Category: Politics

DCAA Member Update June 6 2011

Dear Members:

Our event with Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, International Arts and Artist is Wednesday after work, June 8th, from 6:30 – 8:00pm at the Hillyer Art Space, 9 Hillyer Court NW in Dupont Circle. Following the brief presentations members from all three groups are invited to mingle and enjoy free beer and other refreshments. This event will feature presentations from Jay Dick and Walt Steimel. Jay Dick is the Director of State and Local Government Affairs at Americans for the Arts. Walt Steimel is an attorney and partner at Loeb and Loeb. Registration required / REGISTER here: http://bit.ly/ilq3ta

The investigation against Development Committee Chair Thomas (ward 5) just picked up speed. Response from Council and Administration offices indicates that the Chair of the Committee that oversee arts funding could be removed from his committee chairmanship before the summer recess. From the June 6, 2010 Washington Post report: “D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. arranged to have more than $300,000 in public funds diverted to groups he controlled, and used the money as a lavish personal account, purchasing an Audi SUV and taking trips to Las Vegas and Pebble Beach, the city’s attorney general said Monday. In releasing a highly anticipated report, Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan alleges that Thomas’s inappropriate “conversion” of the money for personal use was “willful, intentional and knowing.” http://wapo.st/m76eqS

The agency spending freeze imposed by Mayor Gray means that all ARTS (DCCAH) grant money has been temporarily canceled, and is delayed. See http://1.usa.gov/k6UzLJ The DCCAH has filed their appeal – as other agencies – and you can support their appeal by emailing the mayor and expressing your support. Email your support for DCCAH funding to eom@dc.gov and tell your friends to do the same.

The DC Advocates for the Arts is building coalition to advance DC’s creative communities. In organizing and growing the voice behind this sector, we will positively affect change that will advance the industry and District economically, nurture creative thinking skills in our children and further cultivate a culturally rich place to live. Please help us by forwarding this to a friend, and inviting them to become members of the DC Advocates for the Arts http://bit.ly/eOycMW

Hope to see you Wednesday. Don’t forget to become a member and register to attend for free!

Mary Cheh is Most Vocal Arts Supporter on DC Council

The District budgeting process is a huge committee process. Thousands of city workers, community activists, politicians, press and business-people contribute to the final product. I am one of them, and I’ve been watching the FY12 unfold as closely as thousands of others. So on the day before the big budget vote — which is really serious business, and the culmination of months of jockeying and advocating and negotiating — I was really tickled to see this come through my twitter feed (via @debonis.) This won’t be as funny if you don’t follow dc politics, but here is an excerpt from amendments to the DC FY12 proposed by Councilmember Mary Cheh, and as presented on Susie Cambria’s blog (and thanks too to Susie for sharing):

Ward 3 CM Mary Cheh emailed (Word, .doc) her colleagues May 24 to present the budget support act provisions being moved by the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment. One item on the list is:

“For the purpose of encouraging the arts in the District of Columbia, the Committee recommends an allocation of $5,000,000 in capital funds to the new Department of General Services to construct an amphitheater along the Klingle Trail in Ward 3. Owing to the efficiency of a much-enlarged agency and the anticipated unanimous agreement among residents, the project is expected to be completed in 90 days. Additionally, $500,000 shall be transferred from the Executive Office of the Mayor to the Commission on Arts and Humanities. These funds shall be used to write, cast, and produce a play entitled Sulaimon Brown’s Service: The Musical. It should be noted, however, that the name is something of a misnomer as the title character, despite much mention, does not ever appear in the production….”

Link to the full word doc is live on Susie’s blog.

Support Arts Education in the District on Arts Advocacy Day – April 27, 2011

Ava Spece, Executive Director at DC Youth Orchestra Program, asked if I would contribute a blog post for that organization’s blog about the upcoming Arts Advocacy Day. 

Arts education in the District is threatened. Non-profit arts education providers and the populations they serve are like the character in the movie Hustle and Flow who says, “I’m sitting here trying to squeeze a dollar out of a dime and I ain’t got a cent.”

There has not been a single community, or business, untouched by the recent economic decline.  The National Opera was forced to reduce from 7 performances to 5 for the past season, and in 2012 will be absorbed by the Kennedy Center in an effort to stave off further collapse. The budgets of most organizations have shrunk, and non-profit presenters are feeling a trickle up effect; with fewer rentals many theater spaces are struggling to keep the lights on. Washington, D.C. is not at all unique in these struggles. Last week one of the great orchestras in the United States – the Philadelphia Orchestra –– declared bankruptcy. Among surviving organizations, arts programs serving poor communities are in decline, as non-profit businesses focus on earned and donated revenue possibilities.

Sometimes we forget that non-profit businesses are just businesses, subject to the same forces that drive expansion and contraction in the rest of the economy. The DC Chamber of Commerce 2011 Policy Agenda states,  “The past year has proven to be a test for many of our members as they work to survive the economic downturn. And over the past year, the Chamber has been able to stave off legislative and regulatory initiatives that could harm our members’ ability to operate successfully and help grow our economy, create more jobs, and improve the District’s competitiveness regionally.” And that is where the DC Advocates for the Arts find ourselves as we prepare for Arts Advocacy Day – April 27, 2011. We are fighting to maintain support for DC students, and to protect opportunities for DC arts organizations and artists. Will only the wealthiest children in Washington, D.C. have access to the benefits of arts education? The outcome of the current budget fight will provide some of the answer.

Increased funding for DC’s arts agency, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), is necessary to maintain access to arts education for lower income populations. Funding for the DCCAH has been gutted in the last three years, from over $14 million in FY 09 to under $5 million in FY 11. The District’s FY 12 proposed budget contains further cuts; the current proposal is $3.92 million to serve all of the arts organizations, artists, and arts education providers in the District. That is $3.92 million within a total District FY 12 budget of $10.8 billion. Contraction in the non-profit arts community is to be expected in this economy, but policy-makers need to protect those least able to bear additional burden. Just like Homeless services, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and general education funding, arts and arts education funding must be protected.

Music education teaches children discipline as it validates their individual voices. Private schools see how these kinds of opportunities drive student achievement not for individual children, but in the breadth of student populations. We don’t know which children don’t drop out because of music education. We don’t know which children focus that little bit more closely because they feel better about themselves due to music education. DCYOP and programs like DCYOP are reaching families week in and week out, and we need your help.

To support DCYOP and all of the arts providers in the District, on Wednesday April 27, 2011 – Arts Advocacy Day – please take a minute to ask policy-makers to support arts education in the District’s FY 12 budget. Contact Mayor Gray via email at eom@dc.gov or by phone at (202) 727-6300, and Council Chair Kwame Brown at kbrown@dccouncil.us or (202) 724-8032. We need your voice to maintain public support for arts education.  Please ask the Mayor and the Council Chair to support arts education, and to do that by restoring funding for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to FY 2010 level – $5.16million.