Helping art by not helping art?

Travis Korte at The Huffing Post makes a very interesting point regarding the lack of art funding in his article Obama's Arts Budget Cuts Address National Endowment's Weakness. He calls out the art advocates to "abandon the federal funding model", to "let the art budget die", to show that we Americans are sacrificing the tree for the forest - the economy. Proving his point, he uses the privately funded Smithsonian exhibition as an example, and argues that by not funding the art, government invests in long-term federal projects and eventually, there would be a convoluted path somewhere that can help the art get funded.

I personally disagree. I actually may agree with him to some extent - where he says that we should not only rely on federal fund; however, letting the art budget die is like committing suicide.

His first point is that by not funding the art, government invests in long-term federal projects with more benefits for the whole system: "federal projects that make it easier to do anything also make it easier to do art." Easier to do art, but to what extent? As Kim, another author of this blog, finds out, art has always been the "very bottom priority". Investing "the means but not the ends" helps nothing when the society never considers art as one of the ends. In his article, he automatically assumes that "there are countless factors [..] that play a much larger role in determining what gets funded than does the federal arts budget." I would agree only if I would be shortsighted and my perspective would be limited from libertarian economist's viewpoint. From art-lover's viewpoint, art helps create the culture and heal the society (there is already a blog discussing that), and it simply not fair to prefer economy over culture.

His second point, abandoning the NEA is not the same as abandoning the art, is also flawed. Other than NEA, the government has never had any other actions to show that they support the art. While the art is so important, should government show some support so that community won't lost their belief of a better culture?

Source:

Korte, Travis. "Obama's Arts Budget Cuts Address National Endowment's Weakness."Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. 4 Mar. 2011. Web. 02 Sept. 2011. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/travis-korte/obamas-arts-budget-addres_b_831658.html>.