Patronizing the Arts

by Marjorie Garber

What is the role of the arts in American culture? Is art an essential element? If so, how should we support it? Today, as in the past, artists need the funding, approval, and friendship of patrons whether they are individuals, corporations, governments, or nonprofit foundations. But as Patronizing the Arts shows, these relationships can be problematic, leaving artists "patronized"--both supported with funds and personal interest, while being condescended to for vocations misperceived as play rather than serious work. In this provocative book, Marjorie Garber looks at the history of patronage, explains how patronage has elevated and damaged the arts in modern culture, and argues for the university as a serious patron of the arts.


With clarity and wit, Garber supports rethinking prejudices that oppose art's role in higher education, rejects assumptions of inequality between the sciences and humanities, and points to similarities between the making of fine art and the making of good science. She examines issues of artistic and monetary value, and transactions between high and popular culture. She even asks how college sports could provide a new way of thinking about arts funding. Using vivid anecdotes and telling details, Garber calls passionately for an increased attention to the arts, not just through government and private support, but as a core aspect of higher education.


Compulsively readable, Patronizing the Arts challenges all who value the survival of artistic creation both in the present and future.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Marjorie B. Garber (born June 11, 1944) is a professor at Harvard University and the author of a wide variety of books, most notably ones about William Shakespeare and aspects of popular culture including sexuality.

She wrote Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety, a ground breaking theoretical work on transvestitism's contribution to culture. Other works include Sex and Real Estate:Why We Love Houses, Academic Instincts, Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, Shakespeare After All, and Dog Love (which is not primarily about bestiality, except for one chapter titled "Sex and the Single Dog").

Her book Shakespeare After All (Pantheon, 2004) was chosen one of Newsweek's ten best nonfiction books of the year, and was awarded the 2005 Christian Gauss Book Award from Phi Beta Kappa.

She was educated at Swarthmore College (B.A., 1966; L.H.D., 2004) and Yale University (Ph.D., 1969).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The importance of the arts in our society and how the arts and artists are supported - by corporations, by individuals, or by themselves - are issues that I think about often, with no sound solution. So, when I randomly came across this book at the library, I had to check it out. Garber's fundamental premise is that art does have value in our society, and as such requires funding from private sources. The patronage relationship, however, brings with it a host of problems, including judgments about what constitutes art, as well as limitations on freedom and innovation. This book begins with a history of patronage - including descriptions and anecdotes from famous artist/patronage relationships. From here, Garber develops her argument that the arts are on par with science in terms of the seriousness that it should be afforded, and that universities should take a leading role in providing the necessary funding and development of the arts and of artists. This was an accessible read, but not one that I felt added much to my overall thinking about the arts. Garber's argument that universities should play a bigger role in patronage was an interesting one, since often times the idea that "art" can be taught in a university setting is one that I question. I did appreciate Garber's recognition, however, that the teaching of the arts in a university setting leads not only to the development of artists, but also to the cultivation of people who appreciate art - and who in turn become the patrons that the arts so desperately require.