Do arts jobs count as jobs?

[1gobluedem]

A very interesting article and one that is certainly timely with the recent recommended cuts to arts and culture in Michigan.


http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/do-arts-jobs-count-as-jobs.php

[Deja Q]

1. Is bleating into a microphone for his radio listeners to froth over a job?

Right wing radio hosts.

:evilgrin:

[1gobluedem]

3. Well, I suppose there are arguments pro and con for almost every kind of job

But I didn't see any mention of RW radio hosts in this article.

The arts generate $165 million annually in my county. That's a lot of jobs and a lot of revenue. The arts are a legitimate profession and do generate revenue.

[kentuck]

2. No. Only jobs that last forever.

Such as the Senate and the Congress of the United States. Those are the only real jobs left in America, by the Republican definition.

[Greyhound]

4. Lawyers.

I was afraid I should have become one, but no, I decided that using my brain to make useful things would stay in demand.

What a idiot.

[HereSince1628]

5. Nope. Artists are like college teachers not of the real world, just priviledged poverty

People want art and educations but only if they are REALLY cheap and about something they already know.

I love listening to parents of prospective students at campus visitiation day Art Expo's..."Call that ART? What a waste! Not worth the paint he used. I hope my kid won't be forced to take art here. I ain't stupid. I know art when I see it."

Yep, I agree. They are absolutely right, I am with them in the hope that THEIR KID WON'T BE forced to take art HERE.

[donco6]

7. Until we're all reduced to Terry Redlin.

Just . . . BLECCCCCHHHHHH!

[stray cat]

12. I like his camping prints - evening solitude and morning solitude

[donco6]

20. MY EYES MY EYES!

I've been savaged yet again by the Painter of Light!

Sorry, seriously, cannot stand him.

[donco6]

6. That whole argument is bizarre.

Of course arts jobs are jobs. In fact, arts jobs played a critical role in helping us survive the last Depression.

I'm a little older, and my mom and dad lived through the thick of the 30s and 40s. They often talked about how little things like going to a movie or listening to a radio program really took your mind off of how desperate things had become. It helped you through another day. And today, it's the same way. When I drive out to the airport and go past the extremely controversial Big Blue Bronco with Wild Demon Eyes, it makes me laugh. I love that statue. It was worth every penny. And the art pieces built into the downtown redevelopment are beautiful. And the ones out here in Stapleton are just fantastic.

So, yeah, art jobs are real jobs that make an impression that lasts a lot longer than any of those RW blowhards in DC.

And I can't draw to save my life, so this is not tooting my own horn.

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. .Yes.

The Works Progress Administration (renamed in 1939 to the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions of people and affecting most every locality in the United States, especially rural and western mountain populations. It was created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential order, and funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935. (The legislation had passed in the House by a margin of 329 to 78, but got bogged down in the Senate.) <1>

It continued and extended relief programs similar to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) started by Herbert Hoover and the U.S. Congress in 1932. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA provided almost 8 million jobs.<2> The program built many public buildings, projects and roads and operated large arts, drama, media and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing and housing. Almost every community in America has a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.<1>

Artists such as Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Mark Rothko, Willem deKooning and Jackson Pollock were just a few of the thousands of artists on the WPA Project who have achieved worldwide recognition. Many, many other artists, who were also on the project, such as Aaron Berkman, Jules Halfant, Max Arthur Cohn, Norman Barr and Gertrude Shibley are in museum collections, exhibitions and are in many private collections, but are not as yet nationally known.

http://www.fineartstrader.com/wpa.htm

[uppityperson]

9. Of course they are.

[JerseygirlCT]

10. Short-sighted is right

Arts jobs are jobs. The product they produce is important to our lives and our culture. We would be greatly impoverished without it.

Unfortunately far too many have either gone without realizing the impact arts have had on their lives, or have been "educated" to believe they are frivolous extras - and elitist to boot.

Just another right wing talking point, meant to appeal to the most reactionary and least thoughtful elements of our society.

[frazzled]

11. Here are some arts jobs

In museums: security guards, construction crews (carpenters, framers, lighting specialists, media technicians), librarians, food workers, secretarial and accounting workers, curators, assistant curators, registrars ...

In symphony orchestras: ticket takers, crew, sound technicians, janitors, program writers, public relations staff, musicians ...

I could go on, but the point is that many many people work in arts-related fields (my husband and myself included), and these are real jobs, often compensated less well than jobs in the private sector, but with many psychic perks. These jobs and institutions also create huge economic boons for the surrounding community (to restaurants, cab drivers, etc.)

[madrchsod]

13. to the knuckle draggers art is not a profession

to the rest of us it is. fdr employed artists across the nation during the depression.

[BlooInBloo]

14. Do they get paid?

[SmileyRose]

15. Even if unpaid - if it supplies any basic human needs it's a job.

That said, as taxpayers, it's hard to justify spending on the arts - even if it means a few losing jobs - when resources are limited and there are other needs to be met.

If the jobs in the art world have enough value in Michigan then hopefully the art produced can find private sponsorship of some sort. I feel for artists. I really do. In lean times they are always the first to get cut off by local and state governments.

[Starry Messenger]

16. I hope so.

Otherwise I might not really exist. :D

"C'est n'est pas 'un job'"

[Stevenmarc]

17. Considering most conservatives understanding of art

consists of making sure the paint covers the numbers, it comes as no surprise.

[Eryemil]

18. Only if it is Thomas Kinkade n|t

[marions ghost]

19. it's true that

even some well-educated people & high-info people don't understand the value of the arts to society. These days there's something in the arts for everybody so it's not just a matter of rejection based on "taste." Some people just do not get it.

(The irony is that an architect is definitely, without question, an "artist." )