Arts and Culture Funding
From YouProduce
Contents |
Angles
What are the basic angles to explore in this segment, from left, right or other?
What is the value of arts and culture to our society? How have American arts and culture shaped our society and national identity?
How do we prioritize arts and music education? Beyond music/artistic literacy, arts and music education foster creativity that is essential to our society.
- As noted quite dutifully by the Los Angeles Times's Carolyn Kellogg, I am baffled that none of the questions here involve how writers and other literature advocates can survive in these tough times. Yes, there are literary grants awarded by the National Endowment of the Arts, with The Big Read program in place to help promote reading. But, as I have written elsewhere, NEA Director of Literature David Kipen is not interested in a Federal Writers Project-style program that helps subsidize writers and those who are actively promoting literature in the community. The "solution" has involved a top-down model in which the NEA prescribes what to read, instead of providing Big Read money to nonprofit organizations and individuals -- those who might be better suited to spread the word, encouraging a curiosity among existing and prospective readers. Why not finance the many litbloggers now fusing passion with intelligence to galvanize further interest in the arts? (It is also worth noting that German public arts funding provides 23 more full-time symphonies per capita and 28 times the opera houses than America, and that the current NEA budget -- $144 million -- works out to a mere €91.94 million, compared to the €3.18 billion budget provided by the French Ministry of Culture.) These troubling discrepancies, combined with the tendency of radio hosts assigning staff to read the books for authors being interviewed (rather than ensuring an intimate familiarity with the text on the part of the host-interviewer), suggest that the problem extends far beyond money, but to a lack of interest within media and our general culture (although Oprah has made great strides in getting people to read). How can creativity be "fostered" or considered "essential" when those in the position to do something about this choose to squander the potential? -- Edward Champion, The Bat Segundo Show
The impact of the economy on arts and culture, and the role of arts and culture on the economy:
- According to Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity annually for the U.S. economy, supports 5.7 million full-time jobs, and returns $12.6 billion in income tax revenue back to the federal government. The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation reports that the county’s cultural industries generated $21 billion in 2007.
Note: there is significant data that suggests that every dollar invested in the arts generates a huge engine of multiple dollars in terms of income for non-arts business: local restaurants, suppliers, etc. Also, every dollar spent on tickets for arts events do the same. Given this economy, let's emphasize this huge untapped economic engine.
- So much of the budget of non-profit organizations devoted to arts and culture come from philanthropy- money donated by corporations, foundations and private donors. Given the current state of the economy, philanthropic donations have already been in decline, and will only continue to grow smaller. How does the loss of such money affect the discussion of arts and culture funding?
- One thing that administrators and local boards of education miss when making decisions on funding arts education at the K-12 level is that today's students will mature in a society drastically different than the one that preceded them, so the rules that governed past funding practices and formulas no longer apply. Students need to be prepared in a much different manner than they did even ten years ago.
As manufacturing and technology jobs are outsourced overseas and as retail establishments continue their downward spiral, jobs in creative areas continue to rise. Positions such as web designers, fashion designers, architects, interior designers, graphic designers and video game designers will trend upwards in the next 15-20 years. If arts funding continues to be cut, today's students will miss the boat on these potentially lucrative career paths.
Rather than make cuts, public school administrators need to get creative themselves and make arts education a part of cross-curricular activities, such as learning about styles of architecture and dress when teaching a history lesson, or learning about bridge construction in a math class. This is where a good art teacher becomes an invaluable asset, rather than a budgetary limitation. (Joe Schwartz, Design educator, "designr66@verizon.net")
Its important to consider cultural policy in connection with other policy areas and not as something that stands alone. It is connected to all the major issues of our society: economic stratification, race relations, globalization, technology, education and community development. So arts funding should also be considered within these other contexts as well. Arts and culture are a vital part of healthy communities especially when integrated into daily life. So if we talk about artists housing we need to think about this in the context of affordable housing for everyone. If we consider freedom of artistic expression, it should be discussed in the context of the ability for everyone to have a voice in our democracy. (Caron Atlas)
Candidate Positions
What have McCain and Obama said or done on this issue? Do their actions match their words?
