The Illinois Arts Council (IAC) is a governmental organization the purpose of which is providing grants for different art organizations, institutions and festivals. “These grants generally are for the purpose of increasing their accessibility for people from other parts of the state or for people of lower income, but grants also may support special programs and exhibitions” (1). These programmes must be supported by government, because only state support can provide high level of arts development. Private organizations cannot always appropriate necessary funds for arts development.
There are some more examples from the US history. “Government support was provided to artists during the Great Depression through the Works Project Administration (WPA). The purpose of this government largesse, however, seems to have been motivated primarily by the interest in providing work to the unemployed” (2). The governmental support of the arts also provides help for people who create masterpieces in such trouble time as the Great Depression. Non-state organizations couldn’t support artists in trouble time – only government can provide arts and artists with all means needed.
Eloquent example of the necessity of governmental support of the arts is a copyright system which is established by the government. It allows “creators to retain the financial interests in their intellectual property, so the theory runs, they would be encouraged to create, which would be in the interests of the nation” (2). Government supports authors to gain material stimulus for their work and protects them from illegal use of their creations. Copyright system is widespread in all civilized countries that understand the necessity of the state support of the arts and artists who are always gold fund of any country and nation. Only government is able to support the arts and artists with the copyright system by all means of legislation.
- I have argued that government has a responsibility to support the arts, but if that support is going to produce anything of value, government must place no restrictions on the art that is produced. This view will become increasingly dominant in the coming century, because in our time it is especially important to provide high level support of arts. Many of these issues can never be resolved to everybody’s satisfaction, but in the long run, promoting the idea that government is mostly responsible for arts development will lead to the betterment of all involved. Finally, global cooperation and cultural understanding resulting in responsibility growth of government in arts support lead to the positive results of such approach for everybody.
References
- Owen V. L. Government support of the arts. December 1977/ Illinois Issues/ 23. (http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/ii771221.html)
- Julie C. Van Camp. Government support for cultural activities. October 16, 1999. (http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/freedom2.html)
