CAA News Today
July CAA News Now Online
posted by Christopher Howard — Jul 02, 2008
The July CAA News has been posted to the CAA website. You can download a 1.6-megabyte PDF of the issue by clicking on the cover at right.
In the issue, CAA News talks to the editors of two art magazines with roots in Los Angeles: X-TRA and Afterall. Also included are CAA’s new procedures for developing professional standards and guidelines; a report on the recent Board of Directors meeting in May; and information on registration rates for the upcoming Los Angeles conference and travel grants to attend it.
The deadline for submissions to the September issue is July 10, 2008. Please send yours to Christopher Howard, CAA News editor.
Special House Hearing Highlights NEA and NEH Programs
posted by Christopher Howard — May 15, 2008
On May 8, 2008, a hearing was held by the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee in the House of Representatives to discuss the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). While the subcommittee has jurisdiction over NEH and NEA authorization, this was an informational hearing only.
The following individuals provided testimony on the national impact of NEH and NEA programs: Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker; Bruce Cole, NEH chairman; Dana Gioia, NEA chairman; William Glacken, mayor of Freeport, New York; Jeanne Schmedlen, director of special projects and chief of protocol office for the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives; Katrine Watkins, librarian at Shaler Area Intermediate School in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania; and former US Army Captain Ryan Kelly, a participant in Operation Homecoming, an NEA-sponsored program.
The panelists emphasized the importance of NEH and NEA grants to their work and asked that Congress continue to support arts and humanities programming. Testimony focused on the agency’s special initiatives, including the NEH’s We the People Bookshelf and Picturing America programs, as well as the NEA’s Mayors Institute on Urban Design and Operation Homecoming. Chairwoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) praised the NEA and NEH programs presented and identified them as essential to defining “what is America.” She also reiterated the importance of the arts and humanities to American society.
CAA at Arts Advocacy Day
posted by Christopher Howard — May 01, 2008
Andrea Kirsh is an independent curator and scholar and an adjunct faculty member at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. She is also a member of the CAA Board of Directors.
I don’t usually hang around with the likes of Robert Redford, John Legend, and Peter Yarrow, but last month I did. With Nia Page, CAA director of membership, development, and marketing, and Sara Hines, CAA marketing and development assistant, I joined these performers and other arts advocates at the House Office Building in Washington, DC, as part of Arts Advocacy Day. Held March 31-April 1, 2008, the event was the twenty-first year that Americans for the Arts has brought together grassroots advocates from across the country to lobby Congress for arts-friendly legislation. CAA has been a longtime cosponsor of these important days for American arts and culture.
More than five-hundred-plus individuals from institutions and locations all over the country descended on Capitol Hill to raise awareness about funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Department of Education, along with specific bills under consideration in the Senate and House of Representatives concerning tax laws, Federal Communications Commission regulations, and foreign exchange policy.
Redford, Legend, Yarrow, and the rest of us were among a coalition of representatives from the NEA and Americas for the Arts who addressed the House Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations in the first congressional hearing in over a decade dedicated to the importance of federal arts funding. We were outside the hearing room with an overflow crowd of more than two hundred that lined an entire third-floor hallway.
Some historical background: after the culture wars that followed the outcry against funding Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, and others, the NEA’s budget was cut from $176 million in 1992 to $99.5 million the following year, with grants to individual artists completely eliminated and the endowment’s other grant programs sorely lacking support. During the past fifteen years, the agency has slowly been recovering, with an encouraging $20 million increase in 2007, bringing the current budget to $144.7 million. Still $30 million shy of the baseline goal to reach 1992 levels, the current presidential administration has now proposed a $16 million cut for 2009.
The United States is unusual among advanced democracies in having no federal department of culture; current arts legislation is spread over more than fourteen congressional committees, which also have responsibility for forest fires, homeland security, and the entire tax system. The current Congress is looking at funding for the NEA, NEH, Institute of Museum and Library Services, arts education, and State Department cultural exchanges; tax legislation allowing artists to take fair-market-value tax deductions for donations to museums; and the inclusion of arts education within No Child Left Behind legislation (as well as several issues affecting the performing arts).
I was among the thirty-four Pennsylvanians who met in Senator Arlen Spector’s office with his staff member, Mary Beth McGowan, to ask for support for arts-friendly bills and to tell stories of how federal funding has benefited the state. Spector is a member of the Senate Cultural Caucus and a long-time friend of the arts, but that doesn’t make such visits any less important. The group included fourteen students in Drexel University’s Arts Administration Program (who had raised their own funds for the trip) and Silagh White of ArtsLehigh, an initiative at Lehigh University to integrate arts throughout the curriculum and educate an enthusiastic audience; two Lehigh undergraduates joined her.
Page and Hines joined seventy-five New York art supporters who lobbied the offices of Representatives Charles Rangel, Carolyn Maloney, and Louise McIntosh Slaughter and Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, to name a few, urging Congress to support increased funding for the NEA and NEH and to cosponsor the Artist-Museum Partnership Act. They also urged Congress to appropriate $53 million for the US Department of Education’s Arts in Education programs in the fiscal year 2009 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill.
