1X
Whether public tax money should fund the arts is the question this broadcast puts to two guests with opposing views. George R. Ellis, director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, argued that government support—about 24 cents per person at the federal level—acts as a pump primer, lending legitimacy that attracts private and corporate investment, sustaining cultural tourism, preserving traditional folk arts, and supporting arts education in public schools. Ellis maintained that the great civilizations of history have been those that invested in art. Ken Schoolland, professor of economics and political science at Hawaii Pacific University and a former chairman of the Hawaii Libertarian Party, countered that compelling taxpayers to fund others' aesthetic preferences is ethically indefensible: private and corporate giving already dwarf public arts funding, the arts would not disappear without public subsidy, and voluntary giving better reflects what people value. By phone, Marcia Morris, professor of art at Honolulu Community College and an art critic, sided with Ellis, describing arts funding as part of cultural infrastructure and arguing that grant-making is more inclusive than critics claim. Bob McWilliams, a studio potter, sided with Schoolland, contending that state grant programs favor a narrow circle of artists.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
