Here’s a great piece on the arts and government funding:  How Commerce Expands Culture
One of the boldest quotes from the piece reads,

“Not only is the market better for creative culture than most people realize, the state can be downright toxic to creative expression and cultural development.”

The author goes on to defend the assertion with a reference to history (something that fellow Notewriter Brandon Christensen will appreciate),

The state exerts its tyranny on social culture through paternalism and imperialism. In the case of the Jarawa “primitives” of the Andaman Islands, their government’s desire to preserve their “pristine” culture resulted in laws that forcibly prevented these people from culturally assimilating.