Kickstarter Kicks the NEA's Butt in Arts Funding

Kickstarter, a nifty website that bills itself as a "funding platform for creative projects," plans to hand off $150 million in cash to artsy-fartsy projects of all shapes and sizes in 2012, co-founder Yancey Strickler told TPM last week. The money comes from individual donors who voluntarily give to specific projects.

The 2012 budget of the National Endowment for the Arts is $146 million.

Jus' sayin.

Reason.tv on three reasons not to fund art with taxpayer dollars:

Reason's Greg Beato is So Bored with the NEA.

Via tipster and trickster Andrew Mayne.

Comments

[John Tagliaferro]

The more ways to die for art, the merrier.

[us]

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[^NEA supporter^]

[Almanian]

Remind me why we have an NEA again?

[John Tagliaferro]

So "the right people" can make sure "the right art people" get more money than any sane person would give them.

[Pro Libertate]

I have no idea at all.

[Binky]

You can't spell "NEAT-O!" without "NEA".

[Hugh Akston]

Would you pay for a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine? Of course not. No sane person would. That's why we need the NEA.

[Tonio]

Would you pay for a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine?

FTR, no. Even though I enjoyed Santorum's whining about this I was still pissed that I had to pay for it.

[21st century Romney]

I was still pissed

I see what you did there.

[Audrey the Liberal]

Would you pay for a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine?

I might. Still think the NEA is stupid.

[Doctor Whom]

Because without the NEA, there would be no art.

Someone who seriously used the above argument seemed genuinely surprised to learn that there had been art before the NEA.

[Call Me a Cosmotarian, but...]

$150 million is just a molecule in the ocean of Federal spending and the TEAM RED opposition to NEA funding is nothing but KULTUR WAR -bullshit that has nothing to do with realizing a smaller, leaner, more efficient government.

[Hugh Akston]

Any savings, no matter how marginal, is a savings. And if a politician is unwilling to pull the plug on something as molecular as the NEA, it is clear that they will never be serious about tackling large spending boondoggles like defense and entitlements.

[Rokk Krinn]

How bout call you a dumbass but.....

[Tonio]

Hahahaha...

[Bill Dalasio]

Then the entire matter becomes a "cut except for things I like" game. The NEA might be very marginal spending, but its also the most clearly expendable spending on the budget.

[Professional Critic]

I gave $25 to a favorite ska band of mine for a recording session, and they used Kickstarter. I never saw it before that, but it's really interesting to read the various pitches.

I'm not interested in sponsoring yet another b.s. "artisanal" food company, but it looks like there are plenty who are. More power to them.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I've supported several kickstarter projects though admittedly only when I got a product out of it. Should be receiving a programmable espresso machine from there in the next month or two.

[I ? NEA]

So you expect to get something for your money? Your kind will be the first against the wall.

[Colonel_Angus]

They should make taxpayer funded bullshit ineligible to receive anything from them.

[Almanian]

Slightly OT - I just found "Hookers For Jesus" on Facebook. That restored my faith in humanity for at least another week.

Of course there's a "Hookers For Jesus" group. And the world is a better place for it.

[Cthorm]

Why limit it to Art? I just helped fund a sciency & technology documentary on Kickstarter

[wylie]

awaiting:

Kickstarter Launchloop
Kickstarter Fusion
Kickstarter LHC-successor

[Cthorm]

Note, I was talking about a documentary on LFTR, not LFTR itself.

So Kickstarters for documentaries on LaunchLoop, Fusion, particle accelerators would be the proper analog. But LaunchLoop is the only one of those that I think is obscure, but it requires a much bigger technological leap than the "50 year old technology revisited" with LFTR.

[yonemoto]

Kickstarter fusion:

Already done.

http://prometheusfusionperfection.com/

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I've never been to/heard about kickstarter. This shit is fascinating. And cool.

[Hugh Akston]

Hey, I forgot to thank you for buying drinks the other night. If its any consolation, I did think about you every time I peed.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

No prob. Thanks for coming down. It was nice to meet you and Sloopy and Banjos. Interesting people with new ideas, and funny too. We'll have to go up to the Valley and hang out. I propose The Blue Room in Burbank.

[Nathan]

Just saying what? That we've terribly underfunded the arts in our federal budget? That the people who attack the NEA are attacking a tiny, miniscule, insignificant portion of the federal budget?

[unhyphenatedconservative]

What would be proper funding? And what under the Constitution gives government the right to steal from me to fund the art NEA bureaucrats approve?

[Joshua Corning]

we've terribly underfunded the arts in our federal budget

I have never consumed federal art. Yet i consume billions of dollars worth of art every year by watching movies watching tv reading books playing video games etc...

I fail to see how something i never use can ever be underfunded...especially when i veraciously consume so much of the same product that is produced by the private sector.

[Roger Ebert]

video games aren't art

[sticks]

I prefer to say art and entertainment are the same thing.

[Tonio]

Buying art is not a core function of federal government. States and localities can make their own decisions. Which is not to say close the Smithsonian. Make an offer in good faith to stop the hemmorhaging, ie agree that we can do without the NEA, and I'll take you srsly.

[cw]

Why do you put a gun to my head to force me to support what you consider art?

[Bill Dalasio]

We've also terribly underfunded porn in our federal budget. And cheesy poofs. And hookers. And donations to bad televangelists.
Should we be increasing funding for all of them, or just your pet pony?

[DesigNate]

Just saying that you're a fucking retard and how dare you besmirch the name of Nathan.

[P Brooks]

we've terribly underfunded the arts in our federal budget?

Well, duh.

Where are our pyramids?

Where is our Colossus?

[Don Mynack]

Exactly. Time for a freaking flying pyramid, gov't. Hop to it.

[Joshua Corning]

Here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument

and here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore

[here too]

http://science.howstuffworks.c.....bomber.htm

[Yup]

Yup.

[P Brooks]

if a politician is unwilling to pull the plug on something as molecular as the NEA, it is clear that they will never be serious about tackling large spending boondoggles like defense and entitlements.

You know you're in trouble when you use this argument on somebody and all you get is a blank stare.

[Joshua]

I still have a crush on that hippy chick.

[Juice]

"Our entire lifetime funding is about $150 million," said Strickler, "But $99 million was pledged last year alone."

Sounds like they're catching up, but not quite kicking butt just yet.

[sticks]

Is gov't funded art as good as gov't smokes or cheese?

[Pete Guither]

Oh, everybody likes to talk about defunding the NEA. That's been the favorite football for decades. It's easy to make fun of government funded art that costs less than they spend on marching bands in the military, and thereby not do anything about the trillions spent on the stuff nobody wants to talk about. I don't buy the argument that unless politicians are willing to cut this small stuff, we can't trust them to make the bigger decisions. Talking about the NEA is merely a way to avoid talking about the real dollars.

I say, once politicians are willing to cut 10% of the defense budget, then you get to talk about the NEA. Otherwise stop wasting my time with this crap.

[Rumy Mayor]

So, OK man who comes up with all that crazy stuff??

http://www.Gone-Anon.tk

[Robert]

One of the DJs tonight during WFMU's annual fundraising marathon -- http://wfmu.org -- which last year fell a hair's breadth short of its $1.2M pledge goal, and is on target to slightly miss again this year, said she was glad they didn't work on Kickstarter's model, or they'd've had to refund all the donations!