National Endowment of the Arts

Chapter 2

• What are the ‘limitations’ imposed by the government on the National Endowment of the Arts, and what are the implications of these ‘limitations’ in relation to what is and what is not considered to be “art” in our society?

The National Endowment for the Arts is one of the smallest government programs. It can be thought of as “limited” because such a small percentage of the federal budget goes toward supporting it--.01 percent. This lack of support may imply that art is unimportant to our society, or that certain things that are supported by this program are considered art while other matters aren’t. There is no definite definition of what is art and what isn’t, so it doesn’t make sense to pick and choose.

• List some of the fundamental differences between theatre and film mentioned in your text book.  Based on these differences, which do you believe, (theatre or film), has the greatest potential to affect societies values, and why?  

Theatre attracts a much smaller audience than film can. Theatre is always live and fairly interactive, but film only communicates one way. Film is made perfect with multiple takes and editing, but theatre only gets one chance. Film returns a much higher profit than theatre and can be distributed worldwide, but theatre is limited by scope and funding. I believe that film has the greatest potential to affect societies values because of the scope of the audience that it can reach. When films are released, they are always talked about and evaluated far more than theatre pieces.

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