Well it seems that Fractured Atlas isn’t just an information resource any more. Thanks to eagle eye folks at TheatreForte, I recently learned they have started a blog as well.
As you might imagine, they have entries on a number of interesting subjects. The one that caught my eye was a little quiz Adam Huttler ran about which presidential candidate was the source of quotes on the importance of arts education, including this one.
“I tend to think that one of the greatest mistakes in education over the past generation has been that many school districts have cut their budgets in music and art programs. And in doing so, they’ve done one of the dumbest things that could ever be done that really is harmful to students in this country.”
The answer to the little quiz was Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. He made the comments before an audience at a Baptist University and based his sentiment partially on the idea that human’s reflect the creativity of the divine in who’s image they were shaped.
I was a little skeptical about his sincerity, especially when it appeared he had made the faux pas of endorsing a book he hadn’t read by encouraging his audience to read Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class. As Huttler notes, the book says that creativity thrives in communities where homosexuals can live openly.
But Gov. Huckabee seems fully invested in the idea. He has signed mandatory arts education into law and made arts education the theme of his term as chairman of the Education Commission of the States. In his address he says the country is failing it’s children by perpetuating a system that only emphasizes left brain learning.
Unfortunately, most of Gov. Huckabee’s other political views put him outside my consideration. This is just another example of how one should not categorize a person entirely by a label. While people holding liberal view are often more in sympathy with the arts, I have personally lived in a state where Republicans were resisting Democrat cuts to the arts during budget negotiations. Given that the arts groups were proving to be well organized that year and the Republicans may have seen an advantage in taking up their cause when normally they might not have.
Politics makes strange bedfellows they say.* Sometimes there is benefit in considering unfamiliar bedmates.
*Though Charles Dudley Warner said it first, adapted from Shakespeare’s Tempest..
Huckabee’s views put him outside my consideration as well. But it’s worth noting that this is a big part why we in the arts are perpetual losers when it comes to public support and political power. The NRA is an enormously powerful organization, but not because they’ve got a ton of members and not even because they’ve got guns. It’s because their members will push aside all other considerations to vote solely based on a candidate’s position on gun laws. Call it narrow-minded, one-issue politics, but it’s damn effective.
Imagine a candidate who will quadruple public funding for the arts and ensure that every arts organization in the country never has to beg for its budget again. Now imagine that he’s also pro-life, pro-gun, pro-death penalty, and anti-gay. Can you imagine anyone from our community supporting him?