With discussion of the Nea (National Endowment for the Arts) being defunded to help close the $352 billion government deficit, many in the arts community are bracing for the worst. They argue that because the NEA is only .003% of the government's budget, it should be no issue to keep the funding. For most people working in or for the arts, it seems that with the defunding of the NEA, the end of culture for America is unavoidable.
But here's why they're wrong
People want art -- they always have and they always will. Even during a prehistoric world when it seems all time and energy should have been focused solely on surviving, we see people producing artwork.
Why? Because art is how we as humans communicate. Though countless empires have risen and fallen, islands disintegrated into the ocean, and hundreds of species of animals gone extinct, art has always remained. Art is our main source of history that speaks across all centuries, all languages, all cultural differences.
The future of art in America
So why should we have faith that art will survive in America without the NEA? For the same reason that America is, has been, and will continue to be the best, safest, and most powerful country in the world -- capitalism. While government funding for the arts may not continue, as people speaking for both sides of the debate have pointed out, the funding for the NEA is .003%, next to nothing.
Here's where the beauty of capitalism comes in.
Art in the United States has been surviving not because of a government budget that provides scarcely any money, but because of private donors. Private donors are people or organizations that personally donate money to certain arts organizations such as ballet companies, art museums, galleries, or television/radio channels such as PBS or NPR.
These donors are the real reason why we have art in the United States.
Despite the fact that government funding may be cut for the NEA, the arts will thrive now more than ever because people want art -- and when Americans want something, they get it. We will prove that the arts will not fade into oblivion due to defunding because citizens will vote for their wallet.
Moreso, because of the publicity that the NEA is receiving from the possibility of potential budget cuts, more Americans than ever will know and actually take the time to think about the arts and what they provide for our country. Not only that, as our country moves closer and closer to closing the enormous deficit in our budget, created from decades of ill-advised spending, our country will prosper more than it ever has; putting even more money back into citizens' wallets to circulate into the arts.
We live in the greatest nation in the world because we as citizens of the United States have the freedom to choose what we do and do not want in our country, and there is no doubt that Americans will choose art.
