Ivey sounds 'Cultural Rights' alarm

Arts, Inc.

By Bill Ivey

University of California Press

342 pp., $24.95

Conservatives and libertarians question why government is in the business of supporting the arts, however modestly, something they'd leave to the commercial marketplace or private patrons.

Bill Ivey, who chaired the National Endowment for the Arts under President Clinton and, before that, the Country Music Foundation, goes in a vastly different direction in Arts, Inc: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights.

He blames government indifference and companies interested only in profits.

He's alarmed that "our creative heritage is mostly owned, lock, stock and barrel, by multinational companies."

As an example, he cites the iconic photo of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s salute at his father's funeral. Stan Stearns took the photo for LIFE, but its copyright is now owned by Corbis, an intellectual-property asset company created by Bill Gates. ...