C. just a month earlier for his work on behalf of the arts. Governor Vilsack embraced the concept of a creative economy before most, and has been an ardent supporter of cultural initiatives including the Iowa Cultural Trust, Cultural and Entertainment Districts and Iowa Great Places.
But back to Alec Baldwin. And William Safire. They represent two distinct sides of the political spectrum. Baldwin, the outspoken actor who leans left. Safire, the self-described right-wing pundit. Both were featured speakers rallying the troops on behalf of the arts. It strikes me that in a world that we so conveniently color black and white, or red and blue, that in the arts, politics finds common ground.
Sure, we can draw lines in the sand and pick sides in a debate over the “real value” of the arts. Is it an instrumentality, a means to an end, as articulated by Safire, who spoke to its usefulness in cognitive development and the improvement of language, math and spatial reasoning skills? Or is its value intrinsic, to inspire, enrich, challenge, entertain? Perhaps the answer to both is yes, and we don’t really need to pick a side. In fact, we must guard against it. A decade and a half after Mapplethorpe galvanized an anti-arts movement that decimated funding for the National Endowment for the Arts we tend to be a bit squeamish around the “intrinsic” case, feeling safer with the “usefulness” argument. And the fear is not necessarily misplaced. Each year here in Iowa, we find ourselves confronted with an “anti-obscenity” piece of legislation at the statehouse that would restrict access to the arts. Old wounds heal slowly.
The good news is that we have found common ground on solid ground. The arts are seen as useful in education, in building community, in creating a vibrant quality of life. And here’s the transition. That vibrant quality of life and quality education are built on the intrinsic value of the arts, its power to enrich, inspire, challenge and entertain.
We in the arts world have friends in Alec Baldwin and William Safire, in Representative
Leach and Governor Vilsack. Perhaps the arts could be a model for bringing people
together. That would have both useful and intrinsic value.
