Tim Blair notes that art for arts sake has now been replaced by Show me the money:
As the Obama administration tackles the challenge of shoring up the economy through infusions of capital and job creation, cultural leaders are urging the president not to forget arts institutions, which are also reeling from the market downturn.
“We wanted to make sure arts were not left out of the recovery,” said Robert L. Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, a national lobbying group. “The artist’s paycheck is every bit as important as the steelworker’s paycheck or the autoworker’s paycheck.”
Read the whole thing, nobody does a comedy fisking like Blair
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 
Most art will not benefit from government money. Even though much great art is created in spite of the audience, ultimately art depends on a relationship between the the artist and his audience. Government money will only distort that relationship by reducing the audience to members of congress, the president a few powerful bureaucrats and Rahm Emanuel. If the aim is just to reward artists that don’t have the courage to be independent, Obama has the the votes to make it happen. But let the rest of us call it what it is: patronage for cowards. Just, please, don’t let Obama talk to me about art.
I think its more of a question of lesser art getting funding. Some of it might be good but the effect would be the elevation of lesser artists. At least that’s what I think.