Kansas Arts Awareness Day

Wichita Group's Initiative Deserves Attention

A group based at Wichita State University, led by Sahar Eshghi and Robert Eastman, sponsored a day of activities and advocacy to support the Kansas Arts Commission today.

The KAC was de-funded this year in a misguided effort by the Brownback Administration to cut "wasteful" spending from the state budget.

I couldn't find a web page (or you'd have seen a link already) for this group. On their Facebook page they state their objective: "Kansas is currently the only state in the nation without a viable Arts Commission. By raising awareness on campus and generating support, we can lobby the State Legislature to reinstate funding to our Arts Commission."


Unfortunately, of course, the state legislature already has tried to reinstate funding. In a move that attracted nationwide attention, Brownback vetoed their effort. But that doesn't mean we can't continue to try getting through to the Brownback gang.


I could not make it to Wichita to participate in the event, but I'd like to express my wholehearted support for this initiative. The Brownbackward de-funding action has actually cost Kansas money, and has yanked support from a vital part of the state's economic engine. 


As Eshghi and Eastman put it, "For every public dollar invested in the Kansas arts, $9 are generated. It has been proven that communities who support the arts not only enhance their quality of life, but also invest in their economic well-being."

This is not a new topic for me--I protested in this blog space in February when Brownback first insisted on this ideologically-oriented misstep. Ignoring the financial realities and brushing aside the popular outrage, the governor has kept his eyes on the national stage.

He is particularly courting the most right-wing, all-government-is-bad-government, arts-are-frills-for-liberals fringe. He's already planning to run for president in 2016; our state is just a stepping-stone, and our Arts Commission was just an ideological talking point, as far as he was concerned.

It was a bad idea for Kansas when he cooked it up, a bad idea for Kansas when he vetoed the funding attempt, and it continues to be a bad idea for Kansas now.

Impractical Ideology Puts Arts Under Attack

Gov. Sam Brownback (R) 

The latest headline comes from Kansas today, where our new Governor Sam Brownback has just eliminated the Kansas Arts Commission. 

This comes right after a rules-change in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in neighboring Missouri, that has made school arts programs voluntary, not mandatory—and anyone who’s seen what a beating school budgets have taken recently, knows what that means.

This is a one-two punch in my own back yard—but no matter where you live in the US, the arts are under attack.  Joyless conservative ideology is trumping practical reality in state after state.

Yes, that’s right—practical reality.  What the arts-cutters don’t want you to know is that the arts don’t cost.  They PAY. 

First Friday crowd in the Kansas City Crossroads Arts District

As we've proved in the Kansas City Crossroads Arts District, in Cottonwood Falls, KS, and many other local and regional examples, artists are often pioneers for economic regeneration.   Moreover, on nearly every scale of a community’s “livability” and desirability, a vigorous arts community is a “must.”

A concert in Cottonwood Falls, KS draws a crowd.

Missouri’s backward attitude notwithstanding, there also is considerable research to show that a vigorous school arts program can dramatically improve the chance of success for at-risk students.  Participation in music programs is positively correlated with math excellence, for instance.  I guess all that is irrelevant?

And how about the lament among those who worry about America’s global competitiveness that we need more creative thinkers?  Where do you think we’ll find the best training and practice in creative thinking?

Eliminating support for the arts is the lamest kind of false “practicality.”  We can’t afford to fall for it.  Yet in state after state, it appears that we are.

Images: Sam Brownback from Polichicks website; KC Crossroads First Friday crowd by Jan Gephardt; Concert in Cottonwood Falls from Kansas Sampler Foundation website.