More Stimulating News

I'm not dumping this story on a Friday afternoon in order to beat the news cycle or anything like that. I figure most Culture Shock readers aren't coming to us for breaking news; rather, you are ambling past when you have nothing else to do, or when you accidentally click on a link that leads here. In any case, file this one under “P” for Public Service Message. (As opposed to "M" for Mildly Entertaining Filler).

Last week we posted a list of arts organizations in Oregon which received National Endowment for the Arts grants as part of the fed's economic recovery plan. This week, the Oregon Arts Commission announced who will be receiving the share of federal funds it received from the NEA to be regranted to save arts jobs in the state. When spread across the entire state, the $306,700 in federal money doesn’t go very far. This round reached only sixteen arts organizations:

The Arts Center, Corvallis, $26,000.
Arts Central, Bend, $20,700.
Cappella Romana Vocal Ensemble, Portland, $10,000.
Friends of Chamber Music, Portland, $20,600.
Columbia Center for the Arts, Hood River, $18,000.
Eastern Oregon Regional Arts Council, La Grande, $10,000.
Ethos Music Center, Portland, $20,000.
Independent Publishing Resource Center, Portland, $10,000.
Lord Leebrick Theatre Company, Eugene, $22,500.
Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, $30,000.
Oregon East Symphony, Pendleton, $8,800.
Sitka Center for Art & Ecology, Otis, $30,000.
Southern Oregon Film Society, Ashland, $29,000.
Tears of Joy Theatre, Portland, $12,000.
Umpqua Valley Arts Association, Roseburg, $20,000.
Write Around Portland, Portland, $20,000.

Yay!

Giant Ship Covers the Waterfront

“Holy sh*t! What the hell is that?” was my reaction upon crossing the Morrison Bridge on my way home this evening. Not far from where a Ferris wheel spun at the Rose Festival’s Happy Funtime Joy Center just a week ago was an entire 12-story building floating in the Willamette River. Was this a new kind of Fleet Week?


The Oregonian ran an story on the ship’s visit today (and published the picture above). I did a little more research and found another short article in an obscure local journal, Portland Seaman Weekly:

AVAST MATEY! A Vast Ship Hoves into Stumptown

June 14, 2009
Portland OR

As part of Oregon’s strategy for stimulating the economy and reversing the region’s dismal joblessness rate, Governor Kulongoski and Mayor Adams have successfully convinced the operators of the cruise ship, The World, to dock at Portland’s Waterfront Park this week. The World is a 665-foot, 12-deck residential luxury liner that cruises the world while treating its 140 residents to upscale services such as a gourmet market and delicatessen, a full-service spa, a tennis court, an art gallery, a souvenir shop called “Jimbo’s House of Gimbals and Hawsers,” and a tattoo parlor run by a Norwegian artist, Sven the Sailorman.

The governor and mayor announced the ship’s upcoming visit during a hastily organized press conference held on a Pride Parade float upon which Thomas Lauderdale played “No Hay Problema” using Storm Large’s ass as a bongo drum.

“By bringing The World to Portland,” said Governor Kulongoski, “we hope to bring Portland to the world.” When asked what he meant by that statement, Kulongoski answered, “One word: Sustainability.” He then stripped off his clothes and rode an all-electric moped into a crowd of naked bike riders.

Mayor Sam Adams took the podium to announce, “This historic visit will contribute to cultural tourism in the region, creating economic opportunities for Portland’s artists and other creatives.” After a short pause, he added, “The farmers market people and bicycle frame builders too. And soccer. These people like soccer.”

The mayor concluded the press conference by directing job-seekers to a special hotline for positions that will be immediately created in the ship’s wake.

***

Out of curiosity, I dialed the number and heard this message:

"If you are an artist with cake decorating experience, press 1 now.

If you are a professional sushi chef, press 2 now.

If you are a tattoo artist and have blond hair, press 3 now.

If you have five years or more experience as a barnacle scraper, press 4 now.

If you have a graduate degree and a passion for clean scuppers, press 5 now.

If you are an experienced palanquin lifter, press 6 now."

