Arts Advocacy Update LIX

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv, email blast of September 24, 2008:

Arts, Inc: The Corporate Control of Culture
Multinational Monitor, Sep/Oct 2008
The Multinational Monitor talks with former NEA chairman Bill Ivey about his new book, "Arts, Inc: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights." Ivey says, "[O]ur modern arts system exhibits greater protection, greater control and more remote decision making, all tailored to the demands of public corporations for positive quarterly earnings estimates and positive stock performance, rather than to the public’s interest in the health of art and artistry."
Great piece.

Chamber opposes sales tax increase for arts and outdoors
Minnesota Public Radio, 9/18/2008
"The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has decided to oppose the proposed sales tax increase that would dedicate funding for the arts and the outdoors. The Chamber and its lobbying heft could play a critical role in defeating the proposal which is on the November ballot."
Their reasons are clearly political -- and short-sighted. Dumb.

City-County Council OKs $1.1 billion budget
Indianapolis Star (IN), 9/23/2008
In Indianapolis, "[t]he City-County Council on Monday night passed a barely balanced $1.1 billion budget that cuts spending in 2009. . . . The 12 Democrats who voted against it criticized the Republican mayor for cutting funding for city parks and arts programs, and for not delivering on the 100 new officers who were promised as part of the council's 65 percent increase in the county income tax last year."
Such a strange city. Red state stuff.

Editorial: Funding the Arts
Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/24/2008
Responding to the release of Portfolio 2008, a which provides a "statistical snapshot" of the non-profit cultural sector in Greater Philadelphia, a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial says the report "makes a strong case for enhanced government and philanthropic support of the arts. . . . With so many arts groups struggling financially, and given Mayor Nutter's outreach to the suburbs, the time is right for a regional funding approach to provide a financial cushion for cultural institutions." The mayor is supportive of the idea, and will "soon have an arts czar, Gary Steuer, to explore that idea."
Awesome. What a great progressive city.

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