Many of my artist and performer friends have been sharing articles about the apocalyptic present and gloomy predictions about the future of the arts post-COVID. Arts is often the last area to recover from an economic crisis, and the near-complete elimination of performances has exacerbated that.
(It’s further exacerbated by the fact that freelance musicians and artists face a much more difficult challenge in our country than many other Western nations, due to the lack of universal health care.)
Enter an idea whose time is overdue. We are in need of national leadership for – and investment in – the fine and performing arts. According to this NPR article,
Arts and culture make up a huge, $877 billion industry that generates more than five million jobs across the country. But the amount of federal funding for the arts is tiny when compared with smaller industries like agriculture.
The NPR piece goes on to profile arts organizations advocating for the incoming presidential administration to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Arts and Culture.
(As the article points out, “Earlier this year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts released a report that said the arts contributed 4.5 percent to the country’s GDP in 2017. That’s more than agriculture and transportation.”)
Adding a budget and a national leader responsible for supporting, encouraging, and enhancing the state of the arts in the United States would lead to a sea change, with the end result being more artists – and more great art.