Arts and Culture

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Future - study 1918 Giacomo Balla (PD US)

Although we are surrounded by a community of arts-appreciating friends and family, the thought has occasionally occurred to us that we might be living in the wrong country. Our workshops in Provence and Tuscany may give us glimpses into only the most idyllic side of life in France and Italy, but they have also given us an understanding of the strong history of arts and culture revered and celebrated there

With the sometimes unimaginable magnitude and quantity of profound issues facing our country, it can be easy to minimize the “arts-and-culture stuff”. But, as the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Maria Rosario Jackson, writes, “Our art, culture and creativity are some of our country’s most valuable resources. They are evidence of our humanity, our ability to learn from our examined experience and our ability to imagine and innovate.”

The N.E.A. has often been depicted as an unnecessary institution sp…