Greetings,
At a local monthly discussion group in which Arts funding was a recent
topic, I got an idea which may be "new". If any know of similiar ideas,
please pass along links/references.
Populist, deep-democracy values would seem to mesh with the idea of one
person, one vote. Subsidies like grants from the National Endowment for
the Arts (US) require a panel which screens applicants "worthiness" in
general and sometimes specifically re proposed projects/works. This is open
to elitist and power game criticisms, as well as cultural biases.
If the screening process was changed to a licensing process in which each
art form set minimal standards (musical, theater, film, creative writing,
painting/sculpture, etc) for registration, and registration gave one the
ability to cash in vouchers used by the public to enjoy the arts, a fairer
system might result.
Sure the vouchers, equally distributed among all people, could be traded
like food stamps for less than face value in cash, but all would ultimately
end up in the hands of registered artists. This *might* get the
establishment out of the dominant position they currently hold in the US
and similiar systems.
Problems, sure. Better, maybe. Comments?
Steve
