The point of this is that the government has always done poorly when it tried to define or give subsidies to art or theater. The Strib article mentioned the "Federal Theater Project". This is perhaps best known for Orson Wells doing "Voodoo Shakespeare". Here is a wikipedia article on the depression era "Federal Theater Project" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Theatre_Project Note that it caused a lot of publicity and a lot of grief for elected officials. More recently we had the National Endowment of the Arts which funded the likes of Maplethorpe and Athey where the taxpayer dollars supported "piss christ", a crucifix in a jar of the artists urine. Athey also did a highly stylised "women of the Klu Klux Klan". (Your tax dollars at work!)
The groups like the National Endowment of the Arts has plenty of worthy things they could give grants to. Governor Palenty recently derided and line item vetoed a "band music museum" earmark. From the reading I had of this it seemed to be a national to world resource for this material. Historic band music isn't politically controversial, but should Minnesota taxpayers be picking up the tab for a more "national" of "global" resource? This would seem to be a far better use for a NEA grant. (I have never personally applied for one of these grants or been in a position to profit from one.)
I have had some indirect experience in dealing with the National Endowment of the Arts. I own and live in the first Sears Catalog House formally identified in the Twin Cities area. I have a rather lame website for my hovel http://searshouse.com There is a loose network of people promoting the catalog house story and they have at times applied for grants from organisations like the National Endowments for the Arts and the National endowment for the humanities. None were approved as far as I know. I gave technical advice to some of the people who made the grants.
The subject of these houses built mostly in the 1920 would not be politically controversial. There were an estimated two million catalog houses sold. Sixty to one hundred thousand were Sears Catalog Houses, the "gold standard". In the case of the Sears houses, which were widely copied and "cloned" every architechural design team included a woman and Sears encouraged women to write to her. As close as I can tell women wanted more kitchen and closet space. Note the layout of my house and the closets, one a walk-in. Closets were rare in 1920 houses like mine. http://ocrscans.homestead.com/somerset.html
Sears popularised the type of mortgage that we know today where you make payments equal or cheaper than rent and you end up owning the house when you retire (worked for me!). Before this home loans tended to be "balloons" usually five years. Sears promoted the 1920's version of the suburbs (my Minneapolis Longfellow "bungalow" community) with the mortgage we know today where you end up owning the house outright when you grow old.
Sears was arguably lax when it came to qualifying requirements for a mortgage and this came back to haunt during the depression. Sears had to foreclose on some mortgages and the negative publicity hurt Sears. Sears did recover 85% of owed amounts on the foreclosed homes but the foreclosures tarnished the image of Sears, even if the foreclosures were justified.
In terms of history the Sears catalog houses popularised many modern concepts in houses. The first is good architechural design. Virtually all Sears designs have all plumbing at the center of the house. This helps prevent freezing. (My parents 1950 house had external wall plumbing). The next factor is consumer response design, an example being my 1920 walk-in closet. There is also the "pay off mortgage" where the house is a retirement asset. Also, Sears had a lax mortgage qualifying process which made the depression era losses worse.
These all apply today. Hennepin County and Minneapolis dropped my house value for 2009 by 5%. This doesn't directly affect me since I paid off the mortgage in 2005 (fulfilling the Sears concept of a retirement assets) but the mortgage crisis of today mirrors the Sears experience.
The Sears houses were promoted as lower cost to buy and construct due to the pre-cut materials. The pre-cut materials made for a far "tighter" house that was left "drafty" and used less fuel to heat. These lessons are applicable today.
Also, another issue is the compatible replacement houses in these older urban neighborhoods. By studying the original Sears house design architechs and designers can develop "sidewalk level compatible" replacement houses that fit in the neighborhood but are modern in design, energy efficiency but look "old" from the curb or sidewalk so they preserve the "ambiance" of the neighborhood. The extra cost to make it look "compatible old" is very low if you plan ahead and I use the street/sidewalk standard.
Grants form the National Endowments for the Arts for this would have been politically noncontroversial and give useful information for today's' situations. (in the older urban areas people generally drive a lot less). No government grants.
The point is that the government has had a very poor record when it comes to defining "art" and "theater" or anything useful to current situations. This should have been known to the MN legislature when it decided that the state would define "theater" when it passed the so called "freedom to breath act". If you have time read the widipedia post on the ill fated "Federal theater Project" even though it is lefty biased. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Theatre_Project Greg Lang
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