ART AS BASTARD STEP-CHILD
Economic woes cause controversy
behind the scenes for
Houston's Miller Theater

The Miller Theatre Advisory Board and city parks officials are battling over control of the Miller Outdoor Theatre, one of Houston's most cherished cultural venues and home to dozens of free concerts and plays every year.

The theater, donated to the people of Houston 80 years ago by local mining engineer Jesse Wright Miller, hosts thousands of people every year for free Houston Symphony concerts, Shakespeare in the Park, Independence Day celebrations, and eclectic dance and music recitals.

While most of those programs will likely remain, it's the "free" part that some fear is in danger.

Everyone, including Parks and Recreation Director Roksan Okan-Vick, says they want to keep the events free, but they differ over how.

Advisory board members believe Okan-Vick is jeopardizing the theater by cutting its budget and laying off some of its staff.

"There's an underlying feeling on the board that we are at odds with the priorities of the department," said Tim Cisneros, who chairs the board.

And the conflict has not escaped the notice of City Council.

"What you're seeing is a board frustrated with a bureaucratic parks department with misplaced priorities," said councilman and mayoral candidate Michael Berry.

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I fully understand the economic realities our time. States and cities are taking the brunt of the recession because the federal government is wasting our tax dollars on wars and giveaway bonanzas to the rich. It's just that stories like this one remind me that the arts are treated like total crap in this country. If it's not some controversy about the laughably paltry amount of tax money going to artists who are found to be objectionable in some way by fundamentalist zealots, then it's a simple lack of understanding that the arts are absolutely crucial to cultural self-understanding.

Art is treated as quixotic commodity, rather than the lifeblood that it is. This is our weakness; this is our shame. If art were more highly regarded and understood by our leaders, we could have a more just society--we could have a renaissance. Call me an idealist, but I believe that if the government both hyped and funded the arts on a level comparable to Europe, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today.

Sigh.

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