Check out this great article I found on their website. I've experienced the reality of the content in this article and this is why I created this blog in the first place. Americans generally appreciate art, but don't respect artists. Most people tend to think what we do is a hobby as opposed to a worthwhile and very important profession that influences progress in this country as much as science or politics or our more glamorous artistic cousin popular music. It's art and artists who tend to introduce the new ideas that end up in public policy years later. It's visual artists who tend to inspire musicians to think outside of the box as they inspire us to see new harmonies in color and texture that we may have previously overlooked. Think of any moment in recent history and there is usual a song AND an image that goes with that memory. Well whether it's a painting, a photograph, a video,a sculpture or film, an ARTIST created and shared in expression of that moment and the archiving of that memory. Respect and treasure the art AND the artists themselves for they are the soothsayers in a forest of lies.

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An American Paradox

A country that loves art, not artists
In a survey of attitudes toward artists in the US a vast majority of Americans, 96%, said they were greatly inspired by various kinds of art and highly value art in their lives and communities. But the data suggests a strange paradox.

While Americans value art, the end product, they do not value what artists do. Only 27% of respondents believe that artists contribute "a lot" to the good of society.

Further interview data from the study reflects a strong sentiment in the cultural community that society does not value art making as legitimate work worthy of compensation. Many perceive the making of art as a frivolous or recreational pursuit.

USA hopes to help close the gap between the love of art and the ambivalence toward artists in society.

Other insights further illuminate the depth of the paradox:

• A majority of parents think that teaching the arts is as important as reading, math, science, history, and geography.

• 95% believe that the arts are important in preparing children for the future.

• In the face of a changing global economy, economists increasingly emphasize that the United States will have to rely on innovation, ingenuity, creativity, and analysis for its competitive edge—the very skills that can be enhanced by engagement with the arts.

As author Daniel Pink posits in his book A Whole New Mind—Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future, we have moved beyond the Information Age and into the Conceptual Age. "In short, we've progressed from a society of farmers to a society of knowledge workers. And now to a society of creators and empathizers, of pattern recognizers and meaning makers. . . . We've moved from an economy based on people's backs to an economy built on people's left brains to what is emerging today: an economy and society built more and more on people's right brains. . . . aptitudes so often disdained and dismissed—artistry, empathy, taking the long view, pursuing the transcendent—will increasingly determine who soars and who stumbles. It's a dizzying—but ultimately inspiring—change."