UPDATE: The Oregonian has more photos of "The World," including the one below that shows the behemoth's scale more clearly. The small craft in the foreground are either Somali pirates or ZooBombers who have switched to jetskis after getting bored with little bicycles.

Extras! Extras!

There's been a fine bibliography of news articles brewing in the comments section of an earlier post by Mighty Toy Cannon, so the wonk in me, having tracked this economic stimulus stuff with great fascination, thought it important to re-post these articles along with some other information regarding the new bill -- and the role the arts community played in making sure the arts were a part of it.

The New York Times: "Saving Federal Arts Funds: Selling Culture as an Economic Force." (Or, as the Chronicle of Philanthropy dubbed the same article, "How Arts Groups Won a Victory in the New Stimulus Measure."

“We had the facts on our side,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a New York Democrat who is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Arts Caucus. “If we’re trying to stimulate the economy, and get money into the Treasury, nothing does that better than art.”

But at one point...

Arts groups feared that they had been abandoned by their Washington friends, and that they would be shut out of the recovery entirely. Asked about her vote after the [Coburn] amendment’s passage on Feb. 6, Ms. Feinstein said through a spokesman that she was still “a strong supporter of the arts” but felt that the stimulus bill “should invest in critical national infrastructure."*

The Wall Street Journal: "The Arts Need Better Arguments," by Greg Sandow.

The arts are going to need a better strategy. And in the end it's going to have to come from art itself, from the benefits art brings, in a world where popular culture -- which has gotten smart and serious -- also helps bring depth and meaning to our lives. That's the kicker: the popular culture part. Once we figure that out, we can leave our shaky arguments behind and really try to prove we matter.

Crosscut.com: David Brewster at addresses how Washington State may address economic stimulus related to the arts.

The Art Newspaper: András Szántó discusses potential arts policy shifts under Obama.

And lastly (until further updates, at least): Americans for the Arts has assembled a smart list of 11 "Items of Interest" in the economic stimulus package. It's an important reminder that arts and culture stand to benefit from more than just the NEA's $50 million.


* Incidentally, I did call Senator Wyden's office yesterday to ask if he had any comment on why he voted for the original Coburn Amendment, but I haven't gotten any quote back. I also asked his press secretary how many letters they had received asking Sen. Wyden to restore arts funding in the final bill (we know that nationally, more than 80,000 letters or emails were written), but I was told that they "like to keep their conversations with their constituents private," and while he wouldn't give me a number, he did say, "a lot."

Growing the Pie

As noted by Culture Jock on Friday, Americans for the Arts announced some good news at the end of last week: “The House of Representatives voted 246 to 183 to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill includes $50 million in direct support for arts jobs through the National Endowment for the Arts and language that would have prevented museums, theaters, and arts centers from receiving stimulus funds was removed.”

Here at Culture Shock, the knicker-twisting over federal arts funding left our knicker-covered parts raw. Nothing a little balm won’t soothe, but the chafing makes its presence known. Those of us toiling in the lettuce patches of culture were rightfully perturbed to have our work trivialized – as if we’re not doing “real jobs.” Next thing you know, some crazy politician will be claiming we’re not “real Americans!”

While the immediate question of $50 million worth of stimulation may be settled, we must continue to gird up our loins with the belt of truth in defense of art and arts funding. So let’s get back to the question of advocacy.

In a recent post, Culture Shock contributor, Cynseattle, pointed readers toward a Chicago Tribune opinion piece in which Chris Jones states, “Too little attention has been paid to making the long-term political case that culture is important and accessible to ordinary people and thus worthy of financial support.”

The case for culture’s contribution to social, economic and personal well-being is well documented and has been artfully argued. Our friend, Tim DuRoche, for example, recently wrote a compelling case for the economic value of the arts; more than a dry case statement, Tim transforms statistical abstractions into examples from real life. You can read Tim’s letter to Senator John McCain over here at Art Scatter.

Thus, we have this argument:

Whereas culture is important in many ways; and,
Whereas culture is not as elitist as you think;
Therefore: Culture is worthy of financial support.

