BOSTON GLOBE: WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT THE ARTS?

“Theaters and orchestras are shuttering. Media coverage of the arts is decreasing. 2Brandeis is closing the Rose and possibly selling off its paintings. You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing when it comes to the arts in America. The good news is that President Obama wants to include the arts in his bailout package. Conservatives, however, are up in arms.

The one constant in all this is that art in America has come to be seen as a frill, by everyone from right-wing talk-show hosts to the trustees of Brandeis. It may seem, after the Mapplethorpe controversy or the never-ending bickering about National Endowment for the Arts and Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, that it has always been thus. But it really wasn’t all that long ago that artists graced the covers of every magazine from Time to Life, that NBC and CBS had symphony orchestras, or that Exxon and Mobil competed with each other to present the most sophisticated television they could find.” Read More.