Help Secure Our Piece of the Pie

As we enter the New Year, Congress commences a new session.  There are many important issues on the docket:  the possible repeal of the Obama Health Care Reform, the Open Internet Order, and overall spending.  However, the issue most important to me is funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, a public agency dedicated to bringing the arts to all Americans.  The NEA is the largest annual national funder of the arts.  A strong connection to arts education, the NEA helps to fund and carry out educational initiatives, such as The Big Read, which gives communities the opportunity to read and discuss one of 31 selections from the U.S. and world literary cannon.

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the NEA was granted $167.5 million to be disbursed to arts organizations, new and established, throughout the United States.   This past February President Obama proposed a $6.4 million decrease for the FY 2011 NEA budget.  The House of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), raised the initial funding level to $170 million this past July.  This is $2.5 million increase over the budget allotment in FY 2010.  The money the Federal government budgets for the NEA each year helps to fund jobs, create safe and educational places for our children to stay after school, enrich the lives of Americans, and increase our cultural worth in world.  While I could write hundreds of thousands of pages lauding the work of the NEA, I am here to ask each reader to contact his or her elected officials and ask them to support the increase to $170 million dollars for the NEA in FY 2011.  With five minutes of your time, you can help to support the arts in America.  Please click here to visit the Americans for the Arts advocacy page to contact your elected officials.  

Caro

Art With An Expiration Date?

University of Iowa Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Professor, David McGraw wrote a very interesting opinion article for the Iowa City Press Citizen about the expiration date of arts organizations.  He mentioned our society’s habit of confusing age with quality, how we are more likely to support an organization that has been around longer, and our refusal to let organizations close their doors quietly.  Mr. McGraw suggests creating arts organizations with expiration dates.  An organization would be created with the sole purpose of creating art and ending at a specific date.  Mr. McGraw described such organizations as collaborations that focus on the celebration of art being created rather than the longevity of the organization. While I am not completely sold on this idea, I do think it has some merit.

I would like to address Mr. McGraw’s concern with our society’s inability to let longstanding organizations close their doors quietly.  Whether we realize it or not, we have a relationship with the arts and the organizations that produce them.  No one likes to see a relationship end, which makes it so difficult to let go of an organization we’ve been familiar with for so long.  Arts organizations that plan to exist for only a few years seem very similar to flings.  People go into the fling knowing it’s going to end soon, but eventually someone starts to have lasting feelings.  Someone always ends up getting hurt.  I cannot accurately say who will be hurt one in this situation.  Perhaps it’s the community because there is suddenly a void of the arts.  Maybe it's patrons who have come to enjoy, maybe even love, the work the organization created.  It could be the managers and artists who are suddenly out of job, forced to create another similar organization or move to a new city, away from their supportive community.

Who’s funding these short-term organizations?  Donors like to know where their money is going and how the company is being affected.  The minds of donors are put more at ease when giving to an organization that has been operating for long time because they know the company is sustainable.  Donors know there is a relationship between the community and the organization.  On a more egocentric note, donors like to a part of the legacy.  They like to see their names in programs and receive the benefits promised for their certain levels of donation.  If an organization only plans to exist for five years, it is going to be a lot harder to find people to give money.

Maybe in the future, when the economy is better and money is more plentiful, we can have these short-term organizations interspersed with longstanding organizations.  However, I don’t think this is a sustainable model right now. 

--Caro

The Voices, They Are A-Changin'

Ever wonder what happens to a choirboy when his voice starts changing? In most cases, these poor little singers are kicked out of their choirs, left to navigate the tumultuous sea that is the changing voice.  That's exactly what an already confused and awkward preteen boy needs -- social isolation.  Fortunately the Los Angeles Children's Chorus recognizes this practice is unfair.  As a result they created the Young Men's Ensemble in the fall of 2009.  This ensemble provides a safe and nurturing environment for transitioning young male singers.  The current conductor, Steven Kronauer, chooses repertoire that is appropriate for these young voices.  Additionally, the boys have opportunities to participate in master classes with professional choral groups like Chanticleer, countertenor, David Daniels, and tenor, Ben Heppner.  Groups like YME are very rare.  This article in the The Los Angeles Times sites only three other ensembles in the nation.

I would like to raise a glass to these choral groups.  So often pubescent boys are left out of the equation.  They are ignored because no one knows what to do with them.  That sends the all the wrong signals.  Boys are turned away from their choirs, support groups and communities they have come to rely on, because of something they can neither escape nor control.  One boy in the article states, "I could still sing well, but it made me nervous and scared because I thought I might lose that connection to everyone and everything I had done."  While adolescence and puberty is embarrassingly awkward for everyone, it isn't fair for someone to be punished for it.  Here's to you Young Men's Ensemble!

