Campaign for the arts

Globe editorial

On the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama is a fount of inspiring rhetoric. So it's interesting that the Illinois senator's stirring policy paper on arts and culture briefly hands the microphone to someone else, quoting poet Dana Gioia, the National Endowment for the Arts chairman.

"The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct," Gioia said in a speech last year. "The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society."

Obama would turn that sentiment into policy, through an intriguing plan to reinforce - and reinvest in - the arts. Other candidates ought to take up this banner.

Class plays may not turn every child into Meryl Streep. Cello lessons may not yield a bumper crop of Yo-Yo Mas. Still, a good performance - charged with student jitters, long rehearsals, and warm applause - can resonate for years. It can move students who grow into teachers, lawyers, Web designers, and parents to pass their creative passions to the next generation.

But the stark reality is that school arts programs have been cut, and for too many people American culture can seem like a riot of action movies and shoot-it-out video games.

How does the country reclaim itself? Obama has compelling ideas.

He calls for a renewal of cultural diplomacy. America would welcome more of the world's artists and send more of its own artists abroad as ambassadors who can embody national values and help "win the war of ideas against Islamic extremism." A superficial propaganda effort would be disappointing. But it would be progress if after years of war in Iraq, the country could turn a more creative face to the world.

Obama would also send a corps of young artists into low-income schools and communities. And while this isn't a new idea, it would be exciting to have a well-trained, White House-approved army of artists putting paint, scripts, and violins in culturally parched neighborhoods and classrooms.

The Illinois senator offers other nuts-and-bolts ways to promote the arts. For example, he endorses a proposal to let artists who donate their work to charity deduct its market value, instead of just the cost of materials.

And instead of bashing the National Endowment for the Arts, Obama calls for more funding, noting that time has not been kind to the endowment's budget. The $145 million that it has today is less, especially after inflation, than the $176 million it had in 1992.

"Art addresses us in the fullness of our being - simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses," Gioia said in his speech. It's an insight that national policies should reflect.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.