As it should be.
Fundraising like any other on profit.
Taxpayer Grants are ridiculous, they can fund themselves. Just hit up the cheap leftys that visit.
“Well Observer, I wouldn’t pay $2 to see that crap.”
exactly ... and let’s see how well all of those “fund-raising” efforts are gonna go, and that’ll tell us what the REAL support for outside funding “for the arts” is ...
for sure, that’s gonna take A LOT of bake sales and lemonade stands!
There's a very old aphorism that NO GOVERNMENT ever abides by: "Look after there pennies and the dollars will look after themselves." After all, it's other peoples' money, so who cares?
The original British version is attributed to William Lowndes, an English Treasury official, in the late 17th or early 18th century. The earliest recorded use appears in a 1750 letter by Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, in his Letters to His Son (published 1774), where he writes writes: "Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves." Chesterfield used it to advise his son on frugality and financial prudence, reflecting the mercantile values of the time.
Car Washes and bake sales come in pretty handy. Old school. Not the crap they do these days where schools and groups wanting money have their members send grandma and grampa a prepared email begging for money from grandparents a lot of them have never even seen.
About 40 years ago I used to enjoy listening to the local NPR classical music station.
Then they had one of their annoying non-stop fundraisers and I quit listening, never to return.
MASS MoCA lost a $50,000 NEA grant in May 2025 for Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibit “Power Full Because We’re Different”, a large-scale installation of beaded garments celebrating queer and Indigenous communities.
MASS MoCA hosts diverse, often provocative installations such as:
EJ Hill’s “Brake Run Helix” (2023), funded by a $45,000 NEA grant, featured a pink roller coaster exploring themes of joy and Black identity.
Vincent Valdez’s “Just a Dream…” (2025), a survey of American societal “failings and triumphs,” addresses politics and identity through multimedia.
These works align with contemporary art’s focus on social issues, which critics like you often label “woke” for emphasizing diversity, equity, or marginalized narratives. This reflects a broader trend in contemporary art museums, where conceptual and socially engaged works dominate over technical mastery in classical techniques (e.g., oil painting, marble sculpture).
Most of it looks like it requires zero talent, skill, training and a lot of it is just flat out ugly.
“Arts Groups” are everywhere and behind the counters at Starbucks throughout the land!!
“Arts,” therefore, have no incentive to attract an audience.
This is why crap masquerades as entertainment.
Maybe if they hadn’t been attacking Elon so hard, they could have appealed to him, or they could try their boy George Soros.
Bill Gates likes to call himself a philaphatrist. He could easily pay for these things.
I don’t want one damn cent of my money to go for any of that bill s***.
Those losers can go get a job like everybody else.
Since you brought up $$$$$, there IS THIS:
$$$$$ WHO WAS ROGER SHERMAN(1721‑1793)? $$$$$
(PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH OTHERS!)
His name should be familiar to every American. As familiar as Washington, Madison, Jefferson & Adams. He is the only man to have signed all 4 documents surrounding the formation of the United States of America: The Continental Association of 1774, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation & The US Constitution. As a Judge of the Superior Court in New Haven, Conn., he served with distinction from 1766 until 1788. He served as Treasurer of Yale University from 1765 to1776. Renouned for his high intelligence & unswerving honesty, John Adams said of him “He was honest as an angel & as
firm in the cause of American independence as Mount Atlas.” He served in the Senate from 1791 until his death in 1793.
So why is Roger Sherman*s name unfamiliar?
HE WAS AN ENEMY OF PAPER MONEY!!
In 1751, Sherman & his brother sued James Battle for paying a debt to their shop in Connecticut, in depreciating paper $$. Over 15 months, Battle charged “divers wares & merchandizes” amounting to 129 pounds of what Sherman “assumed” were pounds of Connecticut “Old Tenor”, a stable currency whose value was well‑preserved by taxation taking it out of circulation. But Battle assumed the debt was denominated in pounds of ever‑depreciating Rhode Island currency, tendered in same. The Shermans took a beating in payment & sued for recovery do to depreciation. The Shermans lost when Battle argued that he was merely following the accepted custom of the day. In 1752, Sherman wrote his book “A Caveat Against Injustice or An Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange” indicting UNBACKED PAPER MONEY!
