The Governor's Speech

As promised:

REMARKS BY GOVERNOR TED KULONGOSKI
In accepting the Americans for the Arts Public Leadership Award
Thursday, January 21, 2010

Thank you Senator Merkley for your introduction – and for the outstanding job you are doing in Washington for the people of Oregon. These are difficult times for our state – but they would be a lot more difficult without your voice and vote in the United States Senate. I also want to thank Bob Lynch and Americans for the Arts for selecting me to receive your Public Leadership in the Arts award.

Oregon – like most other states – is facing painful budget choices. I frequently remind people that 90-percent of our state’s budget goes to just three things: Schools, public safety, and human services.

Where does that leave public funding for art and culture? For the shortsighted, it leaves them on the cutting room floor. But I believe passionately that art and culture are not luxuries to be supported in good times – and frills to be discarded in difficult times. They are essential at all times.

By the standards of many states – Oregon is not the most financially prosperous. But we would never trade financial wealth for our wonderful quality of life. It is who we are as a people – and why we work so hard to protect our natural beauty. Art and culture are part of that beauty and are equally important to Oregon’s quality of life. This is as it should be. In creativity – we find hope. In artistry – we find our shared humanity. And what is too often overlooked – by investing in our cultural assets, we invest in jobs and economic renewal.

I often compare the human mind without art – to a room without furniture. The room exists – but it is empty of joy and inspiration. This is why I created CHAMP – to reinvest in culture, history, art, movies, preservation and public broadcasting, and in doing so to enrich the human mind.

I’m very proud to receive this award. And I think it is a credit not just to me – but to Oregon’s entire creative community, from practicing artists and cultural institutions, to business leaders, to legislators from both parties.

But I have a confession: When I was a young man growing up, I didn’t know much about the arts – and didn’t see them as relevant to my life. When I came home from overseas after serving in the Marines, I went to work in a steel mill. I thought that would be my life. But I met a woman who was in college – and she told me that as a condition of our marriage I would have to go to college too.

I enrolled at the University of Missouri on the GI Bill, and for reasons I don’t fully remember or understand – I took an art class. Then a second art class. And then a third art class. I didn’t just learn to appreciate the arts – I learned I needed the arts. The arts made me a more open and curious person – with greater promise and hope for the future.

I realized that the arts are a path to opportunity. This is my greatest motivation for supporting cultural re-investment – to give children in Oregon the same opportunities I had. That means giving them the chance to enjoy, practice and learn about art.

Andre Malraux, the French writer and essayist, once said, “Art is a revolt against fate.” To which I would add: So is investing in art. For children – public investment in the arts will open doors. Change lives. Raise sights. And hand to them an even better future than was handed to us. For those of us in positions of public leadership, there is no greater responsibility – or achievement – than that.

Thank you.

Report from Washington

As many of you have seen, Governor Ted Kulongoski received an Arts Leadership award yesterday morning at a joint gathering of the US Conference of Mayors and Americans for the Arts. I’ll post a copy of his speech as soon as I can get my virtual fingers on it, but suffice it to say that our governor charmed and impressed the crowd -- a room that included such luminaries as NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman, one of my favorite arts advocates Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, and former NBA Star Kevin Johnson. I mean Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

My boss Eloise and I were lucky to attend the breakfast in our roles with Americans for the Arts, she with the US Urban Arts Federation and me with AFTA’s Private Sector Council. And being the fine Oregonians that we are, the governor’s people seated us right up front… which means that you, dear reader, get some up-close-and-personal photographs.

Ever since rumors started percolating a few weeks ago that Gov. Kulongoski would receive this prestigious award – one goes to a Governor and one goes to a Mayor every year – many in the arts community were surprised and perhaps underwhelmed at the suggestion that Oregon was doing something better than 49 other states. Better when a desperate legislature stole $1.8 million from the Oregon Cultural Trust to help balance the state’s budget? Better when the state’s overall investment in the arts translates to relative pittance for the average arts organization?

