Government Influence on Art
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Joe Mazzarini
Government and the Arts
The United States Role in the Arts Is Found to Have Increased In Decade Since WWII
As opposed to many other nations there are within the United States, very few government funded troops as is the case with the Italian backed opera La Scala, the
Russian subsidized ballet Bolshoi, or the state orchestra of the Vienna Philharmonic. At the time of this article, there was also no centralized department or agency through which "art matters might be channeled." According to Milton Bracker, interest shown by the government with matters pertaining to the arts for the most part has taken the form of ventures in exporting American art to other nations particularly those vulnerable to the sway of dictatorships mainly in times of cold war. Regardless of the government's stance upon its arts policies, the concerns among proponents remain the same namely that of, concerns over censorship (particularly among 'subversive' works in all forms), issues arising with regard to support of works from particular movements (i.e. conservative or modern) and "the individual or group equities of artists competing for commissions." There are many issues and in one work Abraham Chasins, the author of "Speaking of Pianists" even went so far as to remarked, "American artists and intellectuals are the natural enemies of American politicians."
Introduction and Background
Over the course of the decade of the 50's much legislation had been introduced dealing with the benefit of artists and their work, however, very little was actually passed. In his 1955 state of the union address, President Eisenhower asserted that the federal government should "do more to give official recognition to the importance of the arts and other cultural activities." and proposed a permanent Federal Advisory commission on the arts under the Department of Public Health, Education and Welfare...