When Government Co-Opts the Arts

Recent announcements have come with great fanfare from the administration in Jersey City City Hall. Let?s create a new museum! Paint murals on city walls to show how artistic we are!
And the latest: Announcing the Jersey City Philharmonic Orchestra ? World renowned directors and musicians! Cities across the nation take civic pride in their orchestras ? now we have one too! With just 7 days notice ? PRESTO! A brand new philharmonic orchestra! City employees: crank up the publicity machines! Pump up the social media posting! And whose face is plastered over the marketing of these benevolent, enlightened initiatives?

Sorry folks. That?s not how it works. City governments don?t birth arts organizations.

Artists create arts. Communities believe in the value of arts and get involved in arts organizations as ticket-buying attendees, as donors, as volunteers, as board members. There is a large, studied, and established field of arts administration, advocacy and engagement ? people who know their field, their art form, and what it takes to build arts participation and sustainability.

From what I can tell from these newly touted arts initiatives: this ain?t it.

Is there thorough planning being done to explore sustainability for arts and culture in Jersey City? Has the notable lack of established arts organizations, and arts funding (government, corporate, private donations) in Jersey City been explored? And the lack of an arts infrastructure? Where are our concert halls? Our museums? Our art galleries? Why have theater companies failed over and over again in our ?artistic? home city? Please explain how a new museum is likely to succeed ? competing against the 4-5 world?s top museums across the river, and without the culture of philanthropy that props up arts institutions in New York?

And what about the funds to pay for these recent arts initiatives from Jersey City City Hall? Is the city now flush with discretionary funding? Who?s picking and choosing these initiatives and is there community input? Are there actual vetted professionals in the arts sector involved in this planning?

We sit across the river from one of the world?s art capitals. Two notable differences between us and them:

Difference #1: in the back pages of NYC theater, orchestra, ballet, opera, and museum program booklets there are columns and columns of donors ? in the ranges of $1mil +, $500,000+, $100,0000+, $10,000+. No, we will never be New York ? but is it not true that we once had a legitimate museum? And didn?t that museum crumble when the Jersey City government decided to withdraw funding (it was no longer politically expedient?) and there were no other significant sources of support to keep the museum afloat? Arts need broad-based and diverse sources of support - are those sources of support represented in the much publicized new city arts initiatives? What city policies and initiatives can plant a seed for arts to grow organically and sustainably? Miracle Gro and arts are generally not compatible.

Difference #2: Orchestras in New York City don?t have Bill de Blasio?s face on their marketing materials. Go figure?

When government co-opts the arts: arts become a commodity with little shelf-life. The arts become a means to political ends. Maybe a marketing team will be able to keep convincing us that we live in an arts haven ? it?s good for property values after all.

Jersey City: Make it yours.