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Arts Council Alert: Ask your Senator to restore funding
April 19, 2010
I voted no on the Budget where the GA Council for the Arts funding was eliminated, but the Budget passed and has moved to the Senate. The email from Jan Selman details exactly where it is and what needs to happen. I hope you will follow her direction.
I’ll do whatever I can to help.
Kathy Ashe
JAN’s EMAIL:
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION
If you believe in Arts Education, Theatre, dance, music, visual arts, museums, galleries and festivals, your voice is needed. Needed NOW ! There are only four more working days in this legislative session.
IN A NUTSHELL THIS IS THE ISSUE
Funding to the Georgia Council for the Arts was eliminated from the Governor's Office budget. A total of $241,000 of arts grant funds were moved to the Department of Community Affairs to administer.
You can read more about this issue in Howard Pousner’s, AJC article - http://m.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/state-arts-council-facing-462782.html
ACTION NEEDED BY YOU
In four easy steps you can be an effective advocate for saving the Georgia Council for the Arts.
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Write your your email message. It does not need to be long or complicated. Talking points below.
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In the “to” of the email enter or cut and paste -- Senate Appropriations Committee < jack.hill@senate.ga.gov>
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In Cc: -- Select the entire list of email addresses below. Then copy and paste in the Cc: of your email.
- Hit send and collect 1,000 good Karma points. To earn a thousand bonus Karma points, forward this email to friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family.
Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee:
greg.goggans@senate.ga.gov
tim.golden@senate.ga.gov
don.balfour@senate.ga.gov
john.bulloch@senate.ga.gov
bill.cowsert@senate.ga.gov
john.douglas@senate.ga.gov
vincent.fort@senate.ga.gov
johnny.grant@senate.ga.gov
bill.hamrick@senate.ga.gov
seth.harp@senate.ga.gov
billheath@billheath.net
steve.henson@senate.ga.gov
george.hooks@senate.ga.gov
bill.jackson@senate.ga.gov
dan.moody@senate.ga.gov
jeff.mullis@senate.ga.gov
jack.murphy@senate.ga.gov
chip.pearson@senate.ga.gov
chip.rogers@senate.ga.gov
mail@mitchseabaugh.com
valencia.seay@senate.ga.gov
preston.smith@senate.ga.gov
cecil.staton@senate.ga.gov
horacena.tate@senate.ga.gov
don.thomas@senate.ga.gov
curt.thompson@senate.ga.gov
steve.thompson@senate.ga.gov
ross.tolleson@senate.ga.gov
renee.unterman@senate.ga.gov
john.wiles@senate.ga.gov
tommie.williams@senate.ga.gov
Attached is a list of the committee members and their phone numbers if you want to call the senators, of course you can do both.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW
These are points you can use in your advocacy action:
We all understand that we are living in tough economic times. The erosion of our national and state economies has touched most of us both personally and professionally. And we do understand the difficult choices you are facing with the Georgia Budget. The Georgia Council for the Arts –GCA - has an important statewide impact, enriching Georgian’s lives by conserving and preserving Georgia’s rich cultural heritage.
Every state has a state arts council. If this action stands, Georgia will be the only state without a state arts council. The council is the central connecting point for Georgia residents and visitors, as well as artists, museums, galleries, musicians, dance companies and theatres, to connect, collaborate and participate in the arts. Georgia’s creative industry is a dynamic economic engine. A 2010 economic impact study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP under the guidance of Bruce Seaman, an economist at Georgia State University, