Arts Funding Post-Recession

BBC One’s Art in Troubled Times: A New Deal for Art aired yesterday and sounds pretty fascinating:

The Great Depression and the Second World War changed what was expected of the arts; Alan Yentob asks if this recession could see the next transformation.

Artist Chuck Close talks about the New Deal in America in the 30s, when the government paid artists to work, while actor Simon Callow tells how thrilled actors were to feel their work mattered.

And dealer Kenny Schachter explains how, in a perverse way, he feels this recession is the best thing that has happened to the art world in ten years.

It’s also available online for free . . . as long as you’re in the UK. So everyone overseas—hope you enjoy, and let me know if there’s anything interesting in here. (And by “let me know,” I mean, I wouldn’t be disappointed to suddenly find a torrent for this program . . . )