Taxpayers Pay for Poets to Travel to Antarctica
10th June 2014
The bad news is that we’re paying for them to come back as well.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is spending tens of millions on its Antarctic “Artists and Writers” program, which includes taxpayer-funded trips for poets to visit the Southern Hemisphere.
The NSF has sent nearly 100 poets, writers, painters, and musicians to Antarctica over the past three decades, providing round trip economy air tickets from the United States as well as “in-kind” support such as food, shelter, and cold-weather clothing, which is returned by the artist at the completion of their trip.