Social and Cultural Impact

During the 1980s and 90s the arts were a lightning rod in what we called the "culture wars.” American conservatives stigmatized the arts as a representation of "liberal," "immoral," "permissive," or "irresponsible" culture that threatened the traditions and values of the nation. Enflamed controversies stirred around the appropriation of funds to public agencies that supported the arts, and grants to arts organizations and artists that challenged political, religious, or moral conventions. Conservatives unearthed and aggravated a deep layer of populist resentment of the arts as a marker of status, wealth, and privilege. In effect, argued the right, artists and arts organizations had a license to behave as they did because they had class privileges that most Americans lacked. This devastating combination – moralism and populism -- effectively smashed conventional arguments for the arts as public goods.

In response arts advocates (in both education and in general) began developing new kinds of arguments that characterized the arts as vehicles for achieving non-controversial public goods – for fighting crime and truancy, advancing economic or community development, for example. These “instrumental” arguments were designed to change the subject from morals, patriotism, or elitism of artists and the arts. Theaters draw people to commercial areas at night, and crime drops when there are more people on the street. People go out to eat at restaurants before the show, so theater stimulates economic activity. By the 1990s the arts began to be linked to higher levels of student achievement as well.

These instrumental arguments are still very much in use here. Just a short time ago, the leading national arts advocacy organization placed an advertisement supporting the inclusion of funds to support the arts in the national stimulus/recovery package that was being debated by Congress. Its headline: “The Arts = JOBS!”

(photo above by Randy OHC 'Children Discovering Van Gogh' Creative Commons on Flickr.com)