Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Music David Byrne on Arts Funding in America: "Stop Glorifying Dead Guys"
Posted by Mike Conklin on Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 4:20 PM
I think maybe it’s time to stop, or more reasonably, curtail somewhat, state investment in the past — in a bunch of dead guys (and they are mostly guys, and mostly dead, when we look at opera halls) — and invest in our future. Take that money, that $14 million from the city, for example, let some of those palaces, ring cycles and temples close — forgo some of those $32M operas — and fund music and art in our schools. Support ongoing creativity in the arts, and not the ongoing glorification and rehashing of the work of those dead guys. Not that works of the past aren’t inspirational, important and relevant to future creativity — plenty of dead people’s work is endlessly inspiring — but funding for arts in schools has been cut to zero in many places.
He stops just short of complaining that the Adult Art World's failure to recognize popular music as a serious part of our culture has done and is doing a grave disservice to many of our greatest living artists, at a time when, really, we should know a whole lot better, but you can tell he was about to get there. [via Daily Swarm]
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Does Mr. Byrne not realize that one day he will also be dead?
So if a music teacher want to take her class to the symphony, what will she do?
Oh, I see... a David Byre concert. I get it now.
Posted by iamastupidhead
on February 3, 2010 at 4:34 AM
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