CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 13, 2017

As Trump Mulls Funding Cuts For The Arts, An Artist Argues Against The NEA

NPR: NPR's Scott Simon talks to David Marcus, a senior contributor to The Federalist and the artistic director of a theater company in New York City, about defunding the National Endowment for the Arts.

1 comment:

Annie Scheuermann said...

This is a really interesting interview. A few weeks ago I saw the headlines across social media that Arts funding was going to be cut, which at first I was astounded by, however I thought about it a little more. I went to an arts magnet high school, which was funded on the state level to create 20 years ago, it's an incredible school in an urban city. Our theater was fully self funded, we used tickets sales to support the next coming show. When it came to bigger purchases we applied to grants from arts organizations, I don't remember ever applying to NEA. I know that the district high school's theater club was also self funded through ticket sales too. Now, I'm sure that many schools use NEA funding, but it's not completely necessary. I like what Marcus said, "government is not necessary to create art" and some of his points about the government choosing who is deserving does influence the art allowed, and therefore a form of censorship. I don't want the money going to creating art to be stopped, but perhaps more well distributed, giving the places that have little more and those that can make do less. Whatever happens, art is never going to stop.