Private Funds Needed

The National Endowment for the Arts has made a significant and lasting contribution to the culture and education of our country. Breaking barriers of ethnic and social boundaries, the programs and perceptions afforded the American people have proved to be of inestimable value and enterprise.

However, an effort such as the Federal Theatre Project in the ‘30s, nascent beginnings of the NEA, after three short years, failed in its cultural mission. Bogged down by government bureaucracy and political cronyism, it became staffed by people who had little or no background in the arts . . . those who would seek to destroy and control rather than nurture and produce. The government is only as charitable and wise as those in power.

It is now time to enlarge funding for the arts, given freely from an unhampered private sector, by selective donation, needed to build upon the collective work of the creative talents of tomorrow.

SUSANNA BAIRD

Los Angeles