Robert Redford promotes arts, rails against big oil

Robert Redford promotes arts, rails against big oil Image

BALTIMORE — Robert Redford is talking oil, art and history — and for him, they're all connected as he works to use art as a tool of activism.

The 73-year-old actor is moving at full speed. He just finished production on his latest movie, "The Conspirator," a story he directed about a mostly forgotten trial after Abraham Lincoln's assassination with surprising connections to today.

This week he's been raising money for the Gulf Coast's recovery from the oil spill — and railing against big oil. as a longtime environmentalist, Redford isn't holding back on advice for the president, either.

"The truth is pouring out, just like that oil," he told The associated Press on Friday, bemoaning the "collusion" between government and oil companies over time and the environmentally friendly ad slogans from big oil.

"Chevron is not in the 'human energy' business. BP is not 'beyond petroleum.' They're all about petroleum," Redford said.

As for President Barack Obama, Redford said he's spent too much time trying to be bipartisan and that "there is no such thing."

"He's got to be bold. He's got to be a leader, not a manager," Redford said. "I think he's got it in him. The question is, will he?"

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On Friday, Redford turned back to his love for the arts and called on about 900 attendees at an Americans for the Arts summit in Baltimore to push to dispel the "myths" holding back government funding for the arts.

Notions that art is trivial or worthless are driven by "small minds," he said. "Unfortunately, some of them hold congressional seats."

Redford started the Sundance Institute and Film Festival with a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1980. Now, it generates as much as $90 million over 10 days each year for Utah's coffers.

Robert Lynch, president of the arts advocacy group, credits Redford with increasing federal arts funding by $100 million last year with stimulus funds and budget increases after the actor testified on Capitol Hill in 2008. at the time, Redford said, he thought his testimony was a wasted trip.

More recently, Redford created the Redford Center in Berkeley, Calif., with his children to use the arts to push for social and environmental change.

This month, actress Rosario Dawson joined the center for a program on using art in impoverished neighborhoods. other efforts focus on clean energy, clean water and other issues. Real storytelling, Redford said, can be more powerful than propaganda.

Redford is mixing art and politics. Art with an agenda, though, has irked Congress in the past.