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Few relationships would seem to be more stable than that between the arts and culture. Not only is there an ingrained notion in the Western tradition that there can be no culture without art and vice-versa, but also-in the form of rituals, monuments, anthems, and mythologythe arts in effect are generally perceived to be the repositories if not the constituents of a culture's identity. Cultural revolutions are invariably artistic revolutions, and colonies remain colonies until they produce or reclaim their own indigenous art.
Culture, however, is not the same as "a culture"; the former is a disembodied and superordinate concept, whereas the latter is specific to a certain time and place, as well as being tied to a multitude of other groundings. At the same time, it could be said that the unspoken agenda of every culture is its aspiration or pretense to the larger abstract sense of the term. Certainly this is the secret of imperialism, and a similar type of globalism and universality seems to be implied when critics invoke the adjectival form: cultural force, cultural criticism, cultural values, and even cultural diversity. Although such politics complicates matters for the arts, it also provides them with their perfect exercise field-the space or gap between the two levels or meanings of culture-just as it is by capitalizing on their traditional reputation as non-partisan, cosmopolitan, and "classic" that they are able to play the game of culture so well.
Sometimes, of course, artists are quite open about their agendas and able to negotiate quite well across the terrain, and actually there is a long history of artists who have been interested and/or involved in politics. Significantly, almost all of the "canonical" authors fall into this category, and today to a certain extent political engagement seems almost to be a prerequisite for artistic status. Similarly, in recent years there has been a spate of performers who have functioned not merely as "cultural ambassadors" but as mayors, senators, and indeed as President, with the late Sonny Bono-himself a product of the 1960s cultural revolution-playfully explaining his preference for the political stage in a 1996 address to the Washington Press Club on the grounds that "in show business, unlike politics, you have egomaniacs, power mongers and elitists."
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