(Musicians) Groban, Marsalis, press Congress for arts funding

AP via Google ^ | 4-1-2009 | BRETT ZONGKER

[a fool in paradise]

Musicians Josh Groban, Wynton Marsalis and Linda Ronstadt pressed Congress on Tuesday for more public funding for the arts to help sustain programs during the nation's economic slump.

Marsalis said it's critical for the nation to reevaluate its priorities during the financial crisis to ensure the best aspects of U.S. culture aren't lost to younger generations because of scarce funding. The acclaimed trumpet player said he learned key lessons about jazz when he was young by playing with some of the original members of Duke Ellington's band.

"Around the world, music links generations old and young," Marsalis told lawmakers. "For some reason in our country, we decided we were going to allow the younger generation to be separated.

"We have left our kids exposed to business interests," he said of divergent tastes in music and culture, "and after 30 or 40 years of that, we're shocked."

Marsalis testified before a House subcommittee Tuesday, along with Groban and Ronstadt. Supporters packed the hearing room wearing "Arts Jobs" pins...

Arts advocates fanned out across Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to $200 million for fiscal year 2010. They said federal support for the arts has fallen off dramatically over the past 30 years, considering inflation and the nation's growth over that time.

Republicans slashed funding for the federal arts endowment in the mid-1990s to less than $100 million, and the annual allocation has yet to return to its high of $176 million in 1992.

This year, the federal stimulus package would add $50 million to the $155 million the agency is receiving from Congress. But supporters worry about how the NEA will fare in years when there's no infusion of stimulus dollars.

[absolootezer0]

most real musicians do. and most of the ones that do it, don’t clamour for recognition, which is why you don’t hear about it very often.

of all the musicains and performing groups i met thru high school and college, the musicians were always great, the performing groups tended to be jerks.

[Kenton]

If we're going to give tax money to support the "arts", we should demand the same sort of accountability and bureaucratic interference be directed at the recipients of our generosity as the CEO of GM or anybody else we're "bailing out".

I DEMAND AN ART CZAR! Somebody to license artists, to supervise art for worthiness of content, to censor out anything that might be remotely offensive or even controversial to ANYBODY before they get a dime of public money!

[Of course, I'm just kiddin' about this... but can you imagine how many heart attacks this would cause among the National Endowment for the Arts, NPR, unemployable "performance artists", talking vaginas (OK, I don't know what that means, but I think they have them in the Vagina Monologues), as well as every "street artist" with a can of spray paint? I think it would be fun to do just for the fear and loathing it would unleash on the artsy-crafties...]

[a fool in paradise]

Imagine the product liability lawsuits for kids who got pregnant while listening to Britney Spears...

[Hyzenthlay]

I agree about Marsalis. I had a similar experience (although it wasn’t a local thing, it was on a high school trip) and he definitely seems to be very directly, personally involved in promoting the arts instead of just being some big-time pop star who’s got ‘promoting the arts’ as one of their pet causes that they pressure politicians to take up every once in a while.

[GSWarrior]

I read this joke on FR not long ago.

Why does Linda Ronstadt sing so slowly?
She has a governor on her.

[a fool in paradise]

In Louisiana, around 4th grade (at least when I went to public school there) all kids are to pick up a music instrument. Doesn’t require pushing up NEA grants ($40,000 to shove a yam or bullwhip up a rectum, in the cases of Karen Finelay and Robert Mapplethorpe).