Ever since humans were, well, thinking creatures, they expressed themselves through art. From the ancient cave paintings of hands — to Man Ray and Robert Mapplethorpe, from Tibetan music to Shakespeare, from Paul Robeson to Don Miller. Art is the chronicler of the ages, whether words, music, mime or film. Without it we wouldn’t have the magnificent Book of Kells and its incredible illuminated pages. We wouldn’t have Carmen, Orpheo & Euridice, The African Queen, “Guernica” or Monet’s “Lilies.”

Art includes gardening, sculpture and architecture. It is decorating house and home, building furniture, design.

Seems like every artist needs help of some kind in order to produce unencumbered. Alexander Pope was funded by Queen Ann in the early part of the 18th century. The Bard himself received stipends from Elizabeth I. Every country, every society, every culture has supported its artists, Vincent Van Gogh notwithstanding.

An artist is driven. Our six-year-old grandson spends countless quiet hours drawing amazing renderings of the planets, dinosaurs, trains or whatever strikes his fancy. There’s something in his genes. The same is true of the son of one of our Hall of Fame winners. Randy Melick began drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil or a crayon and now is accumulating enough material to present to the Museum of Modern Art for a one-person show. But this requires time and — guess what? — money.

So he teaches, hoping for the time to draw. We all know the story of Mozart, who composed his first symphony at the age of four and countless musical miracles thereafter. Where did he work?

It’s also an established fact that children who are exposed to art early on in school do better than those who have no access to anything artistic.

New Jersey has a fine arts program, although its state funding has been less and less every year for the past decade. And now James McGreevey has proposed cutting the $43,000,000 budgeted for art in the state from this year’s budget. Not only that, he’s suggesting eliminating the NJ Council on the Arts with its $18 million as well as the Cultural Trust and doing major surgery on the New Jersey Historical Commission. Rumor has it that the New Jersey Film Commission has also been eliminated.
Naturally, the arts entities in every town and hamlet are protesting. Montclair’s theaters are wondering how they will continue. The Newark Museum served crackers and cheese at the opening of its “Great Pots” exhibit. The Montclair Art Museum did have a sumptuous spread at the opening of its Man Ray show, but before they could imbibe, patrons signed postcards to the governor, their senators and assembly persons pleading with them to restore arts funding.

Doesn’t the governor know that New Jersey’s non-profit art entities provide more than 11,000 jobs statewide and return more than $27 million in tax revenues annually, or that for every dollar spent on funding there is a $55 return?

In reality, James McGreevey isn’t just slashing whole items indiscriminately, he saying no to Art. Granted, all the recipients can and probably will find other sources to keep on going, probably at the bare bones level, even turning some professionals into volunteers.

But in the long run, what will we all think of a young governor with a young child who seems to be rejecting the entire notion and power of art. It’s a slap in the face to all those who have been compelled to express themselves in theatre, prose, poetry, painting, music, sculpture and design. And there are many artists among us.

Dear Jim McGreevey: You really wouldn’t deny your own kid would you?