Sure, we need to keep pressing the need-based and value-based arguments, but is the problem that we haven’t shouted our case loudly enough? Do we need to strop our dulled campaign slogans to a keener edge? Should we be investing in more billboards, or filling the airwaves with our adjurations? Refrigerator magnets?

Here’s what I think: Arts advocacy has fallen short because we keep pressing a case that many of our political adversaries aren’t quibbling about.

Many or most of our opponents will concede that arts and culture are good for us, individually and collectively. Believe it or not, some stalwart fiscal conservatives don’t sneer at culture and spit on artists; they go to the opera, wander museum galleries, and know their derrières from their arrières when attending the ballet. Some of them even sit on the boards of arts organizations and foundations that make generous grants in support of culture. They agree that the arts can contribute to building a citizenry comprised of wise and nimble team-players who are ready to innovate our way into the global economy.

BUT (and I like big buts), that’s not their issue. Their problem with arts funding is that they don’t believe that government has a role in supporting the arts. That argument is based in one or more of the following beliefs:

1) The limits of government responsibility do not encompass cultural affairs.

2) Art happens – it always has and it always will, even without government support.

3) Art needs support, but that’s what the private sector is for.

4) Government intervention will hurt or hinder the arts.

For many conservatives, you can replace the word “art” in the preceding list with education, health care, nutrition programs, or any of a long list of public goods; after all, the desire for limited government is a huge part of what defines a conservative. (Some of our readers will say that I left out “pure evil” as part of that definition, but I’m trying to seem rational).

In the arts world, we might argue about which makes the strongest case for culture: That the arts have inherent value, or that they have utilitarian benefits. Put another way, should we support the arts because the arts are: (1) inherently sweet and delicious; or (2) packed full of fortifying nutrition? We rarely make the case for why an investment in all that yummy goodness should be a function of government—local, state or federal.

Perhaps it is time to stop declaiming the goodness of art and pay more attention to making the case for why government should (or must) have a role in supporting it. And let’s be careful to avoid tautologies: e.g., “Government should support the arts because … well, just because that’s what the government should do.”

We should try to explicate the unique role government can play in the arts economy. What can government do for the arts that the private sector either can’t or won’t?

Part of the answer may be that we need government to invest in activities that produce public goods which the private sector either can’t or won’t support; for example, ensuring broad access to culture for citizens who would otherwise not be able to afford to participate. An analogy might be the federal government’s investment in public education or rural electrification.

Another part of the answer may involve bricks and mortar—investing in our cultural infrastructure. Similar to building roads, levees and schools, perhaps the public sector is the only one that can muster the capital needed to build the physical infrastructure needed for cultural activities that serve the public. The government may also be the only sector that is able or willing to assume the risks involved in big cultural construction projects. Portland Center Stage’s Armory project, for example, was made possible by loan guarantees and tax breaks from the public sector (though it’s a shame that our local, state and federal governments couldn’t just hand over cash for that urban asset). If Portland had a “shovel ready” performance venue in the works right now, might that be a better use of economic stimulus funding than doling out a little bit of extra grant money to lots of arts organizations this year?

One more unique government role could be to serve as an arts incubator; for example, project grants from our own Regional Arts and Culture Council are often the first grant funding that emerging artists and organizations are able to secure, thus helping to leverage giving from private donors. Another government role could be cultural diplomacy--something I think we'll be seeing more of under an Obama administration.

Perhaps our readers will jump in with other suggestions, or point us to folks who have already presented the case for government’s unique role in the arts. (Sorry to keep highlighting “unique,” but that’s the concept I’m looking for).

I’ll close with a radical thought that may be a kick to the hornet’s nest: What if we combined our request for MORE government funding with an agreement to NARROW how that funding will be used? For example, what if we stipulate that federal funds will be directed toward subsidizing the construction of cultural facilities (libraries, arts centers, performing arts venues) only? If the federales were to underwrite more of a building’s construction, arts organizations could focus on raising private money for operations or endowments rather than capital.

Or is it time to fight against any compromises?

