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The culture gap
BY WILLIAM M. FOWLER JR.

The Boston Foundation has reported that this city is home to more arts organizations per capita than any other major metropolitan area in the United States (as noted in the November 14 Boston Globe). According to the foundation’s study, the local cultural sector grew by an impressive 73 percent between 1992 and 1999. Nearly two centuries ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes called Boston " The Athens of America. " He was right then, and he would be right today. Millions of people from all over the world come to Boston to enjoy our cultural institutions and view our historic sites. Tourism is a big business, and the engines powering that enterprise are culture and history.

On the day following the Boston Foundation's good news, however, the Globe carried an article with troubling implications for the future of Boston’s arts. It bore the headline ROMNEY OPTS FOR MIX IN HIS TRANSITIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE. Not true.

On Governor-elect Mitt Romney’s 97-member transition committee, I cannot find a single director of a major cultural or historical institution in the Commonwealth. He found room for leaders in labor, academia, and even a few politicians, but no space for cultural and historical institutions. Not one of the organizations celebrated in the Boston Foundation report is represented in Romney’s list of 97.

The governor-elect’s neglect is unfortunate but not surprising. Indeed, his behavior reflects a bipartisan attitude on Beacon Hill. The Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, saw its already modest budget slashed by 62 percent last year. While the Commonwealth’s larger cultural institutions will endure this reduction, smaller local organizations are likely to be devastated. Without grants from the council, these organizations will be forced to cancel performances, exhibits, and education programs. It also means that jobs will be lost. (The city also bears some responsibility for this state of affairs. Its support programs for cultural institutions, historically so modest as to be almost invisible, have been all but eliminated.)

In difficult times, cultural institutions have no claim to exemption from sacrifice, but they do have a right to be heard. It's true that some representatives from the cultural and historical community may be called to give advice to the transition committee, but that would be nothing more than a sham and a sop, reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s tale of the walrus and carpenter lamenting the fate of the poor oysters as they sat around devouring them. The real decisions and advice will be formulated after the doors are closed. Only the people inside will have a say.

In the political sphere, cultural institutions are often the first to be praised, then the first to be cut. Recently, our city and state officials were quick to point out to the Democratic National Committee all the wonderful cultural institutions in Boston. They argued that delegates and their families coming to Boston in the summer of 2004 will have the opportunity to attend museums, hear concerts, and visit the sites where the American republic was born. If our political representatives can make that pitch in Washington, then they ought to support the places they tout when they come home.

Unlike major corporations and other powerful interest groups, cultural institutions cannot afford to hire lobbyists or mount public campaigns for support. They depend upon the generosity of their members and supporters. They try to do good work and hope they'll be recognized for their efforts. This, of course, is why Romney’s neglect is so distressing. No one really believes that a new administration marching into a fiscal nightmare will be able to find additional resources for the Commonwealth’s cultural institutions, but to completely ignore them in the decision-making process is insulting.

Issue Date: November 28 - December 5, 2002
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