But I can say, with both my skepticism and my professional responsibilities in check, that Oregon has fared much better than many states over the past 7 years, and that Gov. Kulongoski did in fact outperform most if not all of his peers during this Great Recession. The bar, as they say, is low, but Oregon somehow managed to jump over it while many states grappled whether to limbo clumsily beneath, or knock it to the ground entirely. The governor quietly ensured that the arts were not “left on the cutting room floor,” even in this god-awful economy, and although most people thought that his pet program CHAMP had no chance of being renewed this biennium, $5 million in new funds (in 2009!) was indeed secured for culture, heritage, arts, movies and preservation. Also worth noting, the Tax Credit for Culture, scheduled to sunset in 2010, was quietly renewed for another four years. (Perhaps the citizen outrage and media attention surrounding the aforementioned theft had something to do with everyone’s willingness to give this little present to the Trust.)

Nationally, state funding for the arts has fallen 19% over the last 6 years, and some state arts councils have been stripped down to nothing. Neither the governor nor Senator Jeff Merkley (who introduced the governor this morning) mentioned this in his remarks, but Oregon has managed to move in the other direction, clawing its way up from last place to 33rd in state funding for the arts per capita during the governor’s tenure.

Of course only those of us with perennial loser syndrome would even think of celebrating that we’re #33 (hooya!). We can and must do better. So I appreciated the Governor’s self-deprecation when he quoted Israeili politician Golda Meir in accepting the award: “Don’t be humble, you’re not that great.” But no matter how unimpressive as our situation may be right now, there probably isn’t a governor in Oregon’s 150-history who has done as much for the arts.

So: my sincere congratulations and appreciation to Governor Kulongoski. Now, who’s next? And will he or she be able to take it to the next level?

I Saw the Sign

The 2009 AFTA conference concluded rather unceremoniously on Saturday afternoon with a final round of concurrent sessions, including a presentation by yours truly along with Jennifer Yocom of the Mayor's office. Silvain, the fine AFTA photographer, snapped a few pics that I'll post here when I get them, but suffice it to say that despite its unoriginal title (written by AFTA, not by me) folks from Puyallap to Providence seemed pretty interested in the "innovative approaches to public-private partnerships" that we have been developing here, including our United Arts Fund which features the only known public matching challenge fund for arts and culture; The Right Brain Initiative, based on Dallas's Big Thought but even more expansive; and Act for Art, our five year action plan for arts and culture. (By the way, over the course of the conference I learned to differentiate "Act for Art" as an action plan, not an arts plan or a cultural plan, which are different. I will explain later.)

On my drive back to Portland -– no, don’t worry, I didn't liveblog it –- but I did take note of the Uncle Sam billboard, as per usual. (It’s like a train wreck, right? You can’t not look.)



That's a stock image above; yesterday its north face read:

Our tax dollars are being used as fertilizer to fund the Barack-acy

I know – stupid on so many levels, right? First of all, what’s with the fertilizer metaphor? Don’t they know that our tax dollars are the very soil of all government programs? And then there’s the attempted play on words, which only falls short because of the (accidental?) omission of a simple letter. (Unless they were alluding to a new word, bureaucacy, which I hadn’t considered until now.)

I know these are goodhearted folks with limited resources, so I am offering my copywriting services for free and suggesting a simpler phrase to increase driver readability while saving on labor (fewer letters) at the same time:

Our tax dollars are being used to fund the Barack-racy

I can see where they want to go with this, so while I’m at it let me pen a few more billboard blasts with bad plays on proper nouns. If you're reading this, Centralia, you are welcome to use these, free of charge, in the months ahead.

Why is Christine so Gregoire-ious when our state is in so much debt?

Hurry 2012! We hope we’re not a socialist nation Bi-den

Jesus thinks it’s Hilary-ous that you fell and broke your elbow

See it's easy, and the possibilities are endless! I'm sure Culture Shock readers have many more suggestions -- but if things get really creative around here we might have to start charging you.

Seattle Report #5

Some of the most interesting discussions at the AFTA conventions each year take place within the Public Art track. AFTA is the coordinating body for a network of 350 public art programs across the country, convening and coordinating them to stimulate dialogue, discuss critical issues, and develop public art products and services. Although this conference does not tend to appeal to most discipline-based arts organizations and individual artists, it does have a strong following of artists who are involved in public art every year. (“But please,” they beg of me, “don’t call us ‘public artists.’”)

