I love art — true art, that is. Walking through the crowded halls of the Louvre last year in Paris, I was amazed at the significance of every display. Each framed or cased work seemed to tell a story. Each exhibit expressed the artist’s philosophy of life — his Weltanschauung or worldview.

My view of the arts in America has recently plummeted with the true colors of the National Endowment for the Arts being revealed by ACORN-buster, Andrew Breitbart and his Big Hollywood Web site.

Last week, Breitbart broke the story by providing a transcript and full audio recording of the infamous conference call held Aug. 10, hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement, the NEA and United We Serve among many others.

The transcript reveals that the purpose of the call was “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda — health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”

This is a problem because the White House asked the NEA to initiate the conference call. The NEA is a public agency established by Congress in 1965 to bring the arts to all Americans and is funded by American taxpayers.

When The Washington Times asked whether the NEA initiated the conference call, NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sargent said they did not. He lied. The NEA did initiate the call through e-mail — verified by columnist Ben Shapiro.

Whether taxpayer dollars should be given for the arts is another debate.

The issue at hand is that now taxpayer money is being used to create and promote President Barack Obama’s policy on health care, energy or the environment. Would you call this artistic presidential propaganda?
According to Merriam-Webster, “propaganda” is defined as ideas, facts, or information intentionally spread to further one’s cause.

Pushing the president’s policies is exactly what Michael Skolnik, political director for hip-hop artist Russell Simmons, said he urged his fellow artists to do — upon the request of the White House and the NEA.

The transcript reveals how Skolnik addressed artists with this rally: “All of us who are on this phone call were selected for a reason … You are the thought leaders. You are the ones that, if you create a piece of art, or promote a piece of art or create a campaign for a company, and tell our country and our young people sort of what to do and what to be into, and what’s cool and what’s not cool.”

Skolnik is right. Artists are the “creators of cool.” Art is powerful and can easily influence with sounds, symbols, colors and words.

When art is deliberately employed to sway people’s opinions toward a national partisan issue, we cannot take it lightly. And now with the politicization of the NEA, artists in America will be creating art that promote the president’s policies — all with our money.

As students at a university and members of a civilized society, we should patronize, study and appreciate the arts. But we should not be forced to patronize propaganda mills disguised as the arts.

If we sit by and let the Obama administration reconfigure the American culture, not only will artists become “servants of power” as James Taranto quipped in the Wall Street Journal, but we will see ourselves become enveloped by conformity to the president’s policies.

Reach Catherine at catherine.e.smith@asu.edu.