Texas Study Stresses Economic Progress Through Art
Disclosure: My great-grandfather was in the movie business.
That is, he owned and operated the Mission Theatre in Menard, a town on the edge of West Texas whose population peaked at 2,674 nearly six decades ago. The building has been mostly dormant for nearly 60 years, since he closed the theater in 1953. It flooded in 1980, and a decade later the roof collapsed. In the years before a new one could be put on, trees began to grow through the floor.
In 2010, Kaci Kothmann formed the Mission Theatre Restoration Foundation, a small band of Menard residents who ...
Comments (1)
Gritsforbreakfast
Texas' policies are basically the opposite of what you'd expect if we were taking advantage of economic growth opportunities in creative fields: The mess with Robert Rodriguez and the Film Commission deters East and West coast industry types from investing here, and meanwhile the TAKS test has caused art to be de-emphasized in Texas schools, where <a href="http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/03/kids-do-less-art-in-school-more-in.html">participation rates have plummeted</a>, so we're not investing with any notable aim to generate home grown talent.
Supposedly by 2016, <a href="http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/05/education-solution-to-crimes-from.html">one in 12 jobs in Texas</a> will be in the creative sector, but especially in this budget climate, I fear calls for prioritizing art will be about as popular as a flatulent elevator operator.