Arts culture is worth the investment

By Lynne Rothrock

Matt Sissel's Feb. 7 guest column regarding the Iowa Arts Council needs some clarification.

Sissel's premise that art should follow the supply/demand rules of capitalism would leave us with little in the way of arts experiences. The vast majority of art galleries, theaters and concert experiences he claims are flourishing in Iowa are heavily subsidized by donations and corporate sponsorship - in addition to grant monies that may come from the Arts Council or other government funding sources. It is a rare arts event that is fully funded by ticket sales or purchase price. Libraries are funded by public money as well.

The mission of the Iowa Arts Council is “to enrich the quality of life for Iowans through support of the arts,” and when grants are made to individual artists, the IAC has been clear about its desire to support the developing careers of those individuals - because when individual Iowa artists get better at what they do, and have their work seen by more people, it's an ultimate enrichment of the quality of life for all Iowans.

Each of the grant recipients listed in the column are greatly misrepresented by Sissel's one-sentence descriptions. To clarify one example - the “high schoolers funded to play music in Japan” is more accurately described on the Arts Council Web site: “With a grant from the IAC, Des Moines Hoover High School Band will travel to Kofu and Tokyo, Japan, in March 2010 to perform jointly with the bands of Kofu First Senior High School and Yokohama International School. The joint ensemble will work with and perform a premier work by world-renowned Japanese composer Jun Nagao.”

This experience will greatly enrich the lives of the young Iowans involved - thus fulfilling the IAC mission.

I encourage you to visit the following Web link to see more accurately what the Arts Council dollars are doing in 2010: www.iowaartscouncil.org/funding/recently-awarded-grants/2010/round-2010.shtml

It is fair for anyone to disagree with who receives funding or how those decisions are made, like government agencies to operate more efficiently. But disbanding those agencies hardly seems the answer.

In this fiscal year, Iowa is spending 34 cents per person on the arts - the national average is 90 cents. Our state needs variety and vitality in its arts programs - we need so much more than the opportunity to rent videos and download songs to have a culturally thriving community.

Lynne Rothrock of Cedar Rapids is a self-employed singer, actress and arts educator. She has performed at a variety of venues around the United States and has served on the voice faculty at several universities and Kirkwood Community College.