Kevin Spacey presents a strong case for financially supporting the arts in the United States. His view is more community and economically focused, though I have been reading books and articles and watching videos on neurology that suggest music as a cross-training for the brain (to make a sporting analogy) for virtually any subject or endeavor. All interesting and extremely helpful whether you go for the community view or the scientific one. Probably because of the art’s difficulty to quantify and justify its existence, funding often gets cut before other seemingly more practical things. I hope this will change with the advent of better data analysis and advanced brain imaging techniques.
Kevin Spacey in a related television interview mentioned that Winston Churchill during the Second World War spoke with his finance minister who said Britain should cut arts funding to support the war effort. Churchill’s responded: “Then what are we fighting for?”