artists

[sumanr84]

Government support for the arts will almost certainly interfere with the freedom of the creative process. Money, inevitably controlled by the politically powerful, will accumulate around established, conservative institutions when a certain philosophy prevails, or shift to the more experimental and radical groups when the political pendulum swings. Practicing artists will alter their own work accordingly, pursuing government funds at the expense of their own inner-directed development.

The author's logic in the argument above would be most weakened if it were true that

a. approximately the same number of individual creative artists are associated with so-called established institutions as with the more experimental groups
b. many people who would not otherwise experience the arts have had the opportunity to do so because of government funding
c. while it can be argued that political ideas swing in and out of fashion, it is equally arguable that trends in the arts are often short-lived
d. in every era, a few of the greatest individual artists do not tailor their efforts to attract money, either private or public
e. in assigning money to the arts, the politically powerful heed the advice of independent committees composed of artists respected in their fields

Kaplan Cat3, OA later

[grockit_andrea]

Government support for the arts will almost certainly interfere with the freedom of the creative process. Money, inevitably controlled by the politically powerful, will accumulate around established, conservative institutions when a certain philosophy prevails, or shift to the more experimental and radical groups when the political pendulum swings. Practicing artists will alter their own work accordingly, pursuing government funds at the expense of their own inner-directed development.

The author's logic in the argument above would be most weakened if it were true that

a. approximately the same number of individual creative artists are associated with so-called established institutions as with the more experimental groups
b. many people who would not otherwise experience the arts have had the opportunity to do so because of government funding
c. while it can be argued that political ideas swing in and out of fashion, it is equally arguable that trends in the arts are often short-lived
d. in every era, a few of the greatest individual artists do not tailor their efforts to attract money, either private or public
e. in assigning money to the arts, the politically powerful heed the advice of independent committees composed of artists respected in their fields

Kaplan Cat3, OA later

I would go with E here. The conclusion is in the argument's first sentence: the freedom of the creative process will be compromised if the government supports the arts. This is because artists will change their work in pursuit of funds, since the funds will be controlled by powerful people with political agendas. The argument assumes that the people distributing funds will do so according to their political agendas; E would provide a reason that the politics of the powerful people assigning money to the arts won't necessarily control their decision-making. Independent committees of artists would not necessarily be driven by political agendas, and so if independent committees were making the decisions about assigning money to the arts, artists wouldn't necessarily have to cater to political factions.

[outreach]

+1 for E

[sumanr84]

E indeed is the right ans..thanks Andrea for making it simple.