August 2004 A-L
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Art in the Public Square: Democracy and the Associational Life of Culture in America Dustin Mark Kidd Greenwood, Virginia B.A., James Madison University, 1996 M.A., University of Virginia, 1999 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of Virginia - - ..- .. August 2004 A-L j 2 Abstract: This dissertation examines government funding for the arts through the lens of democratic political philosophy. Recent scholarship has established an important relationship between participation in civic associations and the success of democratic political institutions. I use democratic theory to argue that artistic practices are an overlooked form of associational life that can make unique contributions to democratic effects at the levels of the individual, political institutions, and the public sphere. Specifically, I identify the positive democratic benefits of community arts and counter- hegemonic arts, in contrast to the anti-democratic effects of the elite arts. I then make use of the theory through an examination of the controversies that affected the American art world-especially the National Endowment for the Arts-in the late 1980s and early 1990s, finding that the points of controversy actually stem from the most democratic artistic practices. The theoretical approach used here stands as a counter-point to the work of Bourdieu and others who have focused their study of the arts solely on the elite arts and the role of the arts as mechanisms of hegemonic' social reproduction. I provide a framework for recognizing the ways that art can actually function for anti-elite purposes and serve as a means of challenging hegemony. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................ 5 Introduction. .. 7 Chapter 1: Cultural Policy in American Political Development............ ... 25 Chapter 2: Democracy and Public Culture in America............................ 64 Chapter 3: The Associational Life of the Arts........ .. 103 Chapter 4: Democratic Effects of the Arts............................................. 130 Chapter 5: The Attack on Public Art... .. 166 Chapter 6: Sexual Politics in the Defense of Art...................................... 214 Conclusion ....................... ;.":. 261 References............................................................................................................. 270 Appendices............................................................................................................ 294 4 I suspect, further, that if we could come to appreciate the archetypal child whom we feel within ourselves, we might have a more open and appreciative relationship to actual children. For example, an eternal question about children is, how should we educate them? Politicians and educators consider more school days in a year, more science and math, the use ofcomputers and other technology in the classroom, more exams and tests, more certifications for teachers, and less money for art. All ofthese responses come from the place where we want to make the child into the best adult possible, not in the ancient Greek sense of virtuous and wise, but in the sense ofone who is an ?fficient part ofthe machinery ofsociety. But on all these counts, soul is neglected. We want to prepare the ego for the struggle ofsurvival, but we overlook the needs of the soul. Thomas Moore, Care ofthe Soul (1992, 52) It is said that Winston Churchill, during World War II, was asked to cut the arts budget ofEngland "God no," he replied "What the hell have we been fighting for?" - Jane Alexander, Command Performance (2000, 124) 5 Acknowledgements I thank first and foremost my advisor and dissertation chair, Sarah Corse. Sarah was stem when I needed it, gracious when I did not deserve it, and always encouraging. Sharon Hays and Bethany Bryson were heavily involved in this project from the beginning and their corrective guidance was under-appreciated along the way. I give them my overdue gratitude. Howard Singerman joined this committee late in the game, very kindly, and has given me useful feedback and pointed me in new directions. Portions of this dissertation have benefited from comments given by Paul DiMaggio, Lisa Waldner, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Chuck Mathewes, Marjorie Heins, Bruno Chalifour, Jennifer Geddes, Karin Peterson, and Mark Warren. Several colleagues have also generously reviewed the work-Erika Austin, Felicia Song, Markella Rutherford, Terry McDonnell, Joshua Yates, Kristine Harmon, Anne Wallin, Joy Borkholder, John Worozbyt, and Shannon Anderson. I owe them all. I am grateful to Marisa Bourgoin for assisting me through the archives of the Corcoran, kindly letting me in