Does Your Candidate Support the Arts?

BY BARTON BUND, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, THE BLACKBIRD THEATRE

An article in this month's American Theatre Magazine lays out where McCain, Obama and other third-party candidates stand on supporting the Arts. Vist the Theare Communications Group online at www.tcg.org.

Obama's got a plan: big increases to the National Endowment for the Arts, increases to Arts programs in schools, and neat projects like bringing artists into low-income schools for workshops and residences.

McCain has lumped the Arts in with part of his spending freeze. He has never supported arts funding since coming into the Senate. He has supported block funding to states for school programs and arts projects, but has stood firmly in his Reagan-era stance on the NEA. He vehemently objects to taxpayer dollars being spent on projects that are potentially obscene or offensive. Sarah Palin has rejected grants in her home state, and has never supported groups such as Perserverance Theatre in their applications for relatively small $25,000 grants.

So while much of the talk has been about large-scale priorities such as the economy and the war, please keep in mind that each candidate's plans also include the future of our Arts community. Both here at home and on the global stage, consider how your vote will affect us all in the Arts.