3 Jul
2010
3 Jul
'10
3:17 p.m.
On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 6:49 AM, david <gnome(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
Snobbery in action. I think Europe has an advantage
over America when it
comes to art. There's a lot more interest in and support for art all over
Europe than there is here. I think part of it is that in America a number of
art forms now appear to be supported solely via government or other grants
doled out by small groups of people who quite gave up caring what anyone
else thinks. They've become their own little "cool in-groups." (See
comments
above about teen herds?)
I think (based on my experience living in Berlin 18 months ago, and
growing up in the UK, but having lived in the US for 21 years) that
you have this backwards.
Non-commercial art is *vastly* more subsidized by grants in Europe
than in the US, and there is a really strong belief that its part of
the role of government, or even more broadly, society as a whole, to
support "stuff that doesn't necessarily sell". The audiences are
small, but committed. In the US, this sort of thing seems to be
entirely audience-supported, which is to say not very supported at
all.