David Rubenstein: belief

Transcript context

…How would you do that? Would it be federal? Would it be state? Would it be through the NEA? Would it be a direct congressional allocation to the National Gallery or Smithsonian? Well, the National Gallery does get a great deal of money from the federal government, but other art museums around the country don’t get as much, obviously, from state governments, as much as they might want, or from local governments. I don’t think there’s any one formula for doing it, but I think we have to convince legislators and other government administrators that the arts aren’t an afterthought that’s a nice little thing off to the side, and it’s not going to help little Johnny or little Janie be a better person by seeing good museums, and so forth. We have to convince people that around the rest of the world, people recognize that if we want to stimulate the brain and create great people, very often stimulating them through the performing arts and the visual arts is a great way to make the brain work better. So we should see it as an education tool, not just as a museum. As you know, most art museums put out a pretty small percentage of their overall collection.…

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