What can we do for the arts?

(The following speech was delivered by David Rockefeller Jr. at the Asian Cultural Council gala dinner at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Nov. 12.)

The great American writer Mark Twain once observed that when the wealthy get together, they always like to talk about art and when artists get together, they always like to talk about money. Tonight, I’d like to talk a little bit about both.

I’d like to begin by sharing a few thoughts about why I think the arts are so important, and then say a few words about why I think it’s so important to give them all the support we can.

Today, with so much tension and conflict in the world, I believe we need the arts – and those who create them – more than ever, since it is our artists who are able to give form and expression to humankind’s highest and most enduring values.

Even in the most difficult of times, the arts offer solace and inspiration and hope by reminding us of the "positive vitality" that lies at the very heart of the creative process.

Throughout history, no matter how daunting the political or social or economic circumstances have been, the true artistic temperament has always managed to persevere and prevail.

The arts – particularly the non-literary forms such as music and dance or painting, sculpture, and architecture – take us beyond language. They speak across barriers of culture and geography and need no translation. They engage the trinity of mind, body, and spirit: They join us together in song; they fix us in space; they transport us from our immediate time and place. They are, in effect, a global common denominator, with the unique ability to communicate directly to us all, regardless of where we live, what we do, or who we are.

Today, the arts play a very special role in allowing us to honor and celebrate that which is special and distinct in each of us while, at the same time, recognizing and appreciating – and, yes, sometimes lamenting – our shared human condition.

As the Internet brings us ever closer together in cyberspace, the arts can bring us closer together right here on earth. For all the advantages of computers and modern communication technology, there is still no substitute for the direct, real-time experience by one person of a work of art made by another.

Once we have come to understand all that the arts can do for us, I think one of the questions we need to ask ourselves is "What can we do for the arts?"

At least two good answers come immediately to mind. The first is that we should give our artists the respect and moral support that they and their work deserve. Doing that costs nothing. Except the time and effort it takes to go to an exhibition, attend a theater performance, visit a beautiful building, or listen to a concert.

The second answer is that we should give our artists the financial support they need in order to create their art and refine their craft. And while that kind of support does cost something – namely, money – it is money that I am convinced could not be better spent.

Just how much you can afford to spend on supporting the arts is, of course, up to you. But I would urge you and your companies and your government to be as generous as you can possibly be.

I was very fortunate to have been born into a family in which the enjoyment of the arts has always been a fundamental part of family life. And my family has always believed enjoying the arts carries with it a responsibility to support the arts and that the act of doing so is not merely an obligation but a privilege.

My father – David Rockefeller, Sr. – very early in his professional career as a banker recognized that what is good for the arts is also good for business. As a result, and because he is such an avid art collector and patron himself, he has long been a leading voice within the American business community in advocating for increased corporate support of the arts.

And it isn’t just in my own immediate family that the arts have held such a place of prominence. My grandparents and my aunts and uncles all recognized the central importance of the arts to a complete and fulfilling life.

In fact, as many of you know, one of my uncles – John D. Rockefeller III – created the foundation that has brought us together tonight: The Asian Cultural Council. Uncle John’s personal philanthropy funded some of the first sustained cultural exchanges between the Philippines and the United States, starting 40 years ago. And, happily, his life-long commitment to encouraging Asian-American friendship through the arts was continued by his wife – my Aunt Blanchette – after he died.

More recently, a number of you in this room have taken it upon yourselves to see to it that meaningful cultural exchanges between the Philippines and the United States can continue through your wonderful support of the ACC’s program in Manila. This is particularly important in the Philippines, which probably has the highest per capita rate of artistic talent of any country in the world.

I hope that all of you who are already contributing both time and money to the work of the ACC are very proud of what you are doing. The investment you are making in the artistic skills of so many talented Filipinos is an investment that will pay cultural dividends for generations to come. Your generosity represents an excellent model for others to follow. Not only here in Asia but in the United States as well.

On behalf of all of us connected with the ACC in New York, and on behalf of all the ACC’s grantees everywhere, I would like to congratulate and thank you. The kind of enlightened support of the arts that you are providing will inevitably make the world a richer and more interesting place and, ultimately, a more humane place.

For, above all, the arts reaffirm (in a way nothing else can) that the impulse to create is infinitely more powerful than the impulse to destroy.

Thank you very much.