The federal stimulus funding aimed at jump starting the national economy has been troubling for many people, myself included. Troubling because of the amount of money involved and, in some cases, the kinds of projects that have been funded. Putting federal cash into highway and bridge construction makes for concrete action. Buying steel, asphalt and earthmoving equipment and putting people to work makes for the kind of project I like. But what about using stimulus dollars on arts projects?

We can ask this question in North Dakota because here so few people pay their bills with their art. And I asked the question despite my wife being an artist and my own occasional artistic pretensions.

The new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts does a good job of answering the question. Rocco Landesman was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Aug. 7. In response to Mitt Romney criticism of arts funding in the stimulus package, Landesman said, in a New York Times article, that it suggests "artists don't have kids to send to college or food to put on the table or medical bills to pay."

Painters, dancers, musicians, writers, potters and others in the arts and crafts do work. That relates well to Landesman's theme for the federal agency with a staff of 170. The theme: Art Works.

He told the Times, "Someone who works in the arts is every bit as gainfully employed as someone who works in an auto plant or a steel mill. We're going to make the point till people get tired of hearing it."

Landesman has a reputation as a hard-nosed businessman. He has survived as a Broadway producer, which takes more than a little business sense, and owns a large New York theater company. He also has started and operated mutual funds.

This view of artists doing work isn't new. During the Great Depression, FDR included the arts in this New Deal strategies. Under the Works Progress Administration umbrella were federal art, music, theater, writers and historic records projects. According to a paper by Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard, there were 5,300 visual artists and related professionals involved in the Federal Arts Project in 1936. The agency created 108,000 paintings and 18,000 sculptures. Sixteen thousand musicians were involved in the Federal Music Project at its peak.

Bismarck's Clell Gannon was a part of the Federal Writers Project. A North Dakota guide was one of the results of that project, along with other books and pamphlets.

In Bismarck-Mandan, culturally, we have a situation where funding local arts theater, music and dance groups and galleries require a huge fundraising effort involving sponsorships, fees, ticket sales and grants. It's a rather large money machine and people's livelihoods are caught up in it. And local cultural life takes its vitality from that machine.

There also are professional artists here who have the same kinds of bills that the rest of us have. They, of course, need to be paid. Art is by its nature entrepreneurial.

The North Dakota Council on the Arts received $290,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Council on the Arts then regranted the funds. In Bismarck-Mandan groups receiving funding include the Bismarck Art and Galleries Association, $7,000; Bismarck-Mandan Orchestra Association, $28,000; Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra, $12,850; Central Dakota Children's Choir, $20,000; and Northern Plains Ballet, $29,661.

After giving thought to the idea of using stimulus funds for arts projects, it seems clear that it's as appropriate as any other sector of the economy or part of community life.

(Ken Rogers' column appears each Saturday. Contact him at ken.rogers@bismarcktribune.com.)