State of the Arts: County Has Economics Down to a Science

It’s reassuring to know that the wheels of government do move forward, however leisurely the pace of progress may be.

One year ago, when asked whether the County of Orange would ever earmark any money for arts support, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley told The Times, “I think it’s a great idea.”

That admonition came shortly after the Orange County Arts Alliance, an advocacy agency created by the supervisors in 1974, voted to disband. When it died in 1988 from lack of interest, it left the county’s already Scrooge-like level of support for the arts at precisely zilch.

Yet, we were told at that time, attention to the arts would have to take a back seat to other more pressing problems, such as homelessness, poverty, crime and the need for a better baggage-claim area at the airport.

Now, in the blink of an eye that’s taken only 12 months, we get the word from Mr. Riley that maybe the county should be doing more for the arts.

More, presumably, even than the supes’ latest plan to use paintings or sculptures or, who knows, topiary shrubbery shaped like Michelangelo’s “David” as part of a scheme to class up the new John Wayne Airport terminal once it opens. Whenever that may be.

So now they are trying to figure out what kind of action “more” means. Perhaps by next year at this time, we’ll have the results from a blue-ribbon committee appointed to study the problem. Or short of that, at least the names of those appointed to the committee.

I sometimes wonder whether, if God had been serious about testing Abraham’s faith, He wouldn’t have merely ordered him to kill his son, Isaac, but rather would have insisted that Abe wait around while a Heavenly subcommittee explored the options for Isaac’s future.

In this case, there’s little need to waste a lot of time and resources debating where any future county money should go. If it’s a dire need that affects all Orange Countians that the supes are looking for, the best place to spend it is in arts education.

In fact, there’s already a foundation for support of that position: arts education was the one issue raised time and again by county residents who attended a recent series of town meetings sponsored by arts officials who hope to establish a new group to foster arts on a countywide basis.

Besides, it’s just common sense: If you aim to have an arts-savvy populace 10, 20 or 50 years hence, you better be darned sure that your kids can tell a trombone from a trompe l’oeil.

It’s no secret to anyone that since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, most public arts education programs have been left looking pretty anorexic.

It’s admirable that individual organizations like the Orange County Philharmonic Society and Pacific Symphony have outreach programs in which they sponsor performances periodically for schoolchildren, but in no way can they make up for the absence of the daily exposure to music, dance, art or theater activities that can make a young creative spirit take flight.

Locally, we’ve seen tangible proof of the value parents place on a quality arts experience in the example of Fountain Valley High School students and their parents who plucked money out of their own pockets, held car washes and other fund-raisers to retain the services of one excellent choral music teacher.

Art, providing a direct expression for the human soul that can be rapturous as well as horrific, is as indispensable a component of a full and complete education as the more easily quantifiable skills such as reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.

Surely in a time when as a nation, even as a planet, we are faced daily with ethical, political, social or moral quagmires, we can’t afford to say it’s a “frill” to provide the next generation with a thorough grounding in the forum where human values and experience play a central role.

How does that translate into county money for bad orchestras or choirs made up of preteens?

Well, you have to start somewhere, and it matters not whether some, or even most, students don’t go on to make careers in the arts. In fact, that’s exactly the point: Familiarity with artistic expression makes any life richer, not just the one that is devoted to it full-time.

On a practical level, in the long run we’ll all be better off if, as an audience, we can grow beyond a simple attraction for the show-biz glitter of jet-setter celebrity performers and recognize the worth of genuine artists. Just think: In such a world, Richard Thompson would have zillions of fans and Andrew Lloyd Webber would be struggling in a nightclub somewhere.

On a grander scale, I’d submit that the more value--humanity-wise, not just dollar-wise--we attach to arts awareness, the better our culture will be.

Is there anyone who can hear the words of Rostand, through the character of Cyrano de Bergerac, and not truly feel the nobility of virtuous self-sacrifice winning out over vain self-indulgence?

Anyone who can watch the wondrous wedding of movement to the music of George Balanchine and not marvel at the beauty of body and soul as one?

Or, for that matter, anyone who can listen to Neil Young sing about a welfare mother abandoning an unwanted baby and not rage at the injustice?

Obviously it’s vital to teach Johnny to read so that he can understand words on a page. But when looking for culprits behind the seeming crisis in values plaguing our world, we’d be well off to provide Johnny with some method of gleaning some meaning from those words.

Honorable supervisors, the ball’s in your court.