The Seattle press – in the form of The Mercury’s sister newspaper, The Stranger – took notice that we were all here in town with an interesting commentary on the city’s own public art collection, asking whether it might perhaps be overrated. Among the complaints herein is that the growing trend toward sculpturally integrated artwork (''interwoven into terrazzo lobby floors, for instance") generates a whole lot of art that lacks interest and innovation.

How fortuitous that I should read this article over breakfast the very morning of AFTA’s annual celebration of public art projects across the country. Being aware of this criticism gave me an interesting lens for considering the awards that AFTA was bestowing to 40 excellent public art projects completed in the past year. Among the works honored were some real beauties, including:

"Verdant Walk," a temporary art and landscape installation in Cleveland, beautifully illuminated at night by solar fabric panels.




"Synchronicity of Color" shows what happens when a good artist (Margo Sawyer) decorates the entrance to an underground parking garage in Houston with 1,500 aluminum boxes in 65 colors.



"The Ziz" is one of the more interesting sports-related public art projects I’ve seen in a while, by Donald Lipski



The panelists also gave awards to our own Horatio Law for his "Gilded Bowl Column" for the Asian Counseling and Referral Service in Seattle, painted with help from clients of the facility…



....and Caldera for “Hello Neighbor,” Julie Keefe’s and Tyler Kohlhoff’s writing and photography collaboration with middle school students, resulting in several dozen 7x5 banners you’ve probably seen hung on buildings around North Portland and other neighborhoods. These seem to be fine examples of the kind of “ephemeral” public art project that The Stranger was calling for.

After seeing so many interesting projects – not all of which I felt were award-winning caliber – I wondered how I myself would adjudicate the 350+ projects that were completed and submitted this past year, and find myself asking, what makes public art good? One of the panelists, Janet Echelman, said that to her a successful public art project provokes “a desire to look at it,” and perhaps more importantly, “it satisfies that desire.” This is as good a litmus test for public art as I have heard, but I am curious to hear what others think.

Poor Man's Conference #3

I’m sorry to report that I missed this morning’s plenary session of the Virtual Arts Advocacy Conference. I'm not sure whether it was last night's alcohol consumption or the tasering that stranded me in bed with a wicked headache this morning. But I’m getting ahead of myself and need to post my notes from yesterday afternoon’s sessions.

Day 1 Afternoon:

The afternoon sessions of our fictional arts conference were packed with lively discussions of timely issues and ideas. Here’s a sampling of the workshop choices conference attendees faced:

Twittering to Arts Sustainability: A guide to social networking in which participants learn to tell a compelling story in 140 characters or

Panic Management during a Recession: Exploring the creative dimensions of freaking out.

Show Me the Money: Participants will be presented with a list of grants that similar organizations have recently received. Opportunities to express resentments will follow.

Small is Better: A case study of how a chamber music quartet became a trio and discovered that they didn’t really miss the viola. Applicability to theater productions will be considered.

Building Audiences through Beer: Considering the role of alcohol in Fostering participation in the performing arts. [Sponsored by Fosters Beer].

The Safety Net and You: A hands-on workshop for artists and arts administrators who are considering novel approaches to securing food and shelter.

Words Matter: Saving the arts through creative sloganeering, catch phrases and talking points.

Enter the Scapegoat: How does an arts organization decide who gets thrown under the bus during a financial crisis?

I chose instead to attend a presentation by Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. In a lecture that is equally entertaining and moving, Zander talks about finding the passion in classical music but his ideas can be applied to any art form. He uses a simple prelude by Chopin to illustrate his points and to create a small wedge into appreciation for classical music, making the case that classical music can be for everyone. The topic seems even more relevant after reading this morning's Oregonian article about the Oregon Symphony's grim financial condition. Although the video is twenty minutes long, I think it's worth the time. (You’re reading Culture Shock, so I know you don’t have anything better to do right now).



If that video is too long, perhaps this one will fit your attention span better (13 million viewers can't be wrong):



If this is your first time visiting, my earlier posts on the topic can be found here and here.

More serious posts on a real arts conference from Culture Jock, including his drive to Seattle can be found here, here and here.

For even more serious posts, visit the Americans for the Arts blogsite to which Culture Jock has also been posting during the real conference.

