Category: issues

The state of Florida recently cut its arts budget by $22 million. Now arts groups across the state are trying to figure out what that means to them. “I think the Legislature made a very disturbing statement in terms of priorities, that the arts are disposable. One sign of a healthy state is one that supports the arts.”

As schools across America cut back on classes and programs, corporations are seeing opportunity and stepping in with funding. And, of course, opportunities to market their products to children. Critics don’t like the trend. “Children are more susceptible in school because they tend to believe that what they learn there is valid. So a commercial message in schools, no matter how subtle, gives an aura of responsibility and truth. Companies acknowledge they are trying to reach their current and future customers, but say their programs promote goodwill and help cash-strapped schools.”

As a protest against California’s cuts in arts funding, arts supporters are being asked to mail the Art Council dollar bills with the names of state senators written in red on the bills. “The suggested donations would be part of a protest against Gov. Gray Davis’ proposed cuts in the council’s budget. Grappling with the state’s fiscal crisis, he has suggested trimming that budget from $22.4 million to $8.4 million.”

NEA chairman Dana Gioia spoke to the Theatre Communications Group meeting in Milwaukee last week and said he “took the NEA chairmanship on the condition that President Bush was committed to rebuilding the agency, and he pointed to a 50% increase in NEA theater funding this year as evidence that better times are ahead.”

“New Labour has wrecked culture in the sense of encouraging the lowest common denominator. It is total populism. That’s the reason why so many of us [in the arts] hate them – not just for our political differences.” So says playwright Tariq Ali, joining a chorus of cultural figures in the UK decrying the ruling party’s abandonment of high culture. Part of the anti-Labour venom is surely a result of Tony Blair’s unpopular support for the American war in Iraq, but the split runs deeper than a single issue. Where Labour was once thought to be the political ally of the serious art world, it seems increasingly clear to many artists that New Labour isn’t interested in anything but making the masses happy.

Fash Bash, the massive annual fundraising event staged by the Detroit Institute for the Arts, has been cancelled by the museum after a sponsor for the event could not be found. Fash Bash raised better than $500,000 for the DIA in 2001, but primary sponsor Marshall Field’s pulled its support after that year to focus on similar shows in Chicago and Minneapolis. Without a large corporation to pick up the tab, last year’s event actually ended up costing the DIA money, a disaster which the museum was determined not to repeat.

The chairman of Lincoln Center’s redevelopment project has resigned, calling the project “wasteful and badly managed.” The resignation is another blow to the troubled performing arts complex, which saw the New York Philharmonic announce it was leaving two weeks ago. Peter Lehrer said as he resigned Lincoln Center: “A lot of money has been spent on planning with not enough to show for it.”

“Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown has dropped plans to evict artists from the popular downtown Alice Arts Center to make room for the expansion of his arts charter school.” The artists had been protesting the possible eviction. The center served 50,000 people a year through classes and performances.

Budget cutting, petty politics, and a flat economy are combining to force many U.S. states out of the business of funding art, and the cuts may total $100 million or more. “In the last 12 months, 42 states have cut their funding to the arts, wiping 13% off the total amount of funds available. But organisations are bracing themselves for an even more difficult 12 months ahead.” According to ArtsJournal editor Douglas McLennan, while the cuts are devastating for arts agencies, even more frightening is the message: “What the government is saying right now is that culture is not important for us to fund.”

Grant checks were sent out in Massachusetts this week to the 31 artists selected for funding by the state’s Cultural Council. But the 62% cut in the council’s funding means that the grants are less than half of what they were last year. Still, the council decided that it would be better to fund as many artists as possible than to keep the grants high and cut more individuals out of the process.