Do We Really Want Artists in America?

In this Age of the Austerians, anything considered non-essential is being denied the financial means to survive. Despite mountains of research findings, arts programs in schools fall under the austerity ax faster than any other extracurricular. When I echoed multimedia artist Laurie Anderson’s idea that the White House needs an artist-in-residence, at least one commenter (and how many others?) smirked and questioned my sanity. Now an organization called ArtistsWanted.org is trying to bring together the supply of unknown artists with the demand for art. By putting their contest winner’s work on a billboard in Times Square in New York City (shown above), ArtistsWanted.org believes that they can finally make it possible for artists to make money doing the thing they love. But the real question is whether there really is a demand for art and artist in America? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Do We Really Want Artists in America?"