Poor Man's Conference #2

While my colleague Culture Jock is in Seattle reporting on the Americans For The Arts Conference, I’m at home live-blogging a virtual poor man’s version for those who can't afford to attend the real thing. (Which raises the question: Is there virtue in poverty?) I posted my first report on this imagined convention this morning, before things really heated up. Here's my next installment:

Day 1 (Continued):

Wow! I am stoked after an inspiring day of conference activities. I’ve filled my notebook with quotes from speakers. When I have more time, I'll expand on them, but here's a quick sampling:

“The art of living is learning to live the art that you art living.”

“Art is like a strip of bacon on a Voodoo Donut maple bar: It may not seem necessary, but it does make life richer and more interesting.”

“Then they came for the artists and I did not speak up because I wasn’t an artist. And by that time it was too late and there were no more artists. Sure, there were craftspeople and cultural creatives, but artists? I’m just saying.”

“Happiness, like culture, is a warm puppy--no disrespect to the cat people in the audience.”

“You need to ask yourself whether the art you create is good enough to do enough good.”

After our warm-up exercise, we gathered in a plenary session focused on arts education. The first speaker provided an inspiring counterpoint to the dismal news about the region’s public schools reported in this morning’s Oregonian.

You may have already seen teacher and slam poet Taylor Mali reciting his “What Teachers Make” on YouTube. Even though the poem has circulated through the internets for several years, its hard-hitting message is still powerful and moving. Imagine the delight of 3,500 imaginary arts and cultural leaders when Mr. Mali appeared to deliver his message in person this morning.



After that session, we broke into cohort cadres, convening as collaborators to co-create cultural vision statements. A brief fist fight broke out at my table as we debated whether we are “committed to the arts” or “deeply committed to the arts.” One wag suggested that we should "strive to achieve an abiding commitment to the arts” before being shouted down. I shared several cogent insights with the group. Our facilitator agreed that my ideas were “interesting” and “useful,” though I noticed he wasn't writing them down and didn’t include them when he gave a summary of our discussion to the whole group.

Several new acquaintances and I agreed that we’d get together for lunch at a local restaurant to share more thinking about the arts. I must have misunderstood where we were to meet because I missed the connection and haven’t seen them since. Perhaps we'll meet up on the “Urban Sustainability and Livability Tour” scheduled for tomorrow morning. I hear it’s just a ride on the streetcar, but it should be interesting."

Seattle Report #4

Here's the entry where I rattle off some of the other sessions I've been participating in, but with very little explanation or interpretation from me because there simply isn't time. Also, this format will blend nicely with Mighty Toy Cannon's reports of "the other" conference; I swear these sessions are all true, and the only thing that prevents them from being part of the poor man's conference is a good punchline.

• Building participation in the arts as a citywide endeavor -- a discussion of public-private partnerships that get more citizens involved with the arts, with special focus on a few cities that have received Wallace Foundation awards to build local engagement in the arts.

• Navigating the Art of Change -- the latest research on arts funding projections for 2009 and 2010. Yeah, it's not pretty.
  

• Arts & Environmental Sustainability in Practice -- a presentation by Terre Jones of Wolf Trap, the country's only National Park for the Performing Arts.
  

• Recession, Stimulus and Reform -- A really thorough overview of opportunities for funders and arts organizations to tap into federal funds for cultural recovery. I'll be spending a lot of my time in the next couple of weeks following up on the things I learned during the course of these two hours.

Seattle Report #3

The gentle rains have returned to Seattle today, which is unfortunate given that this is the day than art-loving visitors from across the county are setting out on foot to experience the local arts and culture scene. There's performance art happening in the streets and the public artworks around town have all been polished, but alas. When it rains it drizzles. I know that folks will be impressed with Seattle none the less, especially those taking in the Olympic Sculpture Park. They can't possibly have ever seen anything like it.

This gives me an opportunity to share a few more things that were shared and discussed yesterday, including Bill Bulick's session on cultural planning. As you may know, Bill was the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Arts Commission before (and just after) it became The Regional Arts & Culture Council. He led and facilitated most of Arts Plan 2000, the mid-90s roadmap for the path that arts and culture should take to the new millennium. He has since gone on to facilitate cultural plans for dozens of other communities including Erie County and Austin, Texas. He and Hannah Treuhaft of our own Sojourn Theater spoke about the importance of civic engagement in developing these plans... after all, we live in a participatory democracy and a cultural plan must reflect the wishes of its citizens in order to succeed.

