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According to an email making the Hollywood rounds, Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. “While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position,” the email reads. “We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts — now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.” The petition is located at: www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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We have that already it’s called the FCC & MPAA.
All this country is about is censoring not celebrating the arts.
Ah. So that’s why we the people of the United States did ordain and establish (the) Constitution for the United States of America. Not in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, but to give the state a say in culture.
I’ll support the arts with my entertainment dollars, not my tax dollars, thank you very much.
I think if anyone needs a Minister Of The Arts it would the Hollywood Studios. Get back to some of that good old fashion story telling with real people and real characters.
Quincy Jones is among the greatest and most influential living American artists. That is beyond question. What is up for question is his objectivity regarding the need for an official Ministry of the Arts. An official Federal department of the Arts. The very concept is silly and of course it will never happen.
hopefully this position will further the tradition of great vision and artistry that Quincy brought us with “Star Camp” and the first three seasons of MadTV.
Um, let’s see. We have no Ministry of the Arts, and somehow this country manages to turn out more filmed and electronic entertainment than the rest of the world combined.
I guess we need a new government bureaucracy to put a damper on all this.
Clearly you’ve never lived in a country that actually does censor the arts.
And, I say if they want to promote the arts in this country, put the money into arts programs in schools. Not in appointing a useless vanity position like Minister of the Arts.
What a lame idea. If Obama falls for this, as I’m sure he will, all it will mean is another level of bureaucrats telling Americans what to do and how to do it. Even worse, it will end up costing hard-working taxpayers millions but will show nothing.
But this is the least of what we are in for, I fear.
Well, considering the inauguration’s in a week and they hardly have anyone signed up to perform, I think what they really need is a competent secretary.
I agree with Jen. A Secretary of the Arts is a terrible idea.
No matter who was appointed to such a position, do we really want to subject the freedom of expression to one person’s ideology? I’m thinking not so much.
The history of the NEA is frought with censorship of government funded art. Of course, the government can say exactly how the money is spent, as soon as we hand over our tax dollars to let them. That’s how it goes. I’d rather keep that money and spend it on shows I like, like the burlesque show I’m seeing tomorrow. I’m doubtful burlesque qualifies as “real” art. But I think it should – and therein lies the kind of debates that would go on once we give up control of funding for the arts.
It would be the first step towards placing a value on the arts and maybe, treating them as they ought to be. Sign the petition!
Would an Arts Czar be able to prevent crappy TV from polluting our airwaves? If so, bring him/her on! Pack your shit and go Jimmy Kimmel, there’s a new sheriff in town!
Is he insane? Do you really want the government to have any more control than it already does?
Here is a little trick to decide if you are giving the government too much power.
If you are on the right. Would you want Hillary or Bill Cliinton to have this power.
If you are on the left. Would you want Bush or Reagan to have had this power?
Keep the government out.
I agree with Jen.
It would be a grand idea if America actually practiced “live and let live,” the idea on which the country was founded.
Instead (by and large) what will happen is that it’ll be turned into another arena for the so-called culture wars, and generate enough Supreme Court cases to fill a history book.
Our culturally rich nation needs a secretary of the Arts & Culture BADLY. This is LONGGGG overdue. Hurrah Quincy Jones!
Anything creative is the first thing to get the chop in schools, both private and public. Heaven forbid the local high school lose their water polo team. They just recently announced TV networks no longer have to support local public programming, which is about the only “arts” programming left on television, paid or otherwise.
There’s no point in having a government position for something that has no government support. You may as well appoint a Secretary of Common Sense.
I’m a Canadian and I’ve seen government arts funding at work and I can say that a Ministry of Arts is a double edged sword.
While the idea of public arts funding is nice, there are problems. Government financed arts programs create elite cliques who dominate the funding bodies, and funnel the funding to their friends and pet projects.
This greatly narrows who succeeds in the art scene from those with the talent, originality, and drive to win an audience to those who are connected to the ruling political party regardless of quality or appeal.
Then there’s the questions over the “censorship” issue. Should the state support art that no one else will support for fear of being accused of censorship?
Is it even censorship to not pay for something you don’t want, or is it editing as Tom Stoppard once asked? Because those who don’t get the funding will be screaming censorship at the top of their lungs.
It’s a lot trickier issue than you think.
When you can turn on an FM radio station at 10:00 in the morning and hear people carrying on graphic conversations about what it’s like to have sex with uncircumcised men or about being sexually attracted to animals, the notion that “all this country is about is censoring” strikes me as incredibly wide of the mark.
The very fact that you can criticize your government without fear of reprisal is a nearly unique circumstance in the long history of the human race. Count your blessings.
Oh god, there you go again.
If you gotta, then for Christ’s sake get David Geffen. He’s not doing anything now.
WhatEVER you do, DON’T GET OVIT or EISNER.
Sheeze, Nikki, it’s all about the lesser of evils, and besides, we don’t need no bloody, wonking, “czar.”
We have the 6 assholes who run the studios . . . isn’t that damage enough??? Imagine Peter (Turkey-King) Chernin as the FILM CZAR?? Who wouldn’t want to throw-up at the thought?
Now let’s get back back to talking about something REAL, like saving the US economy and getting jobs for the several million poor souls out there…or dealing with SAG West VS SAG East, or the life-or-death situation of WATCHMEN.
Now more than ever, we need the arts?
Is he out of his mind?
Now more than ever we need an economy, jobs, an infrastructure, credit, a stable housing market, and a state and federal government that isn’t heading to bankruptcy.
Art… shssshhhh…. what an idiot.
Perhaps Mr. Jones might familiarize himself w/ the National Endowment for the Arts ( nea.gov ) from which he can apply for a grant here ( nea.gov/Grants/apply ), or the National Endowment for the Humanities ( neh.gov ), or even the public/private partnership that is the Kennedy Center ( http://www.kennedy-center.org/ ).
The government should have as little to do with the arts as possible. I know most artists tend to be liberal and that philosophy likes to have government involved. But listen to your inner libertarian. Once you have the government involved, you have the government having influence. And they can be hard task-master. Want to do something controversial or unpopular? Shouldn’t expect that on the taxpayer’s dime. We live in a wonderful country. You can make your own way. Get support that way.
And then the war over what is art and what isn’t art will follow and still nothing will be accomplished.
I supposed you could call the US Poet Laureate the equivalent.
What a stupendously stupid idea!
Just think what would such a department push for if it were a Republican administration?
Everything would be blander than “7th Heaven”
Those are the people that insist the government would screw up the healthcare system in this country, even though the G currently runs the two biggest health systems around. [The VA & the military medical systems]
And what would the Democrats do?
The Multicultural Channels, all 993 of them!