My history of particular states - and America overall - is pretty shaky beyond the bits I've picked up from "National Treasure" so I'll take your word for it. I do recall that particular quirk though about donations bringing a lot of influence. The Purdue family in particular since they love putting their name on all kinds of things - though conveniently not on the Opioid epidemic they created.

Anyway, acts of charity are still helpful in their own way for sure, but I'm with you that it would've been better for people to just pool resources and figure out what's best for people and what will help improve people's lives.

Art to an extent can do that, but I think we're beyond visual aids being all that helpful or enriching our lives.