The participant list prepared for the White House/NEA/Ministry of Propaganda organizational conference call included autobiographical blurbs to apparently help the call’s organizers identify the participants since none of the “artists” involved could be considered a household name. That is unless your household is comprised entirely of unemployed, surly twenty-somethings whose worldly possessions consist of an i phone, a Vaio, a skateboard and, perhaps a few cans of spray paint.
The conference call and other efforts now emerging were organized by the National Endowment for the Arts at the behest of the White House to try and coordinate and focus the existing pro-Obama passion of the artistic community to directly promote administration political objectives.
This effort is justifiably being criticized as a misuse of government resources and a creative example of adapting the Chicago pay-to-play style to the federal scene. What is an alternative artists supposed to think when the largest artistic grant-dispensing agency of the federal government comes-a-calling asking for help? It is only natural that one would expect a quid pro quo when it comes to doling out cash for all manner of non-traditional, (read: incomprehensible) art, while the chap who cleverly mocked up the Obama/Joker poster will probably not be in line to cash in at the federal trough.
It is also noteworthy that the White House skipped over mainstream media such as major motion pictures and television. This is likely because these are big businesses not easily swayed by a few hundred thousand in grant money. It is also because they are doing a pretty passable job shilling for the administration already.
Looking over the list of participants it is also clear that the administration sought to direct this effort to a young and diverse audience with a particular focus on web-based and viral communications and alternative artistic genres popular almost exclusively among the young. While the idea of directing government propaganda towards the young is a relatively new idea here in the United States, it has proven a vital lynchpin for generational indoctrination in other political systems.
It is instructional to look at the descriptions included in the NEA’s participant list to understand just where the Obama White House sees the future of the arts in this country. The Washington Times was able to obtain a list of the conference call participants http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/sep/20/partial-list-august-10-national-endowment-arts-tel/ which took more work than getting a copy of General McChrystal’s Afghanistan troop deployment memo. Among the sixty or so participants recruited for the conference call were such giants of the artistic world as-
Tayyib Smith-“Influencer, Impresario of the misfits, change agent, Ambassador of the City of Brotherly Love”
Pat Tenore-“Founder of a clothing design company associated with surf and skateboard culture”
Lee Quinones-“Considered the single most influential artist to emerge from the New York City subway art movement”
Geoff Renaud-Owner of an “emphatically hip marketing firm”
Aaron Rose-“most responsible as the cornerstone of the Beautiful Losers art movement” (For those of us who are real losers this “movement” is devoted to the art of the skateboard, graffiti, punk and hip-hop culture.)
Victor Nguyen-Long-“pop culture maven”
Once upon a time, a group of artists would include painters and sculptors, musicians and composers, writers and performers. This list includes people in commercial fields like marketing, lawyers, and others whose inclusion of any list of artists would be nothing more than self-congratulatory delusion. But the lines are increasingly blurred and the strategy is clever for the administration and dangerous for the nation.
While our first instinct is to get a chuckle or two out of this list it is important to remember how much information the wired generation gets from today’s multi-media stew. This is not a generation that reads newspapers or even seeks out political commentary on the Internet. The way to reach this next generation of voters is to infiltrate the world in which they live-to intertwine your message in the music they listen to and to become part of the scene they inhabit. While much of this effort is directed towards fringe filmmakers and documentarians whose work will never be viewed by anyone other than already confirmed lefties, the attempts to weave propaganda into marketing and elements of hip, popular culture have the potential for effective subliminal indoctrination.
Laugh all you want at the New York subway art scene or the Beautiful Losers. What was once just good old anti-social teen rebellion may now become the organized portal into a loyally liberal adulthood, all thanks to your tax dollars flowing to a cadre of government-approved hipsters.