Why we don't support the arts.

Trying to generate funding for my dream project, http://www.rockethub.com/projects/14172-library-of-creative-illumination, has made me confront in a more serious way something I've been just lightly talking about for the past year. It is an inescapable truth that US culture does not value the arts. There are actual funded efforts to defund government support for the arts which is alone conclusive evidence of our attitudes. There is one critical cause for our dismissive feelings towards the arts and towards those that try to make a living from their creative talents. Our nation does not know what value the arts has to our society. Put bluntly, we don't get, what we get from art. Let me make it clear to you, my fellow countrymen why you should in fact be giving every free dollar you can to art & artists.

To lay a foundation under my aim of persuasion let me start with the fact that people are born with extraordinary abilities to express themselves artistically. It happens constantly and is an undeniable truth. That truth alone is intriguing but when it is coupled by the reaction of those who are exposed to the creations of the gifted it begins to become urgently compelling. There is a practical reason for art. When people see a Van Gogh, hear Mozart, watch Shakespeare or read Neruda they become emotionally overwhelmed. They cry, they laugh, they become furious. More than that they feel that stirring that is so intense it manifests as physical. There is created a feeling of being impelled & empowered. You are gripped with a desire to, "do something". That is a spiritual reaction, and it is why we say, "I was moved". You are not the same after you are exposed to artistic brilliance. The creation and viewing of art makes human brains develop. It causes ideas to come into your mind that are superior to what you could think before you saw the art. Those who expose themselves to great art become more capable people. They make better decisions, are better at work, and are better in relationships with their fellows. In short, art is a mechanism of evolution. It allows us to take those non-logically based leaps that improve us as a species. Being exposed to creative brilliance will cause you to leap ahead of your competition. In this cash and symbol obsessed country of mine I say to you my fellow citizens that those that take time to support and see great art will generate ideas that allow them to make more money. We will become a more prosperous nation the more we invest in artists and their development. Now give me $25 dollars and let me get to work on your behalf http://www.rockethub.com/projects/14172-library-of-creative-illumination

Seth Friedermann