Do you support the Arts? Morons in Congress want to slash NEA funding. Here's what we can do...

[Octafish]

Heads up...



Taming Evil by Renata Palubinskas

HELP STOP DRASTIC NEA CUTS

AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS reports that overnight Sunday the House Appropriations Committee made even deeper cuts to the NEA and dozens of other programs and agencies. The proposed cut to the NEA is now set at $22.5 million (yesterday it was $12 million) which would represent the largest cut to that agency in 16 years.

A key paragraph in yesterday's Washington Post story covering these budget cuts explains what is happening: The Republican Study Committee, "Its ranks swollen with enthusiastic freshman who have never taken calls from constituents angry about loss of a favored program...threatened to oppose the package on the House floor next week unless deeper cuts were adopted."

It is quite possible these members of the Republican Study Committee will offer amendments to fully eliminate the NEA during floor consideration. We need you to send a message to your Members calling on them to reject these cuts to the NEA because they will negatively affect the district back home.

By taking two minutes today to send a customizable message through the Americas for the Arts E-Advocacy Center, we will automatically send letters on your behalf to both your Senators and your House Representative. This will ensure that your voice will be heard by Members of Congress (especially freshmen members), who are now assessing their constituents' viewpoints on these budget cuts.

[mzteris]

1. Done!! n/t

[Octafish]

10. Thank-a-you, mzteris!

[CBHagman]

2. Bumping this message.

We need to get the word out.

[Octafish]

11. You got it, CBHagman!

You can tell a lot about a nation's future by the state of its culture.

[liberal N proud]

3. K&R

[Octafish]

12. Thanks, liberal N proud!

Now, we can move on to the small fry.

[EFerrari]

4. Done

[Octafish]

14. Mama, Papa Is Wounded

[nashville_brook]

5. done!

here's my letter:



As a state with a tourism-centered economic base, we need to be increasing support for the arts, not decreasing it during this time of economic hardship. The nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion annually in economic activity, supports 5.7 million full-time equivalent jobs in the arts and related industries, and returns $12.6 billion in federal income taxes. Measured against direct federal cultural spending of about $1.4 billion, that's a return of nearly nine to one.

The arts are not only essential to quality of life -- they're essential to to our economy. Time and again I've sat in board rooms with real estate directors making decisions about where to locate their businesses, and I repeated hear that culture is one area where Florida in general, and Central Florida in particular, lags behind other competitors.


Supporting the arts is an essential part of the economic development equation, and it's a good buy: grants through the NEA are widely distributed to strengthen arts infrastructures and ensure broad access to the arts. In addition, the NEA distributes 40 percent of its program dollars to state arts agencies. In partnership with the NEA, state arts agencies awarded 24,000 grants to 18,000 organizations, schools, and artists in more than 5,100 communities across the United States.

This is not a gravy train -- artists and arts organizations work hard to leverage federal funding to attract private dollars. The NEA requires at least a one-to-one match of federal funds from all grant recipients—a match far exceeded by most grantees. On average, each NEA grant leverages at least seven dollars from other state, local, and private sources. Private support cannot match the leveraging role of government cultural funding.

[Octafish]

16. Outstanding letter, nashville_brooke!

Few people understand the classic and romantic, as Pirsig defined them. For the bozos who understand only money, it hits the nail on the head. For those who understand why the arts matter, it strengthens the heart. For plagiarists like me, I'd like to borrow its, eh, essence. For all of us who give a darn about art -- from the first hominid who put paint to rock to the architect raising a soaring skyscraper out of the Red Sea in Dubai: Thank you. The arts are how we truly advance.

[Starry Messenger]

6. k&r

Thank you sir.

[Octafish]

20. You are most welcome, Madame.

"George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens," c. 1979-90, 5th Version, by Mark Lombardi, 1999, before most of American had even heard of Osama bin Bush

[Poboy]

22. This artist died under mysterious circumstances as I recall.

Very fascinating visual diagrams of connections of the PTB, including the BFEE.

[Octafish]

24. Mark Lombardi, a brave man, used social network diagrams to connect crooks to crime.

Just as his career was taking off...

