THE EVER GROWING ELECTRONIC CULTURE

By Paul Gray

The boisterous vibrancy of U.S. culture has historically stemmed from the mingling of homegrown art with imported models of European classicism. Some of the credit for this unique American cultural heritage belongs to the robber barons and entrepreneurs--Frick, Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller and so forth--who used part of their fortunes to build museums, libraries and concert halls that would rival any to be found on the Continent. In their diverse ways, these benefactors believed culture served the common good, not only educating the people but also making them better citizens. Such patronage helped ensure that our cultural plate would overflow with options, as it still does. Although rock and country dominate radio airwaves, listeners in most cities can tune in a variety of other music, including classical. Decent bookstores stock James Joyce's Ulysses somewhere along with Stephen King's Insomnia.

The great engine of U.S. commerce continues to churn out ever more sophisticated means of packaging and distributing this melange to consumers. Today some 85% of U.S. homes with television sets also have VCRs, generating nearly $10 billion in annual videotape rentals in a market that did not exist 20 years ago. The compact disc rejuvenated the recorded-music industry, winning new listeners for both Mozart and Jimi Hendrix, just as the CD-ROM promises to turn home computers into powerful outlets for entertainment.

But patronage of unprofitable arts and cultural activities tilted in the 1960s away from private donors toward an increasingly activist Federal Government. The results of the 1994 elections ensure that the cultural debate of 1995 will center on reversing that trend. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the new Republican majorities in Congress are determined to chop off funding to the National Endowment for the Arts, which last year distributed $146 million to 3,800 organizations and individuals, and to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in 1994 meted out $285.6 million to the Public Broadcasting System and its 345 member stations.

Critics charge that Gingrich is playing right-wing politics, trying to stifle funds for cultural projects that he and his allies dislike. Nonsense, the Speaker has replied. Why should all taxpayers be forced to contribute to elitist art or TV programming that most of them would not choose to see or watch? Beneath this debate rest some questions that could have enormous consequences for cultural life in the U.S. One need not be a Philistine to wonder whether the Federal Government should be in the business of setting aesthetic standards. But can the marketplace, by itself, do a better job? And if public funding for the nonremunerative arts vanishes, will new private patrons emerge to take up the slack?

Perhaps not, because the new technologies have made the traditional concept of culture as a community activity seem old fashioned to many people. One of them appears to be Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who reportedly has bought the electronic rights to museum masterpieces for projection on the walls of his mansion-in-the making in Medina, Washington. Billionaires used to endow museums to care for their private art collections; amassing the digitalized holdings of such institutions for home enjoyment is not quite the same thing. With libraries moving online and 500 channels of interactive TV promised fairly soon, even modestly well-to-do and well-connected families may someday find leaving the house unnecessary.

Culture has flourished in the bustle and indrawing of public spaces; it has also defied the marketplace by outlasting initial unpopularities and triumphing in the verdict of history. What will it be like if the arts move exclusively into the privacy of high-tech living rooms? And should it become only a predictable, market-tested commodity, will it even qualify as culture?

--By Paul Gray

REPORTED BY David Bjerklie and Sharon E. Epperson/New York, Ann Blackman/Washington and Richard Woodbury/Denver. CHARTS RESEARCHED BY Deborah L. Wells, Kathleen Adams, Elizabeth L. Bland, Ratu Kamlani and Richard Rubin

With reporting by DAVID BJERKLIE AND SHARON E. EPPERSON/NEW YORK, ANN BLACKMAN/WASHINGTON AND RICHARD WOODBURY/DENVER. CHARTS RESEARCHED BY DEBORAH L. WELLS, KATHLEEN ADAMS, ELIZABETH L. BLAND, RATU KAMLANI AND RICHARD RUBIN