This past Wednesday Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain issued a new report purporting to identify 100 projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that they feel raise questions about the effective use of these funds. This report has been covered in the media (see this Wall Street Journal story ) and once again has raised the point - why is investing in the arts as part of recovery somehow considered to be, by its very nature, inappropriate? The list includes a number of arts projects funded by the NEA's stimulus grant program as well as other ARRA categories. A quick overview of the arts related projects on the McCain/Coburn list: $225K for Shakespeare theatre festivals in several different communities. $100k to "Anti-Capitalist, Socially-Conscious Puppet Shows (which includes $25K to Philadelphia's Spiral Q Puppet Theatre ). What they define as "Clown Theatrical Production" - actually our own Philadelphia-based Pig Iron Theatre...
Periodic musings on arts, culture, creative economy and philanthropy issues from the President and CEO of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation in Denver. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gsteuer.