The present government is very insistent that business sponsorship should replace government sponsorship of the arts. Business sponsorship won't happen unless you make tax concessions, which they won't.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
That's the reason support for the National Endowment of the Arts is so important. It enables those ventures that aren't viable commercially to be done.
The arts are part of the fiber of American society and should get Federal support.
I have written favourably in support of subsidy for the arts since the 1960s, and I continue to believe absolutely in subsidy, as I do in the BBC licence fee.
We're under the Arts Council under the Minister for the Arts. The Minister for the Arts and the Minister for Industrial Development have great difficulty in agreeing over who should fund what in terms of film.
Government shouldn't try to dictate what art looks like or what it portrays. Last thing we want is government screwing it up, which is what they would do.
Well, we have certainly produced great art before we did this. In my view, there are any number of areas of government which tax money should not be spent.
I want to promote the introduction of art history in primary schools and to convince the general public that, even in a period of economic crisis, arts funding is an absolute necessity at the federal, state, and local levels.
It costs a great deal of money to do a musical, and the more money involved, the more big business influences the artform.
There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
In these difficult financial times for so many of our districts, as our local leaders strive to balance their budgets by cutting services, we would be irresponsible not to invest in the arts.