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By Richard Hamilton, January 7, 2009 2:30 am

The incomparable Quincy Jones made an appearance on Last Call With Carson Daly tonight. In addition to discussions of Quincy’s amazing life and body of work, the subject of politics briefly came up. Carson suggested that Quincy would be an excellent candidate to be the US’s first Secretary of Culture. Quincy added that music from the US is found all over the world, yet we are one of the few countries without a Secretary of Culture, and we need one.

Here is what they misunderstand about culture (and more specifically, the arts): it is precisely because we do not have a Secretary of Culture, that our music dominates the world scene. The arts are not a top-down endeavor. American political imperialism is fading, yet American culture still thrives. Now I would agree that this is unfortunately often to the detriment of native arts. Somehow, the arts are one of the few facets of life we have managed to keep relatively pure. (I obviously don’t have cookie-cutter, ex-Disney types in mind. I’m actually talking about culture and art) And when the government (and our neighbors) shackle real culture, those fully invested find a way to free it. When meddlesome cooperates kill a medium, artist create a new one. When it no longer works this way, culture dies.

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By Richard Hamilton, October 17, 2008 4:59 pm

Tom 14 – Pretty Cool People Interviews from submarine channel on Vimeo

Tom views his art as a form of social action. Ethical issues aside, Tom’s work does bring up the question, “What role does art play in effectual social action?” Maybe more specifically, “What is the place of art in current Christianity?” It seems anecdotally that through most of history [at least Western history] artist have been on the cusp of societal change, especially in the church. What about today?