In this week's Theater News, I say:

The fact that culture isn't a campaign platform—like transportation and housing—is insane. Seattle is packed with artists and institutions that have palpable public benefits. It's time for them to stop apologizing and start demanding. Rocco Landesman, the new NEA chief, is marching into D.C. wielding a torch and a sword against myopic conservatives and the mealymouthed capitulators who've been "advocating" for the arts for the past eight years. We should do the same here and now. Culture has a constituency, but it doesn't have candidates—yet.

Let's leave aside the sanctimonious, art-is-good-for-you arguments and talk money...

And then I go on and do some financial breakdowns about how the city actually makes money by investing its Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs.

At a "cultural capital" seminar in London, Kevin Spacey—artistic director of the Old Vic—also suggests that culture stop apologizing and start recognizing itself as a engine of wealth as well as an engine of edification:

Arts groups, said Spacey, should consider changing their approach and talk up the economic benefits of investing. "Too often we highlight the social aspects of what we can achieve or the artistic merits which are, of course, important. But I believe at this time, at this moment, we should change tack. Instead of apologetically holding our hat in our hands, we should cite the economic successes of what is, after all, called show … business."

At the same forum, Ben Boris Johnson—the mayor of London—suggested British museums start the "suggested donation" policy of the US museums instead of giving it away for free. He came to this conclusion, he said, after "an American youngster had berated him in New York, asking why London had free museums and not—for example—free hamburgers."

At any rate, cultural institutions can't just sit and pout, hoping for handouts, especially not at a time like this. They must demonstrate their financial power and organize and wield their clout—donors and board members, famous artists, politically connected administrators, the untapped voting bloc of the city's arts workers.

Cultural institutions must leverage their power (and their dollars) to coax politicians into taking cultural stewardship as seriously as they take environmental stewardship, fiscal stewardship, etc.