[handmade34]

7. so important

we ARE our arts... we lose our humanity without it

[Octafish]

21. Thank you handmade34! You are correct, the arts are how civilization got here.

Cosmic Jester by Renata Palubinskas

[Karmadillo]

8. Done.

nt

[Octafish]

23. Thank you, Karmadillo!

Conspiratorial Wink by Michael Samuels

[My Good Babushka]

9. I have done this

Neither the Republican nor Democratic platform have ANYTHING to say about the arts and humanities.
The Socialist Party does.

[Octafish]

25. It once was OK to be Liberal and a Democrat.

I look forward to the day when it will be OK to be a "Social Democrat," meaning a Democrat who applies the powers of government to make life better for ALL Americans, not just the well-to-do and their warmonger support group. Which may explain why they hate the Arts. It, eh, inspires people.



Thank you, My Good Babushka, for caring. You really are on-point.

[xchrom]

13. done. nt

[Octafish]

26. Thank you, xchrom!

For those who think and feel: the arts and culture are like breathing. Here's a great blog about the importance of the arts and arts ed without the lecture by Robert L. Lynch:

BTW: Superbowl: A Showcase for the Arts

EXCERPT...

I find this fascinating but not surprising. The National Arts Index, which Americans for the Arts produces each year, indicates that interest in the arts in America continues to grow. Online downloads of music are soaring. Involvement in the arts -- whether in the neighborhood, personal self creation, volunteerism or on TV during the Super Bowl intermission -- is stronger than ever. Three thousand new nonprofit arts organizations were created during the 2007-2009 recession resulting in a record 109,000 nonprofit art groups in America.

CONTINUED...

[xchrom]

27. excellent read. nt

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[Octafish]

28. Here's a clue (for FREE!): Pinochet at the Bookstore

General Pinochet at the Bookstore

Santiago, Chile, July 2004

The general’s limo parked at the corner of San Diego street
and his bodyguard escorted him to the bookstore
called La Oportunidad, so he could browse
for rare works of history.

There were no bloody fingerprints left on the pages.
No books turned to ash at his touch.
He did not track the soil of mass graves on his shoes,
nor did his eyes glow red with a demon’s heat.

Worse: His hands were scrubbed, and his eyes were blue,
and the dementia that raged in his head like a demon,
making the general’s trial impossible, had disappeared.

Desaparecido: like thousands dead but not dead,
as the crowd reminded the general,
gathered outside the bookstore to jeer
when he scurried away with his bodyguards,
so much smaller in person.

-- Martín Espada

[Solly Mack]

17. K&R

[Octafish]

32. Remember when the nation did more than just war?

"There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts. The age of Pericles was also the age of Phidias. The age of Lorenzo de Medici was also the age of Leonardo da Vinci. The age Elizabeth also the age of Shakespeare. And the New Frontier for which I campaign in public life, can also be a New Frontier for American art." (Response to letter sent by Miss Theodate Johnson, Publisher of Musical America to the two presidential candidates requesting their views on music in relation to the Federal Government and domestic world affairs. Answer from then Senator John Kennedy was dated September 13, 1960.)

SOURCE: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx

[Solly Mack]

70. Always seemed to be a war or "police action" going on ...sadly.

But we did seem to do other things....now...it just feels like a whole lot of war.

[old mark]

18. Pat Buchannan campaigned for president using hatred for the NEA

as a plank...He proposed "closing,fumigating and padlocking" the NEA and ending every dime of support for anything remotely arts-related or any public interest program. They do not change at all, unless they get worse.
This is a long article, but it gives you a lot of background on the American/"religious" Right's anti-culture anti-art movement...

http://www.publiceye.org/theocrat/Schapiro.html

As an artist, and as a human with the ability to think, I am disgusted and angry with these people and I have been for many decades.


mark

[Octafish]

33. The Reich hates knowledgeable subjects. Thus they devalue education and the arts.

As a fellow Catholic, I know Pat Buchanan is going to Hell.

[Poboy]

19. I am very glad you posted this and see others posting on it as well.

I posted this a few days ago and all I got was the guilt trip on how art isn't worthy of support with people starving. This person suggested if art could not make it in the 'marketplace' on its own, too bad.
No one else replied, so I let it sink. I began to think this place was indifferent and did not appreciate the arts. I found it hard to accept.

