Are the arts essential to the wellbeing of a community?
Amid significant changes in public policy and government funding, the Arts are often an afterthought in conversations about community priorities and essential need. Contributed revenue to the Arts fell across all categories from 2023 to 2025. Government funding dropped by 26%. Institutional grant makers and individual donors also pulled back. The current administration in the U.S. has signficantly reduced grants through the National Endowment of the Arts and has proposed its elimination from the 2026 fiscal budget. This is the first in a series exploring funding for the Arts.
Is it ethical to continue funding the arts while children are starving in the streets?
I have always been a strong supporter of the arts and cultural organizations and one reason is this; child welfare is more than having enough to eat. Health and wellness, violence against women, food insecurity, AIDS education, homelessness, substance abuse, assistance for the mentally and emotionally challenged, job skills, are but a few of the issues essential to living and the wellbeing of our children and our community. Faced with the reality of starving children, supporting the arts is at times not seen as a critical priority. Art doesn’t help one commute to work. Art isn’t something that serves any particular monetary advantage apart from immersing the partaker of it in what it means to be human, to be alive. The arts, as they say, are what we live for, and we need to ask ourselves if this community that we've all chosen to call home would be a place that draws the successful people able to support other charitable needs if there were not an orchestra, an art museum, ballet, opera, theater. Would we live here - or anywhere - without music, dance, poetry, books, film, art galleries? Without the quality-of-life amenities that arts and cultural organizations provide, would retirees choose to settle here, would wealthy Guadalajarans vacation here, would there be the kind of civic investment in arts and cultural centers that have enriched this community. These are the very people who keep business thriving, civic endeavors moving forward, and charities prospering. But more importantly, what these people understand is that feeding the children, caring for their health and wellbeing, providing an education and a moral compass to navigate the world, is simply not enough. Human life is not just about physical survival but also a deep rooted need to flourish, a need to connect with each other that goes beyond sustenance into the actual opportunities people have to excel, to create, to express themselves, and be fulfilled. For most of us, physical wellbeing is not an end goal, it simply allows us the ability to pursue our dreams. Saving children starving in the street is well and noble and essential, but it is only the beginning of the conversation.
Charitable organizations within a community need to align with shared goals, not separate causes. When policymakers, funders, or neighbors talk about hunger or mental health versus funding for the arts the real answer is that we’re working toward the same goal; a thriving, resilient community.
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Bill Sheehan Ajijic, Mexico, December 2025