Should Washington Give $6 Billion to the Arts?

There’s a petition circulating the internet, Facebook, and now Obama’s website Change.gov (inaccurate) that is asking for 1% of the anticipated $600+ billion stimulus package to be spent on the arts.

The petition cites the 1930′s Federal Art Project, which was funded by the WPA and Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. The makers of the New Deal understood that the Great Depression had increased unemployment across all industries – including the arts – and, accordingly, the Federal Art Project was created in 1935 to create work that suited the special talents of artists. The project created signs and posters for school, libraries and hospitals (like the one pictured here).  The Federal Art Project was also responsible for the Index of American Design, which cataloged the history of American design from early colonialism until the 19th century.

It was, in the eyes of artists and those Americans sympathetic to the arts, a hugely influential and successful program in the history of American culture. Several famous artists emerged from the program, including Jackson Pollack.

As for the stimulus package, Obama’s financial advisors have stated that they expect the pricetag to be at least $600 billion, and possibly more.  Obama and democrats want the bill to be passed by both the House and Senate before Obama even gets sworn in, so that he can sign the bill on day one – simultaneously saving the world and clinching his 2012 re-election all within the first 24-hours of taking office.

Republicans are reportedly not as eager to pass the bill so quickly, despite passing a $600 billion bailout for Wall St. in just a few weeks this past fall.  (Ah – but that was before the election…).  According to the LA Times, Republicans are afraid that the stimulus package will be fraught with pet projects and pork spending and want to take their time constructing the bill and the regulating committees that will oversee it.

I know I’m getting off the subject here, but if the discussion on Capital Hill is going to center around inappropriate spending of emergency government funds, perhaps they should look to the $1.6 billion of the October bailout money that was spent on executive perks.

Back to the petition.  The cynic in me feels that Republicans may interpret “the arts” as some kind of pork-barrel, pet politicking of the sissy Dems, but it’s worth a shot.  I’m not convinced that online petitions have any impact on legislation, but if you feel strongly in favor of the idea, putting you name down can’t hurt.

Update, 12/23/2008: The petition has been revised to include music and the theatre arts (it previously only included visual and literary arts).  It also includes a short history of the FAP’s sister project, the Federal Music Project.  I quote here from the Facebook page:

Employing around 16,000 musicians at its peak, the Federal Music Project ensembles — orchestras and chamber groups; choral and opera units; concert, military and dance bands; and theater orchestras — presented an estimated 5,000 performances before some three million people each week. Music projects had local cosponsors — schools or colleges, government or civic groups — and small admissions charges helped meet costs.

The Federal Music Project also provided classes in rural areas and urban neighborhoods; in 1939, an estimated 132,000 children and adults in 27 states received instruction every week.