To the Journal editor:

The OutBack Art Fair and Art on the Rocks crown Marquette’s year of the arts. From Paradise and Allouez to the state of Florida, artists have come to the city to have their art seen and sold.

Yet the daily life of Marquette’s art is also important. It receives strong support from some quarters and entities and in some respects. But there is a bare minimum missing.

Unless and until the default, the presumption, is that the painter is a professional and full-time. Marquette has no claim on being an art town. The city should support its artists by actually buying paintings and drawings before an artist’s entire income must be consumed by shipping costs.

What would we say of Marquette as a health-care center if we assumed that doctors and nurses were part-time because they couldn’t make a living at it?

Our assumptions and actions must fundamentally change for the city to become what it claims to be.

Sincerely,

CHEVALIER DANIEL C. BOYER

New York, New York