Citizens of Utah value the arts. And well we should, for our cultural treasures are plenty. Still, many Utahns oppose government support for the arts. The arguments are familiar: Orchestras should sink or swim on their own merit; dancing is not the business of government; free-market competition results in better books and paintings and no tax dollars wind up spent on obscene material. After all, critics maintain, creativity in Utah has been healthy for 100 years - long before the National Endowment for the Arts came along.
Ironically, what these same critics do not say, or do not know, is that a partnership between government and the arts has existed in Utah throughout its centennial of statehood.In 1899, Alice Merrill Horne authored legislation that created the Utah Art Institute, today the Utah Arts Council. Horne faced staunch opposition but convinced her fellow members of the Utah House of Representatives that artistic growth was essential to a developing community. Her legislation created the first state-sponsored art collection in the nation - before New York, before Massachusetts, before California.
Though the budget for the Arts Council was usually a pittance, the collection grew. Today, the state owns thousands of works of art, which are made available to citizens of even the most remote rural areas through traveling exhibitions.
The council now is also able to support projects by writers, musicians, dancers and scholars. The Arts Council, and all of its programs, would never have come into existence without the 19th century backing of the state Legislature.
In 1929, Alta Rawlins Jensen conceived of the idea of a permanent art center for Salt Lake City. She founded the Art Barn. Salt Lake City government helped to make Alta's dream a reality by leasing the Art Center its land for just one dollar a year during the Great Depression. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated the money for the roof of the building. Volunteers ran the center until 1964, when the first paid staff members were hired.
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah has grown exponentially since its formal founding in 1951. At the dedication of the museum, then-President A. Ray Olpin declared that having a museum of art on campus was just as important as having a library, because contained in a museum is a visual history of the world.
Today, the museum has more than 15,000 objects, and its most frequent visitors are fourth-graders from the city schools. The museum's mission to preserve, present and interpret world art would have been severely hampered, maybe even been impossible, if it were not part of and thus partially supported by a government institution, the U.
Have these Utah organizations ever supported controversial projects? Unavoidably, yes - wherever there is free expression, someone somewhere will be offended sometime. In Utah's history there have been controversies in the visual arts dating back to the old state fairs.
Few among us know or remember what they were about, but none resulted in the termination of the partnership locally between the arts and government. In short, we did not allow isolated moments of confrontation to destroy decades of potential productivity.
The Utah Arts Council, the Salt Lake Art Center and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts have existed for years before the founding of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965. All survived because Utahns and Utah political leaders together saw the wisdom in supporting them.
Though art budgets remain tight, the history of the arts in Utah is proof that a partnership among artists, the private sector and the government can be effective and fruitful. It is proof that even very small amounts of government money, amounts representing recognition and encouragement as well as financial assistance, can work wonders.
The National Endowment for the Arts provides that small amount of money, recognition and encouragement for the citizens of America. Would we wish less for our nation than we have enjoyed for ourselves? Given our history, we in Utah should be among the first to defend and support the National Endowment for the Arts.