Well, I know I'm in the minority here -but once upon a time I actually was a founding member of a political action committee based on supporting the
NEA 4 and by extension public funding for the arts. I still believe arts funding is a good thing and I hate that since that day many museums have passed on more controversial fare, since just about all of them get some sort of government subsidy.
The high point of this experience was confronting our local congressman one Halloween night as he returned home from an overlong budget session. And of course all the cool artisits and litteratti we got to hang out with during the whole thing.
The low point was the political hack sent in to leverage our ability to "sway" the election creating news and events to trash the imcumbant. I hear one of them interviewed every now and then on NPR and my stomach lurches.
Perhaps it would be best if no public funding were required, but I'll admit that when I see some of the other crap my tax dollars pay for, I'd at least to have my piece of pie.
I think the effect has caused artisits and art institutes to self censor themselves. And I see the same thing happening again with the FCC. KCRW dumped my favorite commentator for saying "Fvck" on the air - what a waste