ARTSblog

Each year as we head to our respective State Capitol’s and Congressional office’s to advocate for funding we tend to forget about what’s happening in our own communities. While it is important to advocate at both the federal and state levels, we sometimes miss important opportunities in our own backyards.

There are a number of reasons for this…one reason is that many organizations are statewide and find it hard to collect information and reach out to a significant number of advocates on a community-by-community basis. Another is that it is challenging to navigate through the different political dynamics in each area. Then there’s the reason that is always prevalent in a majority of nonprofit organizations…they don’t have the capacity to cover everything.

Well, it appears from reading through The Future of the Public Voice in Arts Advocacy Green Paper that, “…plans are in place to develop a local capacity in the Capwiz on-line tool which is currently used at the state and federal levels.” I am pleased to read this and find that the Capwiz system will, at some point in the near future, be updated to include local elected officials. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

Last week I listened in on a radio interview on WNYC in New York that dove into whether or not states should be funding the arts. The interview featured Nina Ozlu-Tunceli, chief counsel of government and public affairs at Americans for the Arts, and Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.com and Reason.tv.

To listen to the full interview please click here – http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2010/apr/27/

While I’ll spare you all from my personal opinions on the interview, I will say that it sparked some interest about messaging. In the interview you hear Nina talk about the national economic impact, how grant dollars leverage increased investment, as well as how grant funding helps provide affordable access to the arts for citizens.

Nina did a great job of putting forth the national argument but, my question to all of you is: What is your argument in support of arts funding? If you were in an elevator with the chair of your state’s appropriations committee, what would you say? Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12%

As arts advocates throughout the country prepare to converge on our nation’s capitol for Arts Advocacy Day, I began thinking of the conversations many will have with their members of Congress. Some will be fruitful while others will feel like they’re talking to a brick wall, but regardless of the situation we will certainly get our point across.

But that got me thinking. What is our point, how do we back it up and do they get it?

I believe that there are two key elements to making our case for increased and sustainable funding for the arts. We need to have a compelling story that is backed up with reliable and comprehensive data.

We have the stories down pat. We know how to talk about John Q Student who was saved by the arts or how Organization B and Artist X contributed to the revitalization of a community’s downtown development. We are great story tellers, but for the most part cannot back up our stories with data.

It’s a common theme that I’ve seen come out of many meetings, interviews and conversations over the past couple of years. Elected officials, and the public in general, understand what we are doing but they need the numbers to back it up. They want to know exactly how many jobs we create, how much money is contributed to the local and regional economy, etc. Until we are able to provide them with reliable data, they will hear what we’re saying/doing but will never “get it”. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9%

As I begin this year-long journey of addressing the compilation of the Future of the Public Voice in Arts Advocacy, I can’t help but start by referencing a webinar I participated in a few weeks back on the status of funding of state arts agencies.

This presentation showed a slide demonstrating the total state appropriations for state arts agencies over the past eighteen years. As we were told, funding has gone up and down consistently over stretches of time, consider the visual of a roller coaster. We were told that when state resources and revenues go down, so too do the funding of the state arts agencies. However, when revenues come back elected officials understand the importance of arts funding and the economic impact that it holds, thus increasing funding.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make sense to me. How can the arts only be seen as important in good times? How can the economic impact of the arts only be realized in times of surpluses? I think that there is a fundamental problem if most across the country subscribe to this reasoning. Now, some may say that cuts are being made across the board and therefore fair. But are those cuts truly equitable? Consider a 10% cut from a department budget of $500 million and a 10% cut of that of the $5 million budget of the state arts council. It’s not just about the size of the cut, but what the cut will cost that program or agency. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13%

Welcome to the Green Paper discussion on The Future of the Public Voice in Arts Advocacy. We encourage you to read the full Green Paper available in the tab above and make general comments at this time. Be sure to keep your comments brief—Mike Latvis, the Ambassador for this Green Paper will soon begin deeper, threaded conversations around specific paragraphs, sections or themes that appear in this Green Paper. Follow this conversation thoroughly by adding the The Future of the Public Voice in Arts Advocacy feed to your RSS reader!

Popularity: 31%