The National Summit for the Arts idea has become a Facebook cause! If you'd like to join, go to: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/join/202708/42790651?m=ac75a943. Spread the word! Thanks for the suggestions to coordinate with such events as the Community Arts and Grantmakers in the Arts conferences - both good ideas. I was also thinking that the Americans for the Arts convention might be a good tie-in. It's in Philadelphia this June, I think.
Joiners welcome! Skeptics, too.
Monday, January 26, 2009
We haven't made the case!
My last post calling for a National Summit elicited a mini-torrent of attack on DailyKos, where I cross posted it. Surprisingly, even in a liberal group blog like Kos, it's clear that a lot of people don't have a sense that the arts are important and that they need help from the government. The hard part about getting government support is that artists, arts organizations, and indeed the whole cultural sector is completely misunderstood by the public. We have to come together, find common arguments and unified ideas about why others should care about us. Until we do, we'll remain in the relative wilderness.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Let's have a national arts summit in summer 2009
Petitions and ideas are flying through the internets -- Arlene Goldbard has issued a call for a new WPA for artists; President Obama himself called for an "Artists Corps" in the schools, modeled on Teach for America, during his campaign; fragments of information suggest that some substantial millions, if not even a billion, will be appropriated to bodies like the NEA, the Smithsonian, and the IMLS when the stimulus package passes.
And most dramatic of all is the Quincy Jones petition that would create a cabinet-level "culture czar" or ministry of culture.
All these ideas paint a wildly optimistic future for the arts after years in the fiscal wilderness. We've been sustained by an economic boom that has enabled our private donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors to be unusually generous. But even during a two-decade mostly-boom period, the arts have neither flourished financially nor been able to save for the rainy day that's now monsooning all of us.
So maybe it's time we gathered all the artists and arts leaders and theorists and public policy experts together with key Congressional and administration leaders -- hello, Obama arts transition team? -- in one huge conference, in Washington, DC, where the public funding decisions will be made. May or June sounds good to me. Let the new Obama administration get its stimulus bill passed and its economic and national security/diplomacy efforts rolling. But then let's take a global look at every aspect of the arts support system that's been created, or that's grown at random, over the last few decades. And let's make recommendations for something new, something optimal for this new century. Spread the word: arts summit now.
And most dramatic of all is the Quincy Jones petition that would create a cabinet-level "culture czar" or ministry of culture.
All these ideas paint a wildly optimistic future for the arts after years in the fiscal wilderness. We've been sustained by an economic boom that has enabled our private donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors to be unusually generous. But even during a two-decade mostly-boom period, the arts have neither flourished financially nor been able to save for the rainy day that's now monsooning all of us.
So maybe it's time we gathered all the artists and arts leaders and theorists and public policy experts together with key Congressional and administration leaders -- hello, Obama arts transition team? -- in one huge conference, in Washington, DC, where the public funding decisions will be made. May or June sounds good to me. Let the new Obama administration get its stimulus bill passed and its economic and national security/diplomacy efforts rolling. But then let's take a global look at every aspect of the arts support system that's been created, or that's grown at random, over the last few decades. And let's make recommendations for something new, something optimal for this new century. Spread the word: arts summit now.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
happy new year! leave your cliches at the door.
Hello
The blog went dormant as I lost my way from the arts to obsessing on the election. Not wanting to be one more of the several million election bloggers, I decided to wait until now. New year, new president, new economic reality. This is a blog about the convergence of art, politics, money and memory.
Everyone is saying that we are in an unprecedented economic reality, that "everything has changed," and that we are in "uncharted waters." At this point, they're way ahead of themselves. We are in a recession; the wall street ponzi scheme has collapsed, for now; a major sector of the economy (or two) is reorganizing; we don't know how long this recession will last or how deep it will be.
What we do know is that the vulnerable get hurt first. That's true with individuals - this will be our country's first test of "welfare reform," which works well when the economy's humming, but now?
In the arts, underfunded organizations are going down. Museums are selling off collections and performing groups are cutting back on seasons. This happens every recession. The question is, will this recession cause us to revisit good ideas like --
real government funding of the arts; substantial support for individual artists; a resurrection of WPA/CETA concepts that would employ artists to document and describe this sprawling society; and new forms of funding for arts organizations.
The Panglossian approach ("the hybrid model of funding with waning government support is great") will have to sharpen their arguments which sounded good when the society was awash in cash..
This spring, I'll be teaching cultural policy and financial management. One is a theory course, the other a how-to. Both will have a tinge of crisis about them that wasn't there a year ago, when we addressed the arts going broke as a theoretical possibiity, not as today's news.
Happy new year. May the recession be brief but good lessons be learned!
The blog went dormant as I lost my way from the arts to obsessing on the election. Not wanting to be one more of the several million election bloggers, I decided to wait until now. New year, new president, new economic reality. This is a blog about the convergence of art, politics, money and memory.
Everyone is saying that we are in an unprecedented economic reality, that "everything has changed," and that we are in "uncharted waters." At this point, they're way ahead of themselves. We are in a recession; the wall street ponzi scheme has collapsed, for now; a major sector of the economy (or two) is reorganizing; we don't know how long this recession will last or how deep it will be.
What we do know is that the vulnerable get hurt first. That's true with individuals - this will be our country's first test of "welfare reform," which works well when the economy's humming, but now?
In the arts, underfunded organizations are going down. Museums are selling off collections and performing groups are cutting back on seasons. This happens every recession. The question is, will this recession cause us to revisit good ideas like --
real government funding of the arts; substantial support for individual artists; a resurrection of WPA/CETA concepts that would employ artists to document and describe this sprawling society; and new forms of funding for arts organizations.
The Panglossian approach ("the hybrid model of funding with waning government support is great") will have to sharpen their arguments which sounded good when the society was awash in cash..
This spring, I'll be teaching cultural policy and financial management. One is a theory course, the other a how-to. Both will have a tinge of crisis about them that wasn't there a year ago, when we addressed the arts going broke as a theoretical possibiity, not as today's news.
Happy new year. May the recession be brief but good lessons be learned!
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