The news cycle is moving faster than ever before. So one can be forgiven for overlooking dramatic changes such as the following.
The Trump administration has fired several members of the board of the Kennedy Center, the huge arts complex in Washington, D.C. Trump then announced that he would be the new chairman of the board and direct the institution toward greatness.
The usual suspects expressed outrage but it didn’t last long because within hours, there were new subjects to fuel the outrage machine.
The headline reason for the upheaval concerns the several (or many) trans-related woke events. Not having followed the Kennedy Center for years, I found this rather strange. When I frequented the place, it was for performances of the chamber music of Handel, Vivaldi, and Bach, or the National Symphony playing Schubert and Beethoven. I also recall one of the grandest presentations of Wagner’s ring cycle to ever hit the Beltway.
Times have changed. I checked the links to make sure they were correct but sure enough, I discovered many trans-related events in the last year, including a drag queen show specifically marketed for LGBTQ+ under the age of 18. The very existence of such an event wholly justifies a complete purge of the board if not a full defunding by the U.S. Congress.
Fixing the arts is a herculean task. This one change is meritorious but the problems are very deep and wide.
Recent history makes the point. The old slogan in art and theater is that “the show must go on.” But when COVID hit, it was simply astonishing how quickly the whole of the arts collapsed in the face of media and government pressure. They simply closed their doors for the duration, even up to two years and more.
Concerts were cancelled, museums closed, symphonies made unemployed, all support crew deemed unessential. In the midst of national and global tragedy, we needed art more than ever, but the arts institutions nearly universally became fully compliant with demands from on high. The talent was forced to go silent while the administrators of these institutions continued to receive their high paychecks.
Fear might be a good excuse but over time, these closures became more about politics, a method by which the institution displayed what side they would take in the grand political struggles of the time. Donald Trump was demanding that states and businesses open; the arts institutions aggressively defied the order based on what appeared to be pure spite.
The victims were the singers, instrumentalists, lighting specialists, and actors. They were the most obviously harmed but these long closures also represented a betrayal of patrons, donors, foundations, and customers, as season ticket holders found themselves with nothing of value.
For my own part, I had tickets to three Broadway shows for several of us and they were all rendered worthless because the shows were all scheduled in the two days following the lockdowns.
Vouchers arrived in my inbox months later but by the time they were useful again, there was another problem. As the arts institutions reopened, there were mask mandates. I simply couldn’t imagine attending a play or concert while wearing a mask. Why pay for such an experience?
Then within months of that, most concerts and venues closed their access to anyone without proof of COVID vaccination. The claim was that customers wanted to feel safe but the rules excluded vast swaths of the population that did not want to pump experimental juice into their bodies that was known not to protect against infection or spread.
The managers of arts institutions went along with all of this. This included even old and highly revered institutions such as Tanglewood in Massachusetts, which closed for 16 months and opened only with vaccine mandates plus social distancing. They canceled a whole season and then opened only with extreme restrictions. And get this: this is an outdoor music festival!
I was thrilled when all these venues reopened and attempted to attend several performances. Something had clearly changed. They had become so embedded in political signaling that they were ready to go all the way in. By this time, the transgender agenda had become the big thing on the left so of course all these institutions used their concerts and events to preach and signal virtue.
The most alarming experience for me occurred at Lincoln Center in Manhattan when I discovered that the main restrooms on the first floor no longer distinguished between men and women. All restrooms were replaced with one giant room with stalls and men and women stood in line together. You could feel the fury on the part of concertgoers who had paid huge amounts of money to attend only to be bludgeoned with the humiliation of pretending that men and women are really all exactly the same and should have no issue using the same facilities.
There would be no more “powdering one’s nose.” Instead everyone ran in and ran out in disgust. How in the world is this step compatible with the need to bring audiences back?
There are deeper problems that trace to the culture of the elites in the arts community. I noticed this in college when I began with hopes of being a music major. I had already been playing in university ensembles while in high school so it made sense for me to continue. But something weighed on me while hanging out in this world. It was all too dreary and strange, and it became clear that having disdain for the audiences was part of the culture of this scene.
I simply could not understand it and found it all too depressing. As much as I loved music, I did not want to spend my life embedded in a world of sad sacks who are forever complaining about being underpaid even as they look down on anyone and everyone who is actually paying them! This is why I chose to major in economics instead.
The role of government funding of the arts has had the effect of skewing ideological commitments and loyalties within the world of art. It lives off grants provided by the taxpayer. This was not true in general in the 19th century or before when patronage from the aristocracy and from devoted families was the source of funding.
The advent of the consumer marketplace in the early 20th century, together with the rise of popular music and the technology to distribute it, changed art forever. It erected a new wall between popular music, painting, architecture, and theater and what was considered to be “serious” art on the other side. This strict division persists to this day, which has only further alienated high-end art from the public.
This has been the true tragedy of art in the 21st century, as performance and institutions have flung themselves ever more to the left with exotic agendas and peculiar biases that can generally be described as “woke.”
Herein we discover the profound significance of Trump’s gutting of the board of the Kennedy Center and its replacement by himself and others who (one hopes) are devoted to truly great music and art and service to the community of concertgoers. This is the path of revival and restoration.
Every patron and fan of great art knows that something dramatic has to change in order for these institutions to survive. And survive they must if our societies want to reclaim the mantle of high civilization.