Yes We Can!

Not to dominate this blog with talk of the federal stimulus package, but many have asked whether the Coburn Amendment language made it into the final version of the bill, so I wanted to share with you this exciting news that allows us all to claim victory over evil. Here is a note that just came across the wires from our friends at Americans for the Arts.

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives approved their final version of the Economic Recovery bill by a vote of 246-183. We can now confirm that the package DOES include $50 million in direct support for arts jobs through National Endowment for the Arts grants. We are also happy to report that the exclusionary Coburn Amendment language banning certain arts groups from receiving any other economic recovery funds has also been successfully removed. Tonight the Senate is scheduled to have their final vote, and President Obama plans to sign the bill on Monday - President's Day.

A United Voice. This is an important victory for all of you as arts advocates. More than 85,000 letters were sent to Congress, thousands of calls were made, and hundreds of op-eds, letters to the editor, news stories, and blog entries were generated in print and online media about the role of the arts in the economy. Artists, business leaders, mayors, governors, and a full range of national, state, and local arts groups all united together on this advocacy issue. This outcome marks a stunning turnaround of events and exemplifies the power of grassroots arts advocacy.

We would like to also thank some key leaders on Capitol Hill who really carried our voices into the conference negotiation room and throughout the halls of Congress: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI), House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA), and Congressional Arts Caucus Co-Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY). We also want to publicly thank President Obama for taking the early lead in recognizing the role of the arts in economic development. These leaders were able to convincingly make the case that protecting jobs in the creative sector is integral to the U.S. economy.

What's Next. As we wrap up our work on the Economic Recovery legislation, we wanted to share with you other upcoming legislative action that we are tracking:

• Finalization by early March of the FY 2009 appropriations, which has been operating under a continuing resolution for the last five months.
  
  
• Release of President Obama's first federal budget for FY 2010 is expected in late March/early April.
  
  
• Hearings in the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee on the FY 2010 budget.
  
  
• Hearings in the House Education & Labor Committee on arts in the workforce and arts education.

Seriously. Anyone who sent a letter to their Senator on this issue, or submitted a letter to the media, should feel a sense of accomplishment here.

Mea Culpa

I need to apologize to our readers, to artists and to all who support the inclusion of arts funding in the economic stimulus package. Like you, I’ve been reading about how the “batshit crazy” rightwing anti-culturalists have been maligning arts funding as non-stimulative pork. I was just as disappointed as you to learn that Senators Wyden and Merkley voted for a stimulus bill that included this egregious amendment from Senator Coburn:

None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas.

I was dismayed to learn that a recent editorial in the National Review sarcastically opined that increased funding for the NEA would mean that "the unemployed can fill their days attending abstract-film festivals and sitar concerts."

Then it all started to sound vaguely familiar. I got a sinking feeling that I may have inadvertently contributed to the problem. A quick scan of my files brought the memory back and verified my complicity: Just last year I wrote a grant proposal to the NEA on behalf of a regional arts organization. (Professional ethics and common decency bar me from revealing the client's name). The proposal must have been leaked to the Republicans by a disgruntled grant panelist! Since the project is unlikely to be funded, I will share a synopsis of the proposal:

Describe the Project: [NAME REDACTED], Oregon’s leading collective of multidisciplinary dance, theater and abstract film artists, seeks NEA funding for a project through which it will engage the community in dialogue that will inform a co-creative process of examining, exploring and explicating the multidimensional intersections and interstices between consumer culture, Wall Street fraud and organized religion. The site-specific, time-based performative project will draw upon influences as diverse as Andres Serrano, Karen Finley and Robert Mapplethorpe. Seminal materials will be used. We mean urine.

The project’s artistic collaborators will construct a temporary public art installation on the eighteenth hole of the Bandon Springs Golf Resort. This site was selected to provide opportunities for broad-based cultural access to underserved rural communities. The installation will consist of two vitrines to be fabricated, in situ, by 48 glass artists using recycled wine bottles melted in massive anagama kilns. Each vitrine will measure 20’ x 20’ x 20’ (8,000 cubic feet) and will be filled with liquid.

