John F. Kennedy on Artists and the Arts

​“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction in the life of the nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose – and it is the test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
 
“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”

-John F. Kennedy-