Sherman brought this experience to the Constitutional Convention & prompted him to rise on August 28,1787 & propose new, more restrictive wording to Article 1,Section 10. The version under consideration was worded thus: “No state shall coin money; nor grant letters of marque and reprisal; nor enter into any Treaty, alliance, or confederation; nor grant any title of Nobility.” (From Madison’s Notes of the Convention)
“Judge Sherman & Mr. Wilson moved to insert the words *coin money* the words *nor emit bills of credit, nor make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts*
making these prohibitions absolute, instead of making the measures allowable with the consent of the Legislature of the U.S. !
Sherman thought this a FAVORABLE CRISIS FOR CRUSHING PAPER MONEY.
If the consent of the Legislature could authorize emissions of it, the friends of paper money would make every effort to get into the Legislature in order to license it.” Mr. Sherman*s & Mr. Wilson*s motion was quickly agreed to & became the supreme law of the land.
Some additional quotations to ponder:
“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in the constitution or confederation, nor from a want of honor or virtue so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation” (John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1787)
“I deny the power of the general government to making paper money, or anything else, a legal tender.” (Thomas Jefferson)
“You have been doubtless been informed, from time to time, of the happy progress of our affairs. The principal difficulties seem in great measure to have been surmounted. Our revenues have been considerably more productive than it was imagined they would be. I mention this to show the spirit of enterprise that prevails.” (George Washington in a letter to the Marquis de LaFayette, June 3, 1790 AFTER the United States Constitution prohibited unbacked paper money at Article 1, Section 10)
“Since the federal constitution has removed all danger of our having a paper tender, our trade is advanced fifty percent. Our monied people can trust their cash abroad, & have brought their coin into circulation.” (The Pennsylvania Gazette Dec.16, 1789 )
“Our country, my dear sir, is fast progressing in its political importance & social happiness.” (Washington in a letter to the Marquis de LaFayette, March 19, 1791)
“The United States enjoys a sense of prosperity & tranquility under the new government that could hardly have been hoped for.” (Washington’s letter to Catherine M. Graham, July,1791)
“Tranquility reigns among the people with that disposition towards the general government which is likely to preserve it. Our public credit stands on that high ground which 3 years ago would have been considered as a species of madness to have foretold.” Washington’s letter to David Humphreys, July 20, 1791)
“It is apparent from the whole context of the Constitution as well as the times which gave birth to it, that it was the purpose of the Convention to establish a currency consisting of the precious metals.
These were adopted by a permanent rule excluding the use of a perishable medium of exchange, such as certain agricultural commodities recognized by the statutes of some States as tender for debts, or the still more pernicious expedient of PAPER CURRENCY.” (Andrew Jackson, 8th Annual Message to Congress, December, 1836)
DESPITE WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL, THE HISTORICAL RECORD IS CRYSTAL CLEAR: AMERICA WAS TO HAVE BEEN SPARED THE DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF UNBACKED PAPER MONEY. MOST OF THE PROBLEMS WE FACE TODAY CAN BE TRACED TO WHAT ANDREW JACKSON CALLED “THE PERNICIOUS EXPEDIENT OF PAPER MONEY”.
History teaches that an “artificial” money creates an equally “artificial” world where the price for some item...even our most popular welfare “program”...can be deferred to future generations (our multi-trillion national debt) or “paid” with a “money” created out of thin air which robs the value from the money we might be unfortunate enough to have in our pockets at that moment (inflation).
And one thing you must remember about inflation is that it is not an “equal opportunity” destroyer: Those first in line to get their hands on the new money rolling off the presses (the modern friends of paper money) have a chance to spend it before it loses more value. The little people (that’s us, folks!) farthest down the line are the ones who feel the fullest effects of this destructive process.
AND THAT’S BECAUSE IT WAS PLANNED THAT WAY!