The bad news just keeps on pouring in. Just this week the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts (web site is http://www.mccca.net) lost its lease on a great downtown space in Madison.
Couple this with the recent venues (such as the Jazz Showcase, Velvet Lounge, Hot House) forced to close or move in Chicago and it seems like there’s an all-out assault on the arts.
At its core, the whole situation is ridiculous. Here in the US we force arts organizations to play on the same playing field (e.g., pay the same rent) as retail businesses.
We don’t manage our budgets in a way to sponsor “ART” as a valued thing. But even worse, we let the business world run rough shod all over the altruistic people who fill the void.
I’m not sure what we can do about any of this. We can’t even stop our government from waging war in any way they like. We can’t even trust our government to come to our assistance in time of need. So how the heck can I expect any sort of assistance for cultural affairs?
Well, quite frankly, if we don’t have culture, what do we have?