During a training session on the first day, we were told, “If you don’t get involved, your opponents will.” I can’t overemphasize the importance of such lobbying. If you can’t make the trip to DC, you can still phone, write, or e-mail your senators and representatives about arts issues. They want to hear from their constituents, and the more personal your stories about the impact of arts policies and federal funding–which includes federal monies channeled through state and local arts councils–the better. Any time an individual or organization receives a federal grant, it is appropriate to thank both senators and congressman. If the grant benefits a number of people, such as funded research, which has an impact on teaching, mention it. You can keep up with current legislation at the Americans for the Arts website; if you sign up for its e-list, the organization can supply boiler letters and e-mails to you when action is needed. The website also holds a wealth of information on voting records and other means of gauging your representative’s stance on cultural policy. Get involved today!
President’s Budget Requests $271,246,000 for IMLS
posted by Christopher Howard — Feb 15, 2008
President George W. Bush’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2009 seeks $271,246,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The request, which was released February 4 by the White House, represents an increase of $26,023,000, or 10.6 percent, over the FY 2008 enacted level for the institute’s programs and administration.
Highlights of the IMLS budget request include the following:
$214,432,000 for library grant programs, an increase of $14,469,000 from the FY 2008 appropriation for the same purposes. This includes an increase of $10.6 million for the Grants to States program, bringing it to $171,500,000. This amount will enable the full implementation of a law passed in 2003 to provide a more equitable distribution of state formula grants. The request also includes $26,500,000 for the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.
$39,897,000 for museum grants, an increase of $8.6 million from the FY 2008 appropriation for the same purposes. The request includes $3.8 million for Conservation Project support, $22.2 million for Museums for America, $2.1 million for 21st Century Museum Professionals, and $1.35 million for Museum Grants for African American History and Culture.
This request includes $2.5 million for collecting public-library and state-library statistics, $500,000 to launch a pilot program on museum data collection, and $1 million to study and report on the state of libraries and museums in the United States.
You can download two PDF documents detailing the institute’s appropriations history and budget information: IMLS Appropriations History 1998-2009 and IMLS Requested and Enacted Budgets 2006-9.
About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development.
Advocacy Days in Washington
posted by Christopher Howard — Jun 15, 2007
CAA once again cosponsored Arts Advocacy Day (March 12-13, 2007), hosted by Americans for the Arts, and Humanities Advocacy Day (March 27, 2007), hosted by the National Humanities Alliance. Both events were held in Washington, DC, and brought together a broad cross-section of national cultural organizations, academics, and grassroots arts leaders to promote the arts, arts education, and humanities to Congress through increased support for the federal cultural agencies.
Arts Advocacy Day
CAA representatives Michele Snyder (director of development, membership, and marketing) and Christine Sundt (former secretary of the Board of Directors) attended Arts Advocacy Day. Snyder visited the offices of Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Representatives Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Michael Arcuri (D-NY), John Hall (D-NY), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Steve Israel (D-NY), Nita M. Lowey (D-NY), Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Jim Walsh (R-NY).
Advocates focused on several important arts policy matters during these visits to Capitol Hill. They urged Congress to support a budget of $176 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in fiscal year (FY) 2008, an increase over President George W. Bush’s current funding projection of $124.4 million. This increase would reinstate funding to 1992 levels and allow for greater service to arts organizations and artists who depend on NEA support. Additionally, this increase would provide for the creation, preservation, and presentation of the arts in the United States, through the NEA’s core programs: Access to Artistic Excellence; Challenge America: Reaching Every Community; Federal/State Partnerships; and Learning in the Arts.
In addition to increased funding for the NEA, advocates encouraged members of Congress to continue supporting arts education and to approve an increase of $8 million (for a total of $39.9 million) for Arts in Education programs in the FY 2008 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill. With increased funding, Arts in Education programs will sponsor newly emerging initiatives that improve arts learning. Advocates also urged the Congress to support the Artist-Museum Partnership Act (S 548), which will allow artists to take a fair-market-value tax deduction for donating their works of art to nonprofit organizations. At present, collectors who give art to museums and cultural institutions are able to claim the full market value of the work, whereas artists can only deduct the cost of the materials used.
Humanities Advocacy Day
For Humanities Advocacy Day, an event that focuses on increased support for the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) and for the humanities at large, CAA representative Alexis Light visited the offices of Senators Clinton and Schumer and Representatives Vito Fossella (R-NY), John Hall (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Thomas M. Reynolds (R-NY). Light joined other humanities advocates in urging Congress to support an NEH budget request of $177 million, an increase over President Bush’s current FY 2008 funding projection of $141.36 million. This increase would reinstate funding to 1994 levels and extend the reach and impact of the NEH’s core programs and special initiatives.