Arts Positions for McCain and Obama according to the Americans for the Arts can be found: http://www.artsactionfund.org/pdf/press/McCain_Obama_record_final.pdf
something that is poorly understood in New York City is that much of the "cultural" funding goes to science education institutions such as the Natural History Museum, the New York Hall of Science, the botanical gardens, and the zoos. These are spread throughout all five boroughs and have huge visitation and tremendous educational impact.
Also, a genius of NYC cultural funding history has been to spread the funding beyond manhattan to the boroughs. There are significant art institutions in all five boroughs as a result of this history, as well as significant "science-based cultural institutions.
Possible Guests
Who would help guide this discussion? This could be reporters familiar with the topic; academics or think-tankers who know the issue; people to talk on behalf of the candidates; or more "outside-the-box" guests who may have an interesting perspective.
Bill Bragin, Director of Public Programming, Lincoln Center. Bragin served as director of Joe's Pub from 2001 to 2007, and director of Central Park SummerStage for three years.
New York Times profile of Bill Bragin
New York State Council on the Arts Chair, Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell (Campbell is also Dean of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.)
Adam Forest Huttler, Executive Director, Fractured Atlas (or Arwen Lowbridge, Managing Director) ("Fractured Atlas is a non-profit organization that serves a national community of artists and arts organizations. Our programs and services facilitate the creation of art by offering vital support to the artists who produce it. We help artists and arts organizations function more effectively as businesses by providing access to funding, healthcare, education, and more, all in a context that honors their individuality and independent spirit. By nurturing today's talented but underrepresented voices, we hope to foster a dynamic and diverse cultural landscape of tomorrow.")
Paul Krugman, our recent Nobel Laureate for Economics, if he could give us an economist's take on the broader value of accessible arts and arts education on the economy.
Robert LynchPresident and CEO, Americans for the Arts
Julie Checkoway,Arts Reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, who pushed the McCain campaign to give her its arts statement, and then ran it. Checkoway has also written on the arts and is a former arts administrator familiar with the nation's creative economy. A recent column of hers points to a poignant video clip of McCain's in which he admits to knowing nothing about the arts----a possible point of discussion: is it relevant any longer for a U.S. Presidential candidate to "know" about the arts and why?
Will Maitland WeissExecutive Director, Arts & Business Council of New York. According to their site, "The Arts & Business Council of New York (ABC/NY) is committed to joining the resources and reducing the distinction between arts and business." Maitland could discuss how support of the arts affects, and effects, economic growth.
RoseLee Goldberg, Performa, NYC non-profit interdisciplinary arts organization committed to the research, development, and presentation of performance by visual artists from around the world.
Mark Stern, Social Impact of the Arts Project at the University of Pennsylvania, has published a lot of research on the arts and neighborhood revitalization as well as other relevant topics.
Marta Vega (Caribbean Culture Center), Pat Cruz (Harlem Stage), Claudine Brown (Nathan Cummings Foundation), or Kinshasha Holman Conwill (National Museum of African American History & Culture, formerly directed Cultural Blueprint for New York City) about cultural equity.
Renato Rosaldo (NYU, anthropology) on cultural citizenship
Nick Rabkin (University of Chicago, formerly Center for Arts Policy and MacCarthur Foundation) on arts in education (also a member of Obama's arts advisory committee
Bob Morrison (Music for All Foundation Founder and former CEO of VH1 Save the Music) a nationally renowned arts education advocate whose research and policy work has led to millions of dollars being reinvested in arts education in public schools. He served as a senior policy advisor to Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee.
Contributor: Eugene Chan, Queens
Clive Gillinson Executive and Artistic Director Carnegie Hall Community Outreach Program Before taking over at Carnegie Hall, he helped developed the London Symphony Orchestra's community outreach program.
