ART PROFESSIONALS SHOULD DEVELOP CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING WORK OF ART

Public funding of the arts has recently become a topic of intense discussion throughout the country. As taxes increase at every level for a broad array of public programs, the temptation is to tighten controls, narrow selectiveness, and question the necessity of every program. This process is a healthy response for citizens involved in government and the public i~nterest.

Our community in the heart of America is justified in calling to question whether or not tax money should support the arts, and if so, who should decide what art is to be supported by public funds. These questions inevitably bring up other queries about just what art is and isn't, about public versus private art, about freedom, tolerance, values and censorship.

As a professional involved in the presentation and teaching of art, I would like to offer the following insights and opinions.

Art is as old as humanity and I would guess that the validity of creativity has always come into question especially in hard times. Thirty thousand years ago the artists who labored for countless hours painting the cave walls at Lascaux, France, were most likely chastised for not helping with the hunt or food gathering for the clan. Yet these paintings survive today as reflections of that ancient people, the way they thought, hunted, worked, and hoped. We are thankful that these powerful creations survived despite the demands for practicality.

The pyramids of Egypt, the temples and statues of ancient Greece and Rome, and the cathedrals of Medieval Europe were all created with vision beyond practicality, on the backs and out of the pockets of the public. These works would not exist otherwise.

Art reflects the society and time of artists who create it. Artists have been the conduit through which complex ideas of a culture are brought together, organized and mirrored. In this sense, art is truth. Through the creative process, artists try to get to the heart of issues, to make visible the invisible, and to find something tangible in confusion. This honesty must be protected and nurtured with the modern support of public funds. The market place, public opinion and fads do not motivate or inspire art but may be reflected by it.~

Who should choose which art to support? Art professionals with training and experience should develop the criteria for evaluating works of art, not individuals or interest groups with one set of values. For public opinion to try to evaluate and select art would be like me trying to dictate that my mirror make me look like Demi Moore. My mirror only tells the truth.

This analogy may help point out that we do not always acce~pt, understand, or like the truth. Public support of art requires tolerance which is a private attitude of acceptance reflecting a view of society, not personal values. By weighing and comparin~g many ideas offered by the creativity of artists, we can be strengthened in our personal realities.

As citizens we must have the freedom to experience and be challenged by the truth of art. We must tolerate the truth of the artist's mirror of our society and times. The artists who exhibit their ideas in the public spaces today are like the cave dwellers who adorned the walls of Lascaux. The tiny portion of our tax dollars that goes for support of the arts should be provided without restriction like the harvest and hunt shared in prehistoric times.

Tolerance for diversity in the arts can reside alongside individual values. Private galleries may censor, select, and edit art based on subject and image rather than artistic merit. Public support must, without censorship, nurture freedom and the challenge of developing new ideas.