There was a very powerful illustration in Spike Online this week about why the arts industry should be careful about promoting benefits of artistic activity that don’t include artistic qualities.

Tiffany Jenkins notes that recently seven major arts entities in England teamed up on a proposal that stated funding the arts “will improve: ‘participation’, ‘self-esteem’ ‘community cohesion’, social regeneration’, ‘economic vitality’ and ‘health’.”

Also recently, Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that the 2012 Olympics “will increase volunteering, create community cohesion and tackle obesity.” The Treasury has suggested the games will result in “urban regeneration, to economic prosperity.”

Says Jenkins (my emphasis)-

Hence culture and sport find themselves competing, not as discreet public goods or ends in their own right, but as interchangeable vehicles aiming to deliver on a set of identical priorities, which does neither of them any favours. Once the arts are viewed merely as a tool for delivering prescribed economic or social outcomes, there is no reason why the arts should be favoured.

A bit of background if you hadn’t been following the news- The arts community in England is quite upset because their funding got cut by

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..