Something that my wife will tell me is that "Europeans appreciate the arts much more than Americans do," which I've contested. In Italy, we agreed to test her hypothesis. In Florence, we were going to ask a random European person if they knew who Kurt Masur was (Sarah's hypothesis was "Everyone in Europe knows Kurt Masur!"). Kurt Masur, for those of you who don't know (especially you uncultured Americans) is a world-class conductor who has led both the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. Sarah and I happen to be friends with Kurt's son and daughter-in-law (Sarah's maid of honor), and to Sarah, this is a cool fact akin to us being buddies with Chelsea Clinton. So here's how our little experiment went:
Me: Excuse me, my wife and I were wondering... do you know who Kurt Masur is?
Hotel Concierge in Florence: Who?
Me: You know, Kurt Masur. I believe he's quite well known in Europe.
Hotel Concierge: No, I'm sorry. I don't know him.
Me: Do you know who (German soccer coach and former player) Franz Beckenbauer is?
Hotel Concierge: Of course.
Now the other learning from this (besides debunking Sarah's theory that love of classical music pours out of the public's ears in Europe) is that sports is still the king, and it's broader appeal to the public is not just an American outlier. The sense that Americans uncultured yahoos who eschew the arts because they'd rather sit in front of the plasma television with a Coors light and watch Sunday Night Football, while Europeans are much more likely to choose a night at the symphony over a sporting event is just not true.
To be clear, I'm not making any value judgments around this phenomena. It's just the reality of supply and demand. More people leading to more purchasing power gravitate towards sports as opposed to the arts, which in turn creates greater demand leading to more jobs and increased wages for musicians and artists.
But to be fair, there are stories such as the recent one in the Philadelphia Inquirer which make me shake my head. Reading the article is sure to raise the ire of artists and musicians, and I certainly share in their chagrin. It seems that the state senate of Pennsylvania has decided it would extend sales taxes to arts and cultural performances and venues - but not to movies or sports events in an attempt to balance Pennsylvania's $28 billion budget.
The fact that the tax will likely hurt a number of already struggling orchestras, performance centers and art galleries is one thing. The fact that the tax will exempt a booming sports business in pouring salt in the wound, especially given some already existing bitterness that some musicians hold towards the popularity of sports.
Even if the tax is used to fund a state "arts fund", the short-term effect on tickets will likely be adverse, given the recession and audiences who are already struggling to spend tightening disposable income. And then there's the question of how the arts fund will be administrated - a potentially political hot potato when funds are diverted towards arts pork-barrel projects as political favors as opposed to a reflection of where the tax revenues were collected in the first place.
At the end of the day, the arts will survive. I do believe that there will always be a market for the very best quality music and art - that people will be willing to pay to hear world-class music and see world-class art, even if regional and local arts struggle. The only question is how many seats (for viable arts centers and sufficiently-paid artists) there are when the (pardon the ironic expression) music stops playing. Hey, the North American Soccer League (NASL), United States Football League (USFL) and XFL folded, too.
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2 comments:
I'm thinking of moving to Belgium because I have the opportunity to do some post-grad work here. In fact, I'm in Belgium right now! I do think that the arts are unquestionably a bigger part of the culture here than in the US. But for me, it's not so much that everyone in Europe, regardless of education level or economic status, knows a great deal about classical music. Rather, it's the respect that is paid to highly trained professional artists. In the US, highly talented people who have trained their whole lives with a level of discipline, dedication and intensity few other fields require, are treated like professional hobbyists. "When are you getting a real job?" would never be asked of struggling artists here-- at home, this is asked far too frequently. The lack of respect for and the devaluing of what we do is the hardest thing to swallow, not the fact that the guy driving my bus doesn't want to come to my concert.
I've seen the euro-cinema trash that doesn't make it over here. Trust me, Europe is not more cultured than us.
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