To this thinking I say 'without vision, the people perish'.

I see you are a fan of Surrealism, Octafish. Very good taste too.

[Octafish]

36. Wish I'd seen your thread, Poboy!

I think the world of your writings, not because we are on the same wavelength -- we are the same wavelength. More light!

Regarding Tanguy: Walking through the Hirshhorn in DC, I was shocked when I entered a small room and there, on the wall, was "Naked Water."



I did not want to leave.

[Poboy]

47. I saw a bunch of Tanguy at the Menil gallery (Houston) on a trip recently.

They house the largest collection of surrealist art in North America. Margritte, Earnst, Breton, all the big ones.

[bullwinkle428]

29. Done, and K&R. Thanks for bringing this to DU's attention, Octafish!

[Octafish]

39. My pleasure, bullwinkle428.

From another guy who understood what we're talking about:

"I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. "

-- President John F. Kennedy, at Amherst College, October 26, 1963

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

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[Octafish]

31. Whatever.

On the whole "BFEE" thing...I don't buy it.

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

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[Octafish]

57. Nothing personal. We disagree on a lot of things.

Sorry, as I've gotten older, I've become more jaded.

[mod mom]

34. I rec'd in your place. The arts enrich us all as a nation.

gladly done.

[WatsonT]

35. But how are we going to get rid of all these surplus

funds we have laying around?

/everyone favors cuts in non-essential programs to fix the deficit. Everyone seems to have a different definition of 'non-essential'. Hence why w should pay for art while people freeze.

[Octafish]

37. Pentagon found a spare $450,000 for a Superbowl fly-over.

The gas bill alone was $109,000 plus all them soldiers' and civilians' lives and collateral damage what-not. The F-18's lost some of their recruiting effect, though, with the roof closed and all.

[WatsonT]

38. I was opposed to that too

we aren't going to get out of a 14 trillion dollar debt by cuts, even major ones, to any one program. Not sure how you can extrapolate distaste in one form of wasteful spending to mean necessary support for another form of wasteful spending.

Everything we can live without needs to face deep cuts. Everyone else needs to find a way to get the same things accomplished with a lower budget.

Lean times are upon us.

Or we can keep spending like there's no problem and hope we take everyone down with us when we collapse.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

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[Ratty]

43. Then you don't know much about the NEA

Yeah, "Piss Christ." That's AAALL the NEA is about. Libraries and Museums rely on the NEA too you know. They fund preservation projects to stop the slow destruction of our old books and manuscripts. They fund digitization projects to make art and literature available, for free, over the internet. Of course if you also think Libraries and Museums should also not be supported by the government then may I point you to any number of other websites where like-minded people may discuss their political philosophies.

http://www.artsactionfund.org/pages/why-nea-funding-matters

[WatsonT]

44. Who has said it needs to be cut entirely?

This is a budget cut, not an elimination of the entire program.

Couldn't we pay for libraries, but not piss-christ style art displays?

[Ratty]

46. I was responding to someone else

Whose post seemed to imply Piss Christ was the biggest thing about the NEA. And yes, I agree with you. It seems to be a RW meme that if some inefficiency or flaw is found in a government program, then that justifies eliminating the entire program (aka Reagan's "Welfare Queens"). Perhaps the NEA can be "fixed" rather than eliminated. In fact I respect the argument that artists should live on the merits of their art and should receive funding from individuals who appreciate what they do. If they're unable to do that then they need to supplement their income with an additional job. I don't know if I agree with that, but it's a respectable argument.

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

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[Bluenorthwest]

56. Why preserve that which is not worth making to begin with?

Just because you fail to understand Piss Christ, and think the artist did not get rich off of his vast cannon of work aside from that, this does not make that piece of art less than it is. Just means you don't like it. Guilliani had a hard on for the Maddona with Elephant dung, he thought it was a slanderous, I thought it was full out holy. Religious art, in fact. Rudy also did not like Piss Christ. He, like most of the critics of that piece, never comment on the series of works of which it is a part, nor on the overall message of those photos. Have you seen the rest of the series? What do you think it is about? What do you think the one you posted is about? What is the name of the artist?