and out of this locked basement room in the mornings and at lunchtime. I wish I could have spent more time there. This research has been generously funded by dissertation fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Studies ih Culture and the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia. Additional kindnesses are appreciated from Nitin Govil, Tammy Ashley, Ed Song, Wilson Brissett, Kevin Seidel, James Davison Hunter, Joseph Davis, Steven Jones, Pamela D. H. Cochran, Suellen Hill, Nicole Martin, Heather Connelly, Bill Ivey, Rae 6 Blumberg, Krishan Kumar, Murray Milner, Victoria Alexander, Vera Zolberg, Joni Cherbo, Andras Szanto, Steven Tepper, Bess Rothenberg, Carey Sargent, Evren Savci, Tiffany Haigler, Heather Riden, Kelli Joseph, Elizabeth Gorman, Marva Barnett, Jude Reagan, William McAllister, and Beth Eck. Trusted friends who supported me specially along the way include Matthew Wood, Jonathan Small, Matt Stevens, Geoff Wood, Baxley Miceli, Mitchell Jordan, Jeff 'Smitty' Smith, Lori Freeman, and Jason Fountain. Finally, my deepest appreciation and gratitude goes to Joan Snapp, who has tirelessly helped me at every stage of my graduate career, from signing up for my first classes and sorting out tuition dilemmas, to sending out my job applications. Thanks a million Joan! 7 Introduction When an artist creates a work of art, he not only makes a product that exists within the world, he makes a world its~lf. Within the space of the canvas (or the covers of a book, or the opening and closing of the theater curtain) lies a new universe, more or less complete. In some cases, this universe is very like our own. In other cases, it may seem fantastical, and pure invention. It has its own rules-psychologies, biologies, sociologies, physics, aesthetics-its own population (characters/subjects) and its own trajectory (plot, or the absence of plot). Toni Morrison says that she writes to figure out what a particular experience is like. She heard once of a woman who killed her child rather than see her taken back into slavery. Morrison wanted to know what that experience was like-how did the woman arrive at such a position with such conclusions, and how did the killing affect her life afterwards?-and so she wrote Beloved. The book can be seen then as an experiment in psychology, sociology, and history that maps out a sliver of the difficult terrain of family, memory, and identity. The author Dan Brown pulls together pieces of art history, mathematics, astrology, archaeology, and church history to form the back-story (the world in which his characters act) to The Da Vinci Code. The novel is a world that he invented, a world that stands as a commentary on the world we live in, illustrated by the negative portrait he paints of the Catholic Order Opus Dei. Andres Serrano's photograph Piss Christ presents a visual world in which the crucifix-as both a religious icon and a popular commodity- is seen through the veil ( or illumination) of yellow liquid. 8 But then, Serrano made other photographs, I wrote other poems, Brown and Morrison wrote additional novels. So the worlds that an artist makes can be viewed independently, or as conglomerations--curriculum vitae. These worlds compete. Sometimes, but not always, they do so explicitly in their content. For instance, when the cabaret singer Nellie McKay released an album titled Get Away From Me, it was logically understood to be a critique of her peer Norah Jones's Come Away With Me. 1 When Philip Pullman released his fantastical children's novels, the His Dark Materials trilogy, in which God is depicted as a trickster angel who is killed by the protagonists, they were rightly seen as a counterpoint to CS Lewis's religious allegory in The Chronicles ofNarnia.2 At other times, the competition of invented worlds occurs in the structure and processes of cultural institutions-museum boards, curatorships, funding decisions, media discussions, and the like. The sociology of culture has focused on the issue of power, using concepts like hegemony and cultural capital to articulate the mechanisms by which some ideas have gained legitimacy while others have been marginalized, demonized, or outlawed. 3 I enter this dissertation wondering if alternatives to this relationship between art and power are possible. One alternative that I find untenable is that we insist the arts- and the worlds they create-have no influence on us. This would require a denial of the power of culture to shape consdousness. In this path, censorship is pointless because the 1 Nellie McKay, Get Away from Me, Sony (2004); Norah Jones, Come Away with Me, Blue Note Records (2002). 2 See Pullman (1995; 1997; 2000) and Lewis (1950; 1951; 1952; 1953; 1954; 1955; 1956). 3 See Bourdieu (1984),