John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.

Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, who serves as the top Democrat on the House subcommittee overseeing the National Endowment of the Arts, said in an interview that President Trump was “making a broad-based attack on the arts, both for funding and content.”

She cited his proposals to eliminate the endowments as well as his takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and his efforts to influence the Smithsonian Institution. Trump also has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the budget he released on Friday, May 2, along with the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

These actions may seem less dire than many of his executive orders and actions concerning tariffs, his efforts to dismantle civil service and his foreign policy initiatives. However, The Guardian suggests that Trump’s efforts to exert control over art typify the strategy of a dictator. “His party’s efforts to chip away at U.S. cultural autonomy, at individual and institutional creative expression, will be one of his most corrosive and anti-democratic legacies.”

Perhaps, as important as it is to be alert to the signs of creeping autocracy exposed by the president’s efforts to control the arts, the role of the arts is important to the life and culture of our country and helps to keep our democracy alive and well. The National Assembly of States Arts Agencies, NASAA, welcomes anyone to appropriate its marks of the influence of the arts on political, cultural and social environment of the nation.

The first of these observes that the arts contribute to community vitality. A growing body of research points to the arts as an engine for civic renewal. Citizen engagement in the arts creates a strong shared identity and instills pride in a country’s cultural heritage.

The city of Concord demonstrates another contribution of the arts. As noted in a policy brief from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, “The arts bring public spaces to life. Artworks and arts activities make public spaces livable, attractive and distinctive, engaging residents in the creation of welcoming and sustainable places to live, work, play and raise families.”

Concord would be a dull space without the sculptures displayed on the street, the buskers with their musical instruments, Red River Theatres, the Capital Center for the Arts, NH League of Craftsmen or the Bank of NH Stage, to name a few.

I would add that the arts play a significant role in private spaces as well. In our home, we display nineteenth-century paintings by a great aunt, paintings from friends we’ve met across the country, portraits of our children and paintings done by our children. A daughter and son-in-law host a band in their home for practice and socializing.

Also, according to NASAA, the arts foster civic participation and a strong democracy. The arts enhance our ability to illustrate viewpoints, to dramatize issues, to inspire action and to see things through the eyes of others — all necessary components of a thriving democracy. One example is the political cartoons in our newspapers and on the internet. Another example is the poetry read by the poets in Gibson’s Book store.

Music has been a commentator on wars, union organizing, the environment, revolutions. One example is the war protest song, “Where have all the flowers gone? / Gone to graveyards everyone.” Or perhaps a symphony inspired by the Grand Canyon.

Finally, the arts are a communications asset in a global society. The arts build bridges among people. They facilitate intercultural understanding and provide a common lexicon for building relationships in an increasingly diverse and global society. The president has communicated that the National Endowment of the Arts will not fund any artistic endeavor that does not meet his goal “to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation’s rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president.”

The key words here are: “prioritized by the president.”

The function of the arts is too important to be inhibited or dictated by any one person. Our country depends upon the free flow of artistic expressions that contribute to community vitality, enriched public spaces, strong democracy and bridge-building for the global society. Let a government that facilitates the free flow of the arts be the country’s legacy.