Despite the reputation of the 1950s as a bastion of conformity and official cultural conservatism, the Eisenhower years saw a cultural quickening throughout the country and within the government. There was more discussion about the proper relationship between the government and art, and more interest in doing something to make that relationship more active.
Throughout the decade, for the first time, almost every department of the government dealt, at least in passing, with issues of art and culture. The fact that his administration spoke out in support of the arts, clearly favored a closer relationship between American artists and the government, and was receptive to some of the ideas for arts legislation in Congress, made Eisenhower’s presidency the foundation for the government assistance to the nation’s art that emerged in the 1960s.
The issue of government involvement with the arts came up just four months into the new administration. In May 1953, the Commission of Fine Arts—an agency created in 1910 by President William Howard Taft—presented to Eisenhower a report it had begun to compile over two years earlier at the direction of Harry Truman.
According to Chairman David Finley, the CFA examined “the changing social and economic conditions in this country; the increase in leisure in recent years; the rapid growth of facilities for communication; the widespread appreciation of the value of international cultural exchanges; and the alteration in the character of art patronage in this country; all of which [justified] a new appraisal of the art activities carried on by the United States Government at the present time.” Just as important than this appraisal, however, was the commission’s general recommendation that the government should become more involved with the arts in America.
The report made dozens of recommendations to departments and agencies of the federal government as diverse as the State Department, the Library of Congress, the General Services Administration, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Post Office, the Department of Agriculture, and all branches of the armed forces. The commission did not intend to change its own basic character and planned to continue in a purely advisory capacity. At this point more centralized control and direct subsidies for art did not seem to the commission to be necessary to further the growing revitalization of American culture.
Let's take a closer look at the CFA next time, and check in on what it’s doing or not doing today.