Most interestingly for me, Sue Harvey of the City of Vancouver BC described the process they went through to create that City's cultural plan, which was adopted in January 2008 and still early in its implementation. I was struck by how different their process was than ours, and might explain what I mean later, but in the meantime I invite you to see what they're working to get done before the Winter Olympics next year -- and beyond.

There was also a session featuring some of the cities that have received major cultural participation grants from the Wallace Foundation over the last couple of years, with some themes I'll be considering as we take up the challenge of increasing cultural participation and access in the Portland region.

We ended the evening visiting with our peers at a giant reception at McCaw Hall -- I've never seen so much seafood in my life. (I feel sorry for the folks here who don't care for this kind of cuisine, but there were a few chicken satay sticks for them to much on). I ducked out of the reception early (ie, after i used my last free drink ticket) to pick up Rob and Taylor from the train station. They have come to enjoy rainy Seattle with me, and are out doing the public market this morning. We'll be taking in EMP tonight, and a baseball game tomorrow evening.

Seattle Report #2

After lunch, AFTA recognized excellence in arts leadership with its six annual awards, and there are some noteworthy Portland connections.

Buster Simpson won the Public Art Network Award. Buster is the artist who created HOST ANALOG that sits outside of the Oregon Convention Center.

Big Thought received the Arts Education Award. Big Thought is the transformative arts education collaboration and delivery model upon which The Right Brain Initiative is based.

The other awardees are listed here.

Seattle Report #1

My apologies for some of the manufactured statements in my earlier post. I mean, some of the things I said were just not as funny as they could have been.

But now that I'm here in Seattle I am prepared to share some glimpses of what is being discussed here. Yesterday (Wednesday) was a pre-conference workshop for local arts agency administrators who are also engaged in private sector initiatives (like RACC is doing with Work for Art). AFTA datahead and amateur comic Randy Cohen presented an overview of arts giving in America, supported by three recently released reports that are, I’ll just say it, discouraging.

A study conducted every 4 years by the National Endowment for the Arts tells us that the percentage of Americans attending live arts events decreased in 2008. It had been fairly steady at 40% in the 80s, 90s, and earlier part of this decade, but now stands at 35%. Now because the study tracks “benchmark” activities – theater, opera, professional dance, classical music, jazz, and art museums – it’s possible that some of the decline is simply attributable to the fact that many Americans are consuming art in different ways -- poetry slams, participatory arts, contemporary music festivals and the like. We also discussed our theories on the extent to which technology is playing a role. Randy pointed out that record and CD stores have declined by 50% during the same period, but that certainly doesn’t mean we’re listening to less music, we’re just downloading it.

The annual Giving USA report, which we referenced last week, shows that overall giving to arts, culture and humanities is down, from $13.67 million in 2007 to $12.79 billion in 2008. Even more distressing is the fact that the arts are losing ever-more market share of all philanthropic contributions. In 2001, 4.9% of every philanthropic dollar went to the arts; in 2008 the arts’ share was 4.1%. That might sound like only a small gap, but the trend is concerning (when does it end?), and it represents a very significant sum: $2.3 billion (which is how much more American businesses, foundations and individuals would be giving today if they were still giving 4.9% to the arts).

Meanwhile, the national BCA (now merging with AFTA) has a new report that focuses on business support for the arts. Between 2003 and 2006, the percentage of businesses that contribute to the arts increased from 36% to 42%, but total cash support decreased 5%, from $3.32 billion to $3.16 billion. That was during a period of economic growth; obviously, this number is going to worsen over the next couple of years. I’ve read many reports that a majority of corporations plan to hold their contributions flat in 2009, but I’m thinking, yeah right.

Which brings us to the convention proper, which began at noon today with a prayer. (It was a Snoquomish tribal blessing, so it's OK). I’ll be following the Private Sector track throughout the conference, with some dabbling in the advocacy and civic engagement tracks, to see if we can’t uncover some best practices and other forms of inspiration to combat these conditions and reverse these trends at least in Portland.