If the Arts are Dessert, Do They Make you Fat?

"Actor Tim Daly, co-president of The Creative Coalition, said it was his mission 'to make America understand that the arts are part of our cultural and economic main course, they are not dessert.'"

-"Recession means hard times for struggling artists," Associated Press, 3/26/09.

"The New York Times is serving its readers spinach for dessert."

-Jodi Kantor, 2003, embarking on that famous Arts & Leisure "makeover" six years ago that made the section what it is today.

And we wonder how arts funding got devalued...


Interesting footnote: "Then–executive editor Howell Raines gave his approval to hire Ms. Kantor [as Arts & Leisure editor] in January [2003], one of his last moves before the Jayson Blair scandal."