Series explore links between art, government

A five-week lecture series on the relationship between art and government kicks off today, Feb. 14, sponsored by the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs.

“The Arts and Public Policy,” a free noon brown bag series, features UW–Madison professors and experts on wide-ranging arts topics. The lectures will be in 260 Madison Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The series seemed a natural, given the publicity of the $100 million donation by Jerry Frautschi to support a downtown arts district, said Shirley Smith, an outreach coordinator for La Follette.

The interest is even greater considering the recent controversy over an art display in New York featuring a Madonna splattered by elephant dung and a picture of a pregnant woman in a Madison display, said Smith.

“Art and symbols and expression make up so much of our lives,” said Smith. “It includes everything from team logos and mascots to Saturday nights at the movies to web pages on the Internet. We want to look at what government’s role is in defining and enabling the arts.”

Topics and speakers are:

• Monday, Feb. 14 – “Support Structures for the Arts: Government’s Piece of the Funding Pie,” by Andrew Taylor, assistant director of Bolz Center for the Arts Administration.
• Monday, Feb. 21 – “The Arts and Intellectual Property: A Few Problems,” by Mary Layoun, professor and graduate director of the Department of Comparative Literature.
• Monday, March 6 – “European Film vs. Hollywood,” by Tino Balio, chair of the Department of Communication Arts and executive director of the UW Madison Arts Institute.
• Monday, March 13 – “The Folk Arts and Cultural Democracy,” by Jim Leary, professor in the Folklore Program and the Department of Scandinavian Studies.
• Monday, March 20 — “Art, Pornography and Indecency: Do You Know It When You See It?” by Donald Downs, professor in the Department of Political Science.