I hope I can speak on behalf of many future artists and art historians when I say that our future careers are not about a paycheck. Art is part of your body, it runs through the veins of each individual like the paint on Jackson Pollock’s canvases. Now…our livelihoods, our lives, our souls are threatened. President Trump has promoted the idea to cut spending for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities among a plethora of other organizations. NEA and NEH cost under 50 cents per year per American. FIFTY CENTS! That would not be able to cover a tube of paint, a text book, the entrance fee to the MOMA, or anything really for that matter. My job today isn’t to tell you what to believe, but to define who an art student is now. Many people in the United States do not value art or history. Art is about culture, it is about who we are as a person and country. Presidents FDR and JFK spurred programs in the United States that would enrich the arts. Without our art and history, how do we define ourselves as Americans from the rest of the world?
I like to believe that each of us set dreams for ourselves when we were young. Maybe your dream was to be a nurse, a CEO, or a scientist. Regardless, the child inside all of us, had dreams and plans of how to obtain that goal. Me, I had dreams of working in a museum, the dream to educate others on artworks, and offer them a chance to understand how these art works matter to our lives. That they are not simply stuff viewed through glass. Others who share my common dream are trying to understand how the dreams they have and have worked towards for years maybe slipping away. But there is a physical wall between our dreams and our realities.
Artists are some of the most resilient and determined people I have ever met. An art student now will never stop until they make their mark. The possible cut of the NEA and NEH will not cause the arts to ever die in the United States, but it will make our jobs that much more difficult to speak our minds and reflect upon the society we live in now. The voices of future American artists will not be censored because of a lack of funds. The potential cut will only drive artists further to express their thoughts and enable us to deeply care about a cause that is larger than any single person. Art and history are around us in more ways than one, the clothes we wear, the homes we live in and the presidential portraits that are admired today. Neither you or I can escape art and history and definitely not President Trump. Art will survive longer than any of our lives. An art student now, is determined that our most cherished artworks in the world will be valued in a positive way. They reflect the times that have past, the culture that has evolved, and the future that is yet to be.
I have never been one to give up on my dreams, and someone standing in my way this time, isn’t going to stop me. I will find a way to reach my goal, it may not follow my original plans, but I will end there. I am more concerned with the young girls and boys who will grow up in an environment that discredits creativity and history. We should never have to tell a child they shouldn’t aspire to be an artist, Park Ranger, or historian. I hope as a country we can find a way to bring back the arts to classrooms. All I can hope is that there is a young girl out there, who has the same dream that I had. I never want her to give up.
For more information, see the Gettysburg College Art Students, Art and Art History Department.