infobong.com

Hate creator Peter Bagge asks "who needs in Modern Art Museums?" on the libertarian site Reason Online. Of course, my politics are far from libertarian, and I happen to enjoy a lot of contemporary art, so its difficult for me to formulate a satisfying answer. I do think nurturing the arts keeps our culture healthy - the NEA protests in the nineties really opened my eyes to how nasty the Religious right is - didn't Serrano perform a public good by forcing those bigots out into the open? And we fund research scientists and humanities scholars in universities because we think they expand our understanding of the world around us; don't shock artists also help us understand the topics and concepts that small but powerful minoriites want to exclude from public debate?

BTW, I don't know if this gets NEA funding, but I like it.