Jackie’s Renderings: A message from the Executive Director

I was so optimistic at the turn of the year and although I remain so, I encourage all who read this to support your legislation keeping the National Endowment for the Arts. I respectfully paraphrase an article here from an opinion in the Boston Globe from Anita Walker, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. “This year we face the most serious threat to the National Endowment for the Arts in decades. This as we begin the centennial of the president who gave birth to the idea of federal support for the arts, our native son John F. Kennedy.  Public funding of the arts assures that our great art, our national legacy, belongs to all citizens of our country. The public dollar purchases an ownership stake for everyone, regardless of their station in life....President Johnson said, “It is in the neighborhoods of each community that a nation’s art is born. In countless American towns there live thousands of obscure and unknown talents. The arts and the humanities belong to the people, for it is after all, the people who create them.”

The legislation creating the NEA says its purpose is to ensure a “climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry.” This is not about funding a piece of art. It is about the freedom to make and experience art. It is about the freedom to imagine and question and think.

 

Artifax is a project organized by Use All Five to get Congress’s attention about the importance of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Artifax makes it simple to send a message to your elected officials about why the arts matter to you! Select the artwork that resonates the most with you, add your message, and they'll fax it to your congressperson. https://artifax.us/