***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 22:48:23 -0500
   [From]: "Chris Drew" <cdrew#@orion.it.luc.edu>
     [To]: "Cultural Exchange via Internet" <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] Public Funding of Art

There is little question that this is censorship. It is also the politics of
a weak leader. Scape Goating! Mayor Giuliani has made a career of bashing
artists. When politicians can make good hay of cutting up on artists this is
not a sign of a healthy democracy.

Mayor Giuliani has been arresting artists who for years sold their work on
New York Cities streets. See http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
for details of this struggle. The media has ignored these attacks. Then they
trumpet this latest move without any history. The media minds not
that local artists are censored or stripped of accessible survival options.
But when a museum with "important" donors is attacked they hollar loud. They
hollar too late.

Giuliani knows that the art from the Museum is imported and marketed to a select group. He is playing the well-to-do against the poor local artist and the middle and lower income groups against the well to do art agencies. And his only interest is a play for power. The museum will survive. The poor artists are another tale without the streets. Many will wither while a few will survive all odd. The sum total of our cultural output will be diminished.