My word, but the US government is tight-fisted when it comes to classical music in its own back yard. This will be news to nobody, I know, but allow me to vent. I understand that there is a noble tradition of private and corporate arts sponsorship in America. I get that the US has tax laws very favourable to said giving habits. I do understand all of that. But I got the latest funding figures from the National Endowment for the Arts. And the figures are so small that one might think they were detailing state grants for, I don't know, Trinidad and Tobago. Or Malta.
I mean, listen to this. The extremely fine Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a big operation with a major conductor and top-notch soloists and, incidentally, a good awareness of their role in the community, get and "Art Works, Part 1" grant of $35,000. A smaller outfit, say the Des Moines Symphony, gets only $10,000 -- the same as the Chicago Sinfonietta. The largest award in that particular list is for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which gets $90,000.
This is chicken feed. I haven't fully researched the NEA systems and processes and hope there will be other awards, but even as a one-off $10,000 is a drop in the ocean. And there is a long record of public funding stimulating their fundees in the arts to deliver many times more than the investment, much of which tends to go back to governments in the form of taxes and of course helps to boost local tourist trades and to promote the image of their locales (which has its own business benefits).
The music world needs help in America. Orchestras will find it harder and harder to innovate without the protection of meaningful public funding. And any arts organisation that cannot afford to innovate will not be long for this world.
