Oregon ArtsWatch: While the Trump Administration has been busily slashing national spending on arts and culture and waging something of a cultural war against “woke” art — see the State Department’s move to sell off a “woke” painting by Kehinde Wiley, the artist who painted former President Barack Obama’s official portrait — Mary Anne Carter, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, has been touring cities nationally this summer, visiting with arts leaders and getting a feel for the lay of the cultural land.
3 comments:
As a Portland (suburb) resident, this is a very intresting story, and also has a lot of personal connections. On the topic of personal connections, I know of and have wanted to visit (but haven't yet) the woodstock ASL cafe, have listened to All Classical, and of course visited the Portland Art Museum. And while all of this was intresting, what really stood out to me was what wasn't there: the future of Portland's two main theater venues: the Keller and the Moda Center (Broadway and Arena shows). Both are currently making headlines due to uncertain financial futures and strong disagreements, and I would have expected a tour of the state of Portland's arts to at least include a visit to those locations, particularly considering that money, especially for the Keller, is needed. While I understand their possible attempts to stay away from controversy, it is also a significant omission from the world of Portland's arts.
While I did appreciate the celebration of various art centers in Portland, I am deeply concerned with the current issues surrounding the Kennedy Center. The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center was wildly unpopular, and now there is concrete evidence that this change is bringing financial stress to the theater. Even now that Trump’s name has been removed again, the building is still in a desperate financial situation. As legal battles still ensue over the building’s official title, I believe it is time for the center’s old support system (donors and audiences previously lost) to rise to the occasion. The center is about to enter a two-year renovation period, and there are now rumors of the building being torn down completely. If the people who recently boycotted the theater were to make small donations, or reinstate their previous donations, there may still be hope for the center’s continued survival. Financial support from these theoretical donations should help the theater gain back what it has already lost. Some supporters of Trump’s name in the official title are claiming that re-adding his name would be the center’s saving grace. Let’s prove them wrong by showing that the people love the center just the way it is, and that the people’s support will be its saving grace.
I think the article highlights the important and prevalent issues of the lack of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, otherwise known as the NEA. I remember vividly when the first wave of grants and funding was slashed. Working in the Philadelphia area, a plethora of non-profit theatre companies I was working for at the time had large amounts of money revoked from them - many due to nationwide cuts from DOGE and the policing over “woke-idologies.” Many theatrical companies had this money already allotted to them, and this change was detrimental to their budgets and production season. Along with these changes, the prevalent change in power at the Kennedy Center only further exacerbated this issue. One of the saddest parts of this change has been the suspension of productions from Broadway Center Stage, which was a producing organization of musical theatre at the center - notably, it produced the pre-Broadway tryouts of both Spamalot and Schmigadoon along with other innovative and captivating productions.
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