Jeffrey H. Patchen President and CEO of Indianapolis Children's Museum Parent Magazine judged his institution to be the best children's museum in the United States.
Wendy Kopp Chief Executive Officer and Founder Teach for America Among the many programs Teach for America is involved in includes Teach for America in the Arts.
Opening Copy
How should Brian frame the issue at the beginning of the segment?
As a cosmopolitan cultural mecca, New York City's arts organizations, and artists, rely heavily on public and private funding. With such a concentration in this city, the cultural landscape could significantly change, probably for the worse, in a climate of less funding. Conversely, given New York's cultural vibrancy, funding the arts could help stimulate the economy by fueling the cultural industries and creating jobs, fueling revenue, encouraging tourism and development.
Nationally too, increasing funding for the arts would be good for our economy. Currently, the arts represent barely one twentieth of one percent of the total federal budget. Many casual observers may be unaware that the National Endowment for the Arts accounts for only a tiny fraction of the total amount granted to arts organizations in this country. The NEA is not even the largest public arts funder in the United States (that distinction belongs to New York's own Department of Cultural Affairs). The United States government's investment in its artistic infrastructure is dwarfed by that of most other developed countries, particularly those in Western Europe. (Ian David Moss, Createquity)
The economy is a strong argument in favor of Arts funding, but the importance of art and culture in our society also needs to be part of the argument. Art not only gives us a window into our lives and emotions at a particular point in time, it moves thought forward and presents new ideas that eventually (or not) enrich our lives and further our civilization. If our mission in the world is to spread Democracy by example, a strong and vital artistic community shows the world what a free thinking society is capable of. Look at how Hollywood has spread the myth of America around the world and you can see how important the Arts can be.
From a completely practical standpoint, arts education in K-12 classrooms is a necessity to inform students about possible career opportunities that have nothing to do with "art for art's sake". Our designers, directors and architects all have one thing in common - an education in the arts. Many contemporary students enter college without a decided major because their K-12 education wasn't informative enough to give them a clue as to what career to pursue. If we continue to neglect this area as we have, these "Creative Economy" positions will also be shifted overseas as our foreign neighbors and partners pick up the slack. (Joe Schwartz, Design Educator, "designr66@verizon.net)
When the USA was at the height of our international power and credibility, was also when the arts flourished in this country. might there be a connection? In a discussion at the Earth Institute at Columbia University with Jeffrey Sachs and economists George Soros and Nouriel Roubini, October 20, it was said that the success of any future economic paradigm will require a vision of the big picture and healthy skepticism. Without art, arguably, neither is possible. Yet art is barely a blip on most people's horizons and if it is, the blip tends to be tame and centuries outdated. The reasons this is true, the implications for our future and how we might turn that around is our topic. (Aviva Rahmani, ecological artist ghostnets@verizon.net)
When using the "creative economy" framework please keep in mind who this economy benefits and who gets left out? Who gets to define creativity and economic development? What would this framework look like if considered with a lens of equitable development and cultural democracy (where all communities have the right and support to express their own diverse cultures?) (Caron Atlas)
It is impossible to talk about Art funding without talking about funding for education at the same time. Without education, art cannot be fully understood or appreciated beyond the basic threshold of "I know what I like". Without an educated audience, sophisticated art exists in a vacuum, or for the few with education. (Some would argue that this situation already exists.) Without an educated audience, the art that gets made must be aimed at an uneducated audience, and must be made in a simplistic form. Imagine if all our Literature was aimed at people with a third grade education, or even a sixth grade education, what kind of books writers would be writing. Art education is essential to understanding art, and also the importance of art, which isn't always so easy to define.
Questions
What are the key questions? What order should they be asked in?
"During the Second World War, Winston Churchill's finance minister said Britain should cut arts funding to support the war effort. Churchill's response: "Then what are we fighting for?""
