Should governments fund the arts and, if so, how?
by 
keithold thanks all baggers
ANSWERS: 2
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Absolutely, yes! Government funding supports struggling artists of all kinds, and brings the arts to the public, especially those who otherwise would not be able to afford the experience. Government funding also enhances arts education. The arts enrich us all -- if we choose to let them. And the government is not the enemy. The government is US.
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While I tend to be liberal/progressive on most things, government funding of the arts is something I have trouble supporting. Anyone who remembers the "Piss Christ" controversy back in the 1980s... . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ . ...knows the potential for government-funded art to be extraordinarily controversial and politics-ridden. I think that political specter ALWAYS overhangs any form of government-sponsored art, and artists are best off being free from it. I have less trouble with the government *subsidizing* the arts (through tax breaks and the like), but those subsidies need to be structured so that all kinds of artists with all kinds of views can take advantage of them.
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