[Name removed]

60. Deleted message

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[Bluenorthwest]

67. It is extreme in your opinion, but this is a great work by one of

the leaders in his entire field. The NEA did not pay for Piss Christ, you know. It was included in exhibits by curators choice, the museums or shows were funded by NEA, not the making of the work itself. I assume you understand that. This artist brings huge dollar at auction, he is heavily collected and was during his lifetime. He died of AIDS, which is a clue as to why the bodily fluids are used in some of his work, and coupled with images of the divine, and of death. You claimed this was government funded work. It was not.
What you and Guilliani call extreme I call good work. I'm in the arts, I take no grant money because I need none. I do wind up in theaters which are funded by grants. I can tell you that a thing that can sell for hundreds of thousands is good product, even is those who are not in the market call it extreme or unsettling. As art, it is successful, and as product, even more so.
Extreme today is tomorrow's TV sitcom, and that is the way of the world. Elvis was extreme. So the job of the artist is to be ahead of the bend. As extremely ahead of it as possible. That Picasso, so extreme! And so it goes....

[Starry Messenger]

45. Nice post Jesse Helms.

:eyes:

[Bluenorthwest]

59. A photo of Andy Warhol by the artist who made Piss Christ

was auctioned for $643,200, making it the 9th most expensive photograph ever sold. So he had and has a huge market, and your opinion is not widely shared in the art world.

[Bluenorthwest]

65. One more thing. The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

This is the charity started by the artist you are saying needed government money to live. He left a large estate. At this link, you could learn a few things, and see the scope of his work.
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/foundation/

[Blue_Tires]

40. kick for later

[Octafish]

58. Thanks, Blue_Tires!

Some things bear repeating.

[JitterbugPerfume]

41. the arts define us ,

and enriches our lives.

Done

[Octafish]

62. What I've never understood about conservatives...

Besides the hypocrisy, how can they find joy in denying to others that which they don't appreciate in themselves?



The greed part was easy to figure.

[Dappleganger]

42. Thanks and k&r for the arts!

[Octafish]

63. Art Is Truth

[eppur_se_muova]

48. Just wanted to share one more RP painting ...

Someone (maybe it was you?) posted this on DU back when Bu**sh** was still occupying the WH ... it just seemed to represent Republicans to me ... rats a much better mascot than elephants!

[Octafish]

49. Out of this world.

Like Bodhisattva.

I've seen it entitled: "Rising of the New Man" and "Rising of the New Moon."

Both are profound.



Plus, there's that eye in the sky.

[newtothegame]

50. I support the arts, but it would be nice if spenders of public money would be prudent purchasers...

Why spend $2m of public dollars to put a twisted metal sculpture on a campus when the same college's own art students can make it for FREE? :shrug:

[Bluenorthwest]

54. Because they can't. They are there to learn how, and part of that

learning involves living with and around great art. The idea that student work should be foisted as excellence to save money is a terrible idea. The art in public places on campus might be the only art many students will be around consistently.
Which sculpture in particular are you speaking of, or is this just rhetorical?

[TriMera]

55. Done. n/t

[Octafish]

64. Art Is Truth Jr.

[bigwillq]

61. Done (nt)

[Octafish]

66. Photography is an Art.

Likewise, journalism.

[Chris_Texas]

68. As an artist...

I have spent much of my adult life working as a professional artist and illustrator. I love art. I love kids more.

The reality is that we are spending our kids and grandkids money on bullshit like this and it has got to stop. If you love art buy it, look at it, support an artist if you like, but stop STOP with the spending.

And yeah, I know, if only the rich would pay what they should, if only we didn't have all these wars, if only. I agree. But we DO have these wars along with a hundred thousand other programs, many of them pretty swell and NONE of them funded. So there it is.

[Octafish]

71. What can be cut and what should be cut are two different things.

A work of art, the federal budget's discretionary spending.



Congratulations on your own career as an artist. Welcome to DU!

BTW: I disagree, re the NEA. It is not "bullshit."

[Bluenorthwest]

69. Great thread

[Octafish]

72. Men With No Lips

In this PDF guide for jury selection, we can see that Robbie Conal really pegged the type.

Most importantly: Thank you, bluenorthwest, for caring about the NEA and the arts!