I think that one of the key questions coming up these days is this: once there is a commitment to support the arts financially through public or private investment, how do you deploy those dollars most effectively? Background: In many nonprofit fields, there is a recent emphasis on finding effective, proven organizations with scalable models that can marshal resources to address social issues as efficiently as possible--an idea that in practice leads, logically, to funding large-budget institutions. Indeed, many a "cultural district" or "cultural revitalization" plan in cities across America has centered support on one or two flagship institutions anchoring the arts community--the performing arts center, the symphony orchestra, the art museum, the repertory theatre. However, there has been quite a bit of research coming out from various corners over the past decade suggesting that it is smaller, "neighborhood-based" arts organizations that often have disproportionate positive effects on their surroundings. For one thing, smaller arts organizations are much more likely to serve non-traditional audiences than flagship institutions, particularly if they are located in the kinds of neighborhoods in which non-traditional audiences live. (See this study for example: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/mcpic/) Furthermore, clusters of smaller organizations provide important infrastructure for the artistic community, including opportunities to showcase their work at every level of profile and experience, as well as opportunities to share costs and collaborate with other artists. Yet small arts organizations are chronically undercapitalized, primarily because there are simply too many of them for most funders to deal with; one will often see grant guidelines excluding organizations with budgets of less than $100,000, for example, in order to keep the number of applications down. For arts fields such as jazz music where the bulk of the relevant organizations are (a) smaller than that and (b) not organized as non-profits anyway, this undercapitalization threatens to stunt whatever advantages these creative talents might otherwise bring to the community. So the question there is, assuming all of the above is true, how can we ensure adequate support of a wide range of high-quality organizations of all sizes and artistic persuasions without overstressing philanthropic resources? (Ian David Moss, Createquity)
How is it that European countries are able to fund art that is often controversial, or even anti-Government, without politicians raising their fists in outrage and cutting funding? In this country, the Maplethorpe pictures in the 80's were used as an excuse, by politicians, to cut what remained of arts funding in this country. Their argument was, basically, why should taxpayers be paying for this (the homo-erotic photos, that many people find disgusting). How could this country possibly get around that myopic political pandering?
= Audio Clips to Use
Are there any audio clips out there that we should include? Or particular music we should include? Be specific.
An audio clip (in quick time form and a transcript of that audio) from the Aspen Institute in which McCain admits he knows nothing about the arts is available in quicktime form from Julie Checkoway at the Salt Lake Tribune.
Links to Research Materials
Do you have any readings, videos or any other relevant material to recommend?
The Foundation Center, http://foundationcenter.org, headquartered in NYC, has been celebrating Funding for the Arts throughout October with special events and web resources for artists and arts organizations seeking funding from foundations. They've posted a special feature called Focus on Arts Funding, http://foundationcenter.org/focus/arts/, that gathers in one place an interactive map of arts funders throughout the U.S., research and statistics on arts funding, news, job listings, funding opportunities, videos, podcasts, event listings, and more.
Very important study conducted re the impact of the creative sector on NYC economy was conducted by Center for the Urban Future. See http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/CREATIVE_NEW_YORK.pdf.
Also very important, however, is Gifts of the Muse, a Wallace Foundation report about how emphasis on economic and educational value of the arts risks eclipsing the intrinsic value of same. See http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG218/.
Americans for the Arts here is their statement on federal funding recommendations for the NEA.
Social Impact of the Arts Project has a bunch of in-depth studies exploring culture and urban revitalization, but I recommend this PowerPoint deck which summarizes the key points from years of research: http://www.sp2.upenn.edu/SIAP/CultureandUrbanRevitalizationv31.pdf Start on slide 19, the stuff before that is kind of inside baseball. (Ian David Moss, Createquity)
The Fine Art of Politics From USC's Election 2008: A Special Resource for Journalists
www.greenmuseum.org is a major resource for artists working in various ways on environmental issues. Many don't realize there is also an emerging international genre of artists working with scientists, policy makers and others, often as lead agents in addressing environmental degradation. The "Virtual Concerts" is an archive of over 100 weekly podcasts with ecological art practioners, moderated by artist Aviva Rahmani: wwww.ghostnets.com/talkshoe_shows_word.html.
