The current economy has saddened the art world. A multitude of museums are looking to close their galleries in hopes of relieving their financial burdens, such as many university museums have looked to do recently. On a larger scale, however, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has closed many of it's satellite shops around the nation, announcing that seven more will close within the near future, rounding the number of closed shops to fifteen. Amid the financial downturn, the Las Vegas Museum has had a decreased amount of donations, causing their doors to be closed as well this upcoming Saturday.
On a brighter note, an ominous bill was introduced this past monday by the House Appropriations Committee that includes ten million dollars each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It brings hope that in the crisis our nation is involved in, there is still a passion to support the arts and humanities. It seems as though this nation is trying to use the arts to reestablish national optimism, similar to what FDR did when he established the alphabet agencies. Providing national unity through art hopes to bring the economy back together.
Will art become prosperous in attempts to aid a nation? Or will art become the scape goat, and slowly diminish due to this crisis? Which side will outweigh the other?
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