Art Wars

Here is an excerpt from Michael J. Lewis' piece After the Art Wars concerning the NEA and reading in Commentary Magazine.

Another proper area of public action is the precipitous decline in recreational reading on the part of young Americans, a decline with not only cultural ramifications but ominous practical ones—including the future ability of the American labor force to read and write reports, interpret instructions, and analyze problems verbally. Even at the risk of falling prey to an instrumental view of the arts, one would do well to support the NEA’s recent focus on studying the condition of American literacy and instituting programs for advancing it.

The entire piece is worth a read. It is on the government's support of the arts and how America sponsors controversial artists, the politics of tax-payer funded art and thoughts on why we fund the arts.