Art&Seek Blog on McCain vs. Obama on arts and arts education. Quotes McCain from 1999 saying: "I have opposed federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts because I believe it is not proper to use tax dollars for what many Americans feel are the obscene and inappropriate projects this organization has supported."
Through the Cultural Data Project http://www.pacdp.org/faq.aspx, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance documents the impact of arts and culture on its region in Portfolio http://www.philaculture.org/portfolio/2008index.htm California and Maryland are using the Cultural Data Project too. http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_detail.aspx?id=20 (Jennifer Hill Ruth Mott Foundation)
Culture Counts Strategies for a More Vibrant Cultural Life for New York City, Cultural Blueprint for New York City, New York Foundation for the Arts (www.nyfa.org)
Bedoya, Roberto, US Cultural Policy, Its Politics of Participation, Its Creative Potential. (http://www.npnweb.org/publications)
Markusen, Ann and Johnson, Amanda. Artists’ Centers: Evolution and Impact on Careers, Neighborhoods and Economies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2006.
Yonder, Ayse, Ed. “Arts, Culture, and Community” No. 165, Fall 2005. Progressive Planning. New York: Planners Network, 2005 (www.http://www.plannersnetwork.org/publications/mag_2005_4_fall.html)
Hawkes, Jon, The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s Essential Role in Public Planning, Cultural Development Network, 2001. (Caron Atlas)
The National Endowment for the Arts 1965 - 2000: A Brief Chronology of Federal Support for the Arts, published by The Office of Communications of the NEA, 2000 (revised edition) http://www.nea.gov/about/Chronology/NEAChronWeb.pdf
What Else?
Use this space to offer any other suggestions or ideas that may not fit into the above categories.
Most current K-12 art education programs are geared towards art history and practices, to teach students about how and why art was created in the past. One area that has been neglected due to budget restrictions or curriculum is the area of Design Education.
For example, the standard high school arts program may teach the basics of color and composition, art history, sculpture basics, even ceramics. The students learn about past practice and mimic that knowledge by creating a project that looks similar.
Design Education looks to the future. How will technology be applied? What will posters look like now that we are in such a media-saturated society? How will everyday products evolve? How will they look ten years from now? All of these are vital questions to ask and lessons to learn, and they have the added benefit of being arts-related. But if arts funding continues to be cut and curriculum restricted, how will students learn that these questions are out there? Why should they have to wait until college to learn that these questions exist?
There is room in all K-12 schools for arts educators, if they are treated as valuable resources rather than money wasting programs. The problem may well be that arts education is not a waste of time - it is a necessary aspect of K-12 student education that is underutilized but as valuable to their futures as any math or language class. (Joe Schwartz, Design Educator, "designr66@verizon.net")
There is a desperate need to resume NEA funding for individual artists working in non-traditional ways. University and college teaching opportunities are dwindling and competition for private funding is fierce. Stipends for museum installations and commissions for public art rarely approach actual costs. As artists age, reaching creative maturity, we are often without savings or health support. (Aviva Rahmani, ecological artist, ghostnets@verizon.net)
Looking at the key role of the arts in the WPA and as part of the CETA program, what are creative ways to consider how the arts and artists are part of building our communities, city and country? (Caron Atlas) [great idea -kh]
Instead of "experts", curators, directors--I'd love to hear a panel of artists discussing the state of arts funding and the difficulties of surviving today. Could be established artists old enough to know what it was like in the past (1960s, 1970s), artists who have moved from major arts centers (like New York) to places they can afford, and young struggling artists. I suggest contacting artist Eve Sussman, not necessarily to be on the panel, although she would be good, but to provide connections to a variety of artists in the New York and International art community (she is very community-oriented).http://rufuscorporation.com/collaborators.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Sussman (kh)