The first vitrine will represent the primeval ocean from which all life evolved. It will be filled with sweat collected from 800 dance artists commissioned to perform an extended choreographic masterwork in a giant dry heat sauna to be constructed in the abandoned warehouses of Laika Studios. At risk youth from inner-city neighborhoods will be employed to scrape the sweat from the dancer’s bodies over the course of the 18-month dance performance.

Once the vitrine is filled with the salty fluid, hundreds of chinook salmon will be released into it. Their futile attempts to migrate and spawn will be accompanied by a techno-industrial score performed by a 32 piece sitar orchestra and four dozen unemployed construction workers with jackhammers. The salmon will then be slaughtered by marauding sea lions in a bloody orgy of classist oppression.

A live video feed will be sent by fiber optic cable to a state-of-the art Imax theater to be constructed at a remodeled Oregon Aquarium (Newport). Simultaneous video feeds will be sent to Spirit Mountain Casino (Grand Ronde) and Chinook Winds Casino (Lincoln City), where spectators will view the salmon slaughter on big screen televisions while placing bets on which fish will be the last to survive. To highlight the interconnectedness between the project sites, Highway 101 (Newport to Lincoln City) and Highway 18 (Lincoln City to Grand Ronde) will be beautified by a nighttime display of rotating pastel lights as well as abstract film.

The second vitrine will be filled with urine. Members of Portland’s burgeoning creative class will be invited to a three-day outdoor concert at which free PBR and Stumptown coffee will be served. Participants will then urinate into special holding tanks. (Many participants may choose to kiss each other while doing so). They will also be encouraged to ride bicycles to the concert site.

Once this vitrine is filled, a figure of Jesus Christ suspended in a zero-gravity chair will be smeared with dung and chocolate and submerged. The vitrine will be lit by more rotating pastel lights (or perhaps primary colors this time). The artistic co-creators will initiate intra-, extra- and inter-community dialoguing sessions to find, create and shape meaning.

The proposed project budget of $2.75 million will leverage an estimated $18.7 million in direct spending in the region, as well as an additional bunch of fiscal stimulus through the economic multiplier effect we’re always talking about. The project will create at least 1,500 family-wage jobs for artists, as well as employing construction workers and teenagers who would just as soon cut you. The long-term infrastructural improvements to roads, fiber optic networks, casinos and art centers (did we mention art centers?) are incalculable, but are sure to be sustainable. Letters of support from the big screen television, rotating light and zero-gravity chair industries are attached.

Arts Support: It's not about "rotating pastel lights"

Chris Jones, chief theater critic for the Chicago Tribune, posted a passionate and well-argued commentary yesterday. In the midst of the debate over the very oddly worded Coburn Amendment (the Willamette Week referred to Senator Tom Coburn as "batshit crazy" in their op-ed piece on the issue http://www.wweek.com/wwire/?p=21230#comments_add), Jones argues that the arts community needs to make a better case for Federal support. Here's an excerpt, with a link to the full piece at the end.

"In the recent debate over the Barack Obama administration's economic recovery bill, proposals to spend government money on the arts have become poster children for pork. It is time for the American arts community to confront its stunning political ineptitude. It has arrived at a place where there seems to be no one to make its case; no one, at least, free from the taint of self-interest. After all, the argument that the labor-intensive arts are not job-creation engines is patently absurd; they just fuel different kinds of struggling workers, workers unaccustomed to bonuses. Their role in generating billions of dollars in ancillary economic activity for stores, restaurants and the travel business has been proven in bucketloads of surveys and analyses. In less than 75 years, the arts have gone from the single largest priority in a government stimulus package to a toxic joke, with a popular special amendment keeping them out. It is a stunning turnaround. How did it happen? Artists must shoulder some blame. Too little attention has been paid to making the long-term political case that culture is important and accessible to ordinary people and thus worthy of financial support. The arts have thrown up precious few, articulate, clout-heavy American leaders of their own. That needs to change."

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2009/02/in-economic-stimulus-package-arts-deserve-place-in-line.html