Becoming a patron of the arts

[pegkerr]

There was an interesting discussion on Steve Brust's blog recently, prompted by a letter he sent to Miss Manners which Miss Manners actually printed and answered (Steve was asking about the etiquette of putting a donation button on his website). As a number of Steve's readers pointed out, Miss Manners in her response didn't perhaps entirely consider the aspect that there is a long and honorable history of patronage of the arts.

I was amused to discover this morning that the Academy of American Poets has an Adopt-a-Poet program, based upon the Adopt-a-Highway program. For $30, you can adopt a poet, to assist in the care of maintenance of their website.

I've always thought that if I ever win the lottery, I'd use a large part of the money to create grants to help support a good number of artists and writers that I know.

I live in Minneapolis, which has a thriving arts and writing community.

What about you? In what ways are you a patron of the arts?