Do we need art?
The Monument asks locals what they think
By Denise Duda

Taking advantage of the beautiful Monday afternoon sun on the first full day of spring, we polled the lunchtime crowd as they left Cole Farms in Gray. The Monument Newspaper put forward these two questions to the man on the street: Do we need art? Why or why not? The answers came from residents in several area towns.

"Well, yes we need art," Barbara Manter of Brunswick answered. "Why everybody needs to be creative and to look at beautiful things and art encompasses both." Janis Bolster who grew up in New Gloucester and now resides in Bath agreed. "Of course we need art," she said, "Just try to imagine the world without it."

Sue from Windham didn't want her last name used but wasn't afraid to say that we absolutely need it. "The reason I say that is…that's what makes the world interesting. We absolutely need it. That's how some people express themselves. It's beautiful."

Not everyone thought that art was a need however. Mike Pelletier of Casco smiled and replied with some questions of his own. "Do we need it? Is it necessary? No. Should the government fund it out of my taxes? No. Should they teach it in school? Sure. Kids should have the opportunity to learn about it and do art in classes." Continuing to explain his position he went on, "The government doesn't subsidize my business; I don't think we should subsidize the art business. I don't think that art is that important that we should have to support it before other things like everybody having health insurance. You want my opinion-just ask me. You might not like what I have to say."

Gary Manley of Poland answered, "Every public project now has a percent for art. I'm not a huge fan of spending money for it. But art's pretty important…for diversity and it would be a pretty sterile environment if we didn't have it."

According to Alta Giasson we need art but she had some reservations. "I think we do really need art, not to spend too much money on, but it's important. Some people are really talented and it's important even for those who think that they aren't talented to find out if they are or not."

Finally, Roland Coolong from Farmington had his own reasons for supporting art, saying, "Yeah they need it. Get the kids doing something besides smoking pot. Give them something to do to keep them out of trouble."