Beware the Arts Board Mafia!

Unbeknownst to me, the city of Appleton has a thriving arts community that is threatening to stifle the economic growth of the financial, manufacturing and service bases of the community.

Letters: Arts organizations should be able to fend for themselves

The first response that came to my mind when reviewing the current Sunday Post-Crescent articles on the Thrivent funding decisions were these.

I'm not the arts maven I might be. But I'll wager that, beneath all those tuxedos and ball gowns worn by the various choir groups, there's enough cash to sponsor their own programs.

I’ll take that wager any day of the week. Tuxedos? Ball gowns? Did Sotheby’s open up a branch office in the Fox Valley recently? I’ll concede that there are probably a few black tie events for the PAC during the course of the year, but I think it’s safe to assume that if a chorus or a choir is wearing what appears to be fine evening wear they probably got their threads from the same uniform company the waiters got their tuxes.

Once the tax-deductible largesse is removed from these programs (which is just another corporate dodge anyway), then the true value of the programs will emerge.

Yup. Let’s do that and see the massive “largesse” generated by arts organizations in what is clearly the cultural center of the universe…

More to the point, I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the room where such an important decision was made.

Like what? Should we hang this painting on that wall?

Might it actually be that funding was pulled for the art-as-entertainment industry because it has exploited and bowdlerized the nature of the arts experience here?

The author is misusing the word “bowdlerize” here, the definition being: “To remove material that is considered offensive or objectionable from (a book, for example).”

[Here’s a little piece on where the word comes from.]

“The arts-as-entertainment industry” really can’t be both exploitive and censoring at the same time.

They can pick up all those lions around town any time now.

Oh… I see. Someone spent money on something other than me. God forbid that other people should enjoy a change in landscape inspired by a collective community effort.

Lastly, please don't pull at my heartstrings with pictures of little Johnny in his best bib and tucker while that sucking sound at the PAC gets louder and louder.

Lon C. Ponschock, Appleton

“Best bib and tucker”? This dude is straight out of the eighteenth century!

May we recommend amending your vocabulary to better communicate with those around you who are not crotchety members of the undead? Great. We think this letter would be a lot more efficient if it read as follows:

“I’m old! I’m cheap! My life is joyless and so should be the lives of all others! I survive exclusively on the sustenance provided to me by the tears of small children!”

We feel that would get your point across to a broader audience, Asshole.