I strongly believe that we needs the arts, but let's look at this from a
different vantage point. What would, say, Martians think if were watching
us from space and observing us as one people with single set of resources,
and seeing the dramatic disparity between The Gates and a middle school in
the Bronx that has no resources at all: no books, no lockers, nothing they
need.
Crystal Premo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Daniel Wolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: finale@shsu.edu
To: finale@shsu.edu
Subject: Re: [Finale] OT: Christo's The Gates, NYC Central Park
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 17:43:47 +0100
My strongest feeling, though, was that they could have built a couple
of schools in New York for the same money and created something of
both beauty and lasting value.
I believe that there is an error in this line of thinking. There is no
"the same money". If this privately-funded project did not exist, the
funds collected for it would not have gone to building schools. Christo
and Jeanne-Claude fund their projects largely by selling original artwork,
prints, books, and other objects based upon their project. It's a
self-sustaining, circular funding arrangement that resembles
entertainment-industry marketing much more than any form of philanthropy or
public works.
The serious issue of school funding -- and for all of us on this list,
music education funding -- has to be put in the context of the priorities
set by the state for its budget and, to a much smaller extent, for private
philanthropy (which is intimately related to taxation). In _this_ context,
we are really talking about "the same money", and music education
ultimately does stand in direct competition with guns, butter, highways,
pensions, healthcare, and protecting the environment.
Daniel Wolf _______________________________________________
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