Melodrama at the Met — The American Magazine

Melodrama at the Met — The American Magazine: But something else is happening at the same time: the very philanthropy that has traditionally funded and enabled artistic innovation and expression is now being attacked, and also shifting from arts funding to medical research. Eric Gibson of the Wall Street Journal reports that more than half the members of New York’s City Council signed a letter to Wal-Mart demanding it stop donating to New York charities. He also reports business leaders such as Bill Gates increasingly criticize donors who chose to fund art over hospitals. The presumption seems to be that such art is an elitist luxury; frivolous and inherently purposeless.