Society Needs Benefits Of Art

Cathy McMorris, a newly-elected legislator from Colville, used to play the piano for Woodlands community theater productions in Kettle Falls.

Yankee Doodle was one of her better shows.

“I admire the talents of people in the arts,” she recalled fondly a few days ago from Olympia.

Fond admiration, however, is only distant cousin to funding.

McMorris, a first-term Republican who serves on the Legislature’s capital budget committee, has sponsored House Bill 1135 that would eliminate state art funding in future construction of schools, juvenile detention centers and prisons. The vote is Monday.

“We’re really feeling the crunch this year in capital building,” she said. “I just question whether taxpayer money should go to buying art for schools and prisons.”

The question of why bother with state support of the arts is being asked all across the nation these days.

The rationale seems to be this: people want less government and will be happy to forgo public art; the government has no reason to fund the arts and the arts will do just fine without the government.

Does this rationale hold up?

I don’t think so.

First, I think the public has come to value public art.

The sculpted Bloomsday runners at the corner of Riverfront Park have become such a Spokane landmark that every visitor to town is dragged to see them.

The big red wagon in the park is another example of how quickly public art becomes part of the public mind.

The wagon now appears in most brochures showing the best of Spokane and few kids under 10 haven’t taken at least one slide down the wagon’s tongue.

“What makes public art so crucial,” explained Sue Ellen Heflin, art director for the city of Spokane,”is that it helps bring us a sense of place and tell us what makes our place special.”

Can the private sector truly step up and fill the void if the government stepped out of the funding of public art?

The experiences in Spokane would not suggest this.

City art director Heflin and Junior League of Spokane spent months trying to raise private money for the popular big red wagon, and never did get enough to pay the artist in full. “In today’s climate, finding private funds for the arts is very, very hard,” Heflin said.

In many smaller Washington towns it is even tougher.

The state mandate to devote onehalf of one percent of public construction costs to art combined with small state arts commission grants for schools and community performing arts groups often represents the only realistic source of funds for public art and public performance.

In McMorris’ own legislative district, for example, the state arts commission this year funded artistin-residence programs for the Odessa schools, Oroville schools, the Omak Performing Arts Center and the North County Theater in Metaline Falls.

Without the state money, these programs would be threatened or simply not available.

If funding for the arts in Washington were taking a huge slice the state of state’s capital or operating budgets, Rep. McMorris and Rep. Crouse, R-Spokane, would have a stronger case.

But these programs truly are a tiny drop in a large public trough.

Between 1993-1995, Washington state will end up spending $1.7 billion on bricks and mortar in its capital budget.

The state mandated one-half of one percent for public art in public buildings amounts to only $2.4 million. Out of the more than $16 billion being spent on state operations, only $4.2 million in tax money supports programs by the arts commission.

This puny sum puts Washington state 49th in the rankings of state taxsupported arts funding.

Yet in the places where this bit of state money lands, it matters.

The Spokane Symphony received $44,000 from the arts commission last year.

Interplayers Theater received $11,792.

The Spokane Art School received $7,000.

And, despite the perception that the state arts commission funds outof-state artists, 75% of the public art grants this year will go to Washington state artists.

The artists themselves are hardly out-of-the-mainstream freaks.

David Govedare, the creator of the Bloomsday runners, will place four works in newly-constructed public schools this year.

Ken Spiering, creator of the big red wagon, will have a work in a school, too.

Even the art-in-prison program has a value that often is overlooked. As Washington State Arts Commission executive director Karen Kamara Gose explained, “The art in prisons is an effort to mitigate the effects of the prison environment on the people who work there, the correctional officers, the families and relatives who come to visit.”

Art touches a part the soul that goes beyond facts and figures, crunching numbers, and bureaucracy.

Art can lift people up, even as they stroll through a school or city hall.

That’s something our society needs right now.