A Department of the Arts can preserve America’s cultural and economic powerhouse

America has a secretary of Agriculture. We have a secretary of Transportation. We have cabinet departments devoted to energy, commerce and labor. So why, in the country that gave the world Hollywood, hip-hop, jazz, Broadway and video games, don’t we have a secretary of the Arts?

Sam Reich — CEO of the stellar streaming service Dropout — has been making this point, and Democrats should steal it shamelessly. Because this isn’t just about appreciating art. It’s about recognizing an enormous American industry.

Arts and cultural production generated $1.17 trillion in economic value in 2023 — 4.2 percent of the U.S. economy — and supported 5.4 million jobs. The arts are comparable in economic size to agriculture and transportation. In February, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced it would no longer regularly produce these statistics. Apparently, we’re not just neglecting this economic powerhouse. We’re retreating from measuring it.

Consider just two pieces of it. America’s film and television industry supports more than 2 million jobs and $202 billion in wages, spread across more than 162,000 businesses. Video games generate nearly........

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