A Proposal for a Cultural Civics University Requirement

It seems to me that so many of the criticisms of Art institutions and Art practice have a very simple way of being resolved. And that is by teaching the basics of cultural civics.

In other words, Art (for Art's Sake) is an exclusively human endeavor.  The animal kingdom is colorful and sports an occasional mating, trained, or otherwise co-incidental activity that can be aesthetically pleasing enough to be labeled as 'art'.

And because humans are political about all kinds of human activity, art itself has become hostage to the whinings.

Regardless of the pet peeve, it seems to me that the cure is to develop a generational cohort of individuals who will bear personal responsibility for correcting these perceived aesthetic injustices.

A course can and should be developed that encourages individuals to buy art that they feel strongly about.  So an understanding of how to budget for art might be one component of such a course.

How inexpensive or expensive is it really to buy art?

Another component of such an offering might be, Where does somebody go to buy fine art? 

And so local galleries, University programs, and social media monitoring are all low-hanging fruit to discuss.

So far all of this can improve personal life satisfaction but that still doesn't fix the world's social injustice does it?

No. It doesn't.

But what if that course included a section about donating the art either as a tax exemption or as a a gift upon passing on to the big gallery in the sky?

WOW! If we had a recurring, generational epiphany than emphasized donating art to institutions who lack the aesthetic demographic nearest and dearest to that individual's heart, those institutions would begin to heal those inadequacies.

Just spit-balling aloud, mind you.