Art is for Everyone!
American culture only encourages artistic pursuits in the context of financial success. Only working-class prodigies raised up by big-city tastemakers, or the already-successful progeny of wealth are given access to artistic careers. Everyone else is resigned to "content creation," the endless slog to produce disposable distractions for the mobile market. High art, formal art, the art written about in newspapers, functions largely as a money-laundering mechanism for urbane cultural elites.
Art exists outside of museums, outside of universities, and outside of the auction house. Everyone who lives and thinks about their living is capable of art. Everyone who has an opinion about life and can convey that opinion is capable of making art. We all have heard the cliche of the "starving artist", but to this day nothing has been done to support those who give so much of themselves in order to bring beauty to our world. It is our responsibility to give people the tools to do so!
When elected, the Massachusetts Pirate Party will:
- Eliminate the film tax credit as it is a useless subsidy to wealthy Hollywood entertainment companies;
- Fund community art grant programs to encourage artists at all levels to create art to share with their neighborhoods. Digital art created with the people's money must be released into the public domain;
- Create a basic income so that all have the means to create art if they choose.
