政府經費資源該不該挹注於藝術文化？

Some people argue that all art is quite useless. They do not agree that enormous amount of money from the government should be spent on the arts. It is doubtful whether those people know the influence of the arts. There is a lot of evidence to connect the arts with benefits of education. In addition, based on the constitutions, the government has a duty to help its citizens to meet their love, belonging, and esteem needs. These are obvious effects which art could favor the society. I will now look this issue in more details and try to reach a conclusion.

In the ancient times, arts education was one major attribute of nobility around the world. The privileges associated with nobility would incorporate wealth and luxurious lifestyle with owning art works such as paintings, fancy furniture and clothes, and royal favor. This represents that higher social status has been differentiated the nobility and most other classes in society. In this case, it is vital to understand the importance of the arts in different eras. Nowadays, Lisa Philips, an arts and leadership educator, promoted “The top 10 skills children learn from the arts,” in the ARTSblog, a program of Americans for the arts. She pointed out that these skills play a significant role not only in academic learning, but also in life success. The top 10 skills include creativity, confidence, problem solving, perseverance, focus, non-verbal communication, receiving constructive feedback, collaboration, dedication, and accountability. I am personally inclined to agree with Lisa Philips’ findings. In addition, it seems to me that art could reduce anxiety. While listening to music, drawing, or creating an art piece, concentration could help to release tensions.

Even though the government has taken a lot of steps on developing art programs, we still have not done enough. The government clearly has the responsibility to help eliminate the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Appreciation of the arts is not a privilege of the higher social class. In my opinion, I firmly believe that the best way is establishment of public institutions including of museums, theatres, and music halls. Government sponsorships on exhibitions, concerts, and arty festivals support citizens to learn, to feel and to enjoy in the arts. Furthermore, performances groups could reasonably set the ticket price range so that general public could afford watching a concert, an opera, or a ballet. Take Mayday, a Taiwanese band, for example, the highest ticket price of their concert, NT$3,800, has not been changed in Taiwan for many years even though the band has become one of the most valuable music groups around the Greater China. Making more profits from their fans is not the main purpose to organize a concert. What they desire is more people to come and enjoy their music shows. In 2017, four consecutive shows of Mayday in Kaohsiung drew a crowd of over 200,000 fans and created more than NT$2 billions estimated economic value for the city tourism. It is therefore a good idea to energize the city with the arts through various forms.

To sum up, according to Edsel L. Beja Jr.’s article, he said that the duties of the government can be summarized as the formation of human capabilities and the creation and maintenance of an environment that enables all the individuals of a society to flourish on their own and to contribute to nation-building. Thus, I believe that the government spending money on the arts could benefit the society where every citizen could take advantages of self-learning. There is no doubt that the environment could be harmonized with differing arts and which in turn could be a contributing factor of decrease in crime.