In addition to increased funding for the NEH, Light encouraged members of Congress to support other humanities-related legislation in the coming year. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the grant-making arm of the National Archives and Records Administration, was targeted by Bush’s budget request for the third year in a row. The president’s request calls for zero funding both for grants and for staff to administer the NHPRC and its programs. Advocates asked lawmakers to support a minimum FY 2008 funding level of $12 million: $10 million for national grants and $2 million for essential staffing and program administration-related costs. Without grant funds, the publishing of papers and other historical materials from America’s founding era to the present will be severely curtailed or terminated, the network of state archives will collapse, and research and development in the field of preserving electronic records will end. CAA will continue to work with the National Humanities Alliance, a nonpartisan advocacy group based in Washington, DC (of which CAA is a member), to address these issues.
November Elections Bode Well for Arts
posted by Christopher Howard — Dec 16, 2006
The change in party leadership in Congress brings hope for increased support for the arts. The Congressional Arts Report Card on the Arts, issued by the Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC, recently gave the grade of “A” to incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). The Senate and the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittees oversee funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The previous chairs, Representative Charles Taylor (R-NC) and Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) were defeated in their election bids. Neither had proposed an increase in funding while serving on the subcommittee. Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, has cosponsored amendments to increase NEA funding and has pledged to do so if he were to become chair.
In Louisiana, the statewide Amendment Number 5 passed, which exempts consigned artwork from property taxes. Prior to this amendment, which took effect January 1, 2007, Louisiana was the only state to have such a tax, which significantly affected galleries whose inventories were subject to taxation. This legislation, it is hoped, will markedly improve the ability of Louisiana galleries to attract local, national, and international artists.
In Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, voters approved Issue 18, which will provide stable public funding for the arts for the next ten years. Issue 18 will impose a 1.5 cent tax per cigarette, or 30 cents per pack, sold in the greater Cleveland area. Funds raised by these taxes will provide close to $20 million per year for Cuyahoga County arts and culture organizations such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Orchestra. The money will be distributed through grants for operating support, project support, artist education residencies and research support, special initiatives and one-time emergency grants. All grants require matching funds, which will maintain support from the private sector to continue to strengthen Cuyahoga County’s arts funding.
RAND Study on State Arts Agencies
posted by Christopher Howard — Nov 16, 2006
A new RAND report, entitled “The Arts and State Governments: At Arm’s Length or Arm in Arm?”, recommends that state arts agencies seeking increased state government support for the arts should strengthen their relationships with elected officials and raise their organizations’ profile with the public. State arts agencies are government organizations created in the US in the 1960s and after; they support the arts through grants to artists and nonprofit arts organizations.
The report, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, suggests that strategies that reach out to the public and to government officials can be effective in positioning the arts higher on the list of government priorities. It also shows that state arts agencies have contributed to a nationwide flourishing of professional artists and art organizations and have helped local communities gain control over most public arts funding decisions.
“The Arts and State Governments” can be ordered from RAND’s Distribution Services at 877-584-8642; order@rand.org
RAND Study on State Arts Agencies
posted by Christopher Howard — Nov 01, 2006
A new RAND report, entitled “The Arts and State Governments: At Arm’s Length or Arm in Arm?”, recommends that state arts agencies seeking increased state government support for the arts should strengthen their relationships with elected officials and raise their organizations’ profile with the public. State arts agencies are government organizations created in the US in the 1960s and after; they support the arts through grants to artists and nonprofit arts organizations.
The report, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, suggests that strategies that reach out to the public and to government officials can be effective in positioning the arts higher on the list of government priorities. It also shows that state arts agencies have contributed to a nationwide flourishing of professional artists and art organizations and have helped local communities gain control over most public arts funding decisions.
“The Arts and State Governments” can be ordered from RAND’s Distribution Services at 877-584-8642; order@rand.org; www.rand.org.
Hurricane Katrina Federal Funding Update
posted by admin — Mar 16, 2006
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Congress approved legislation that redirects funds not used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to other agencies. About $11.5 billion of the unused funds were devoted to Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) for affected states. CDBG can be a source of funding for arts institutions and programming, at the discretion of local mayors and planning authorities.
So far, Mississippi announced that they will use its portion to give financial assistance to citizens whose homes were destroyed or damaged. Louisiana, with far more people affected, has not yet decided how it will spend its CDBG funding. Due to the size and scale of the destruction, it is unlikely that any big portion of CDBG money will be used as a source of funding for the arts.
Katrina Relief Funding Update
posted by admin — Oct 16, 2005
Congress has passed two very large emergency relief packages totaling $62 billion, most of which has gone to FEMA. Museums, nonprofit arts organizations that are located in historic buildings, and government agencies may be able to qualify for FEMA assistance. Congress is now working on a third “supplemental” package, which will have a broader range. Negotiations are currently under way to allocate up to $20 million of relief funding through the National Endowment for the Arts for grants. These supplemental bills are all for FY 2006 funding. Another possibility is that additional arts funding would be wrapped into a fourth package or, more remotely, could be included in appropriations for FY 2007.