How do the arts help make our democracy come alive?

We must first recognize that the arts are among the primary drivers of civic discourse in any society. To think less of the arts in this regard is to ignore the lessons of history.

The Third Reich used a touring exhibit of what it called entartetekunst -- "degenerate art" -- to rally support for its fascistic ambitions. It is indeed telling that the tour ended with the artwork, mostly by Jewish artists, being hurled into a bonfire.

The "socialist realist" philosophy of the Soviet Union highlights the use of art as propaganda -- as does the grand portraiture of Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned by the emperor himself.

In the United States today, one need say no more than "The NEA Five" for a jolting reminder of the political impacts of the creative endeavor.

Now consider the systematic disinvestment in the arts as a civic benefit and public right in the United States today. Cuts to public funds for the arts continue nationwide. In California alone, state arts funds were cut by 94 percent, hitting schools and underserved communities hardest.

California Lawyers for the Arts executive director Alma Robinson notes that although Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2007 budget included a much-needed block grant of $109,757,000 for arts and music education, this nevertheless fails to address "the critical need to restore the state's arts infrastructure."

Robinson notes that, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, California's investment in arts infrastructure is just 3 cents per person, less than Mississippi or Guam.

The de facto alternative to public support for the arts is commercial "infotainment," which, as documented in Thomas Frank's anthology "Commodify Your Dissent" (W.W. Norton, 1997), diverts our creative and democratic impulses into simple consumerism rather than meaningful social engagement.

In the face of this crisis, admirable support has been rallied on behalf of major institutions, such as the symphony, opera, ballet and modern art museum. They are important, and deserve the funding they get; however, they cannot serve all -- or even the majority -- of the diverse cultural needs of America's very diverse communities.

Instead, they represent a starting point from which to build up a strong, inclusive and diversified local arts infrastructure.

Impeding this is the widely recognized lack of funding resources and expertise for grassroots arts organizations, and the marginalized and/or culturally diverse artists who are the backbone of the local arts infrastructure.

Independent Arts & Media responds to this need by creating arts resources and services for those who are outside of the largest institutional structures, either due to economic disadvantage, nontraditional/underground status, or cultural orientation.

Reaching beyond the mainstream to open doors for those voices isn't merely an issue of "inclusion," but, quite literally, one of ethical, cultural, economic and social progress.

Writing in "The Art of Fiction," John Gardner asserts: "The fact remains that art produces the most important progress civilization knows. [By] restating old truths and adapting them to the age, applying them in ways they were never before applied, stirring up emotion by the inherent power of narrative, visual image or music, artists crack the door to the morally necessary future."

Notes from the Underground

It is suspect to assert that nontraditional or nonmainstream arts are excluded from this moral conversation. And it's equally suspect to claim that such arts lack support among the mainstream audiences, given that the commercial media and entertainment sectors discourage or block access to cultural experience outside their purview.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, repeated waves of underground and nonmainstream culture -- including the Beats, '60s radicalism, and the punk movement of the '70s, '80s and '90s -- were eventually able to break through to mass audiences on an extraordinary scale.

Along the way they bolstered not only the cultural conversation, but also local arts economies. This includes numerous galleries, venues, literary publishers, schools and educational institutions, record labels, radio stations, etc., not to mention the producing artists themselves.

It's important to note that this sort of local arts infrastructure isn't self-contained. It crosses borders, forms part of a circulatory system for touring art, music and ideas, as well as social and financial capital.

Lately, financial capital and the cultural economy have become primary concerns of municipal planners from Austin to Seattle, due to the work of sociologist Richard Florida. His 2002 book, "The Rise of the Creative Class," makes the case that a thriving and diverse cultural community and infrastructure will lead to general economic prosperity by drawing talent and creativity-focused jobs.

But, as Florida himself points out, an obsession with the idea of the "creative class" as a high-earning economic sector risks gentrification, deepening class division, and ultimately economic, civic and cultural disenfranchisement.

This issue of cultural equity -- of access to support and resources for creative individuals and communities outside the mainstream -- has been advanced significantly in San Francisco thanks to the Cultural Equity Grants Program of the SF Arts Commission.

Indy Arts seeks to complement and evolve this healthy impulse by creating and expanding programs that will support and develop a thriving, cutting edge, forward-thinking arts culture on the ground, in Bay Area neighborhoods and communities.

Creating a Culture of Democracy
In this endeavor, Indy Arts is inspired as much by the 19th-century Chautauqua movement as by the D.I.Y. ethos of modern punk and indie culture, and seeks to unite the former's Enlightenment principles of open inquiry with the latter's extraordinary fusion of ethics, idealism and entrepreneurial vigor.

Over the years we have been remarkably productive, working directly within communities to produce eight major arts-connection fairs, more than 160 workshops, dozens of radio broadcasts and podcasts, and serving approximately 5,000 individuals as well as many times more with our online services.

Independent Arts & Media addresses the crisis of the culture of democracy by deepening and extending the radically democratizing powers of public media and the cultural commons. We develop effective programs in both the online and offline worlds by harnessing the grassroots, open-source epistemology of the Internet.

Rather than concentrate capital and authority in a centralized institution, Indy Arts develops and supports non-hierarchical services and resources that derive from -- and directly serve -- the experience and needs of the people doing the work and participating in the dialogue.

Ultimately, our concern is the creation of a culture of democratic inclusion and engagement, in which people and communities shape their lives through cultural participation and open discourse.