The stimulus bill and the culture industry

In a Wednesday (2/11) post entitled “Arts Jobs Are Real Jobs” on the Los Angeles Times website Culture Monster, Christopher Knight writes, “One puzzlement in the debate over congressional stimulus bill has been the inability—or the perverse refusal—of many to include jobs in the culture industry as a legitimate concern. Politicians of various stripes, from California Democrat Dianne Feinstein to Oklahoma Republican Tom Colburn, seem blind to the simple reality. … I chalk it up to celebrity culture. Funding for theater? Tim Robbins doesn’t need money! Funding for art museums? Jeff Koons is rich! Funding for concert halls? Yo-Yo Ma is a superstar! The glare of the celebrity spotlight obscures our view of the ticket-taker at Robbins’ play trying to make ends meet, the preparator at Koons’ museum exhibition struggling to put a kid through college, or the education program coordinator at the concert hall where Yo-Yo Ma performs who has a pile of medical bills. Their jobs are at risk. But they are anonymous, faceless.”