--C

And now for something not written by the Old Dead White Guys Society

TalkOperaWorld.com recently posted an article announcing that 33 American opera companies of varying sizes will produce operas written by American composers over the next two seasons (2010-2011 and 2011-2012).  Nine of those productions will be world premieres.   Some of the companies included are Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, NM, Opera Memphis, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Portland Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Opera Roanoke, Sarasota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera.  The best part about this is the list will only continue to grow as repertoire announcements for the 2011 – 2012 season come out in the next few months.

Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO of OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, was quoted to say, “Over the last two decades, an American opera repertoire has become firmly established and American composers continue to have a tremendous impact on our art form.  We are delighted to see their work being performed on stages of all sizes throughout the United States.” 

Not only does OPERA America keep tabs on the repertoire being performed throughout the United States, it encourages the creation and production of new operatic works with The Opera Fund.  The Opera Fund awards grants to opera companies to assist with the expenses that are associated with developing new works.  The Opera Fund has also provided companies with grants to help revive productions.  Since it began, The Opera Fund has awarded nearly $11 million dollars to American opera companies.

How exciting to be a part of a musical genre that celebrates new works, even encourages them!  By supporting the creation of contemporary operas, we are keeping the art form relevant.  Way to go OPERA America and American opera companies.  Keep up the good work!

--Carolyne

Arts Funding IS Jobs Funding

About a month ago, an award winning lighting designer by the name of Jeffery Salzberg posted a facebook note entitled “Arts Are Jobs, Too.” Though I am not friends with Mr. Salzberg, nor do we have any facebook friends in common, and yes, I checked, this note was pretty hard to miss. The main point of the note was sparked from a dinner party Mr. Salzberg attended where a fellow artist made the following comment, “I care about arts funding, too, but jobs are more important.”

Yes, an artist actually said that. I’m going to pretend that the artist who would have the audacity to say something like that is not faring too well with his or her career and as a result doesn’t have an arts job, but instead is working retail at a Babies R Us. However, that is an issue for another blog. Mr. Salzberg went on to say how we artists “need to stop thinking of ourselves as charity cases.” He’s right. This would be a good place to insert a cliché about helping oneself, something about believing in oneself, or keeping the faith. You pick whichever one is pertinent to you and keep reading, please.

The final thought Mr. Salzberg left his readers with is “Arts funding is jobs funding.” Again, he’s right. Now, you neither need a degree in the arts nor in rocket science to know why he’s right, but in case you cannot logically put it together, I’ll help you. Also, it’s probably not your fault you don’t understand, it’s not on the standardized tests.

First, we’re going to look at some governmental things. I just did a quick search on U.S. Census Bureau’s North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) webpage. According to the 2007 NAICS report, there are 43 industries with the word “arts” in their title. When I searched the word “music” I came up with 104 industries. “Theater” produced 46 industries. “Dance” had 40 different industries. So by looking up arts, music, theater and dance, I found 235 arts related industries. Also, there is an entire industry sector devoted to “Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation.” NAICS has 61 defined industries under the sector of Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation. That means there are 174 industries in different sectors that are related to the arts. Out of the 19,720 total industries, 1.3% of them are arts related. That’s a pretty decent market share for such a specialized industry.

Second, I’m going bring up the timeless argument of how the arts support the economy. Dinner and show. Need I say more? Well, I’m going to. So you’re a single guy (or girl) and you have a date Friday night. You want to make a good impression on her (or him), so you think you’ll take him (or her) to a show. That makes you look deep and cultured and mature. Then you think to yourself, “Self, I can’t really get to know someone on a date if I’m just going sit in a dark theatre for two hours and not talk to him (or her). Dear Self, what should I do?” Then in a stroke of pure brilliance, you think, “I’ll take her (or him) to dinner first!” That way you and your date can actually have a discussion. Plus you can figure out if he’s (or she’s) attractive in fluorescent lighting. Now you’re on the right track. And, of course, after the show you’re going to go out for coffee or some other libation and talk about how awesome (or terrible) the show was – and a great date was had by all.

My third and final point is really a testament to your intelligence. Do you think arts productions and movies and concerts happen by magic? Do you think people put on shows just for kicks? If you answered yes to one or both of these questions, you just tested positive for ignorance. Arts organizations have to pay their employees just like private companies. We need marketers, accountants, CEOs, and IT people to run the offices. And we need carpenters, seamstresses, painters, electricians, and inventors (props people) to create our stages. Then the artists who have been practicing for months will put the finishing touches on our products. The final products you see in the concert halls and theatres do not just happen overnight and for nothing. People and money are behind them, just like the coffee you drink every morning.

Please remember, when you fund the arts you are funding people, businesses, and the economy. Money spent on the arts is not money wasted, but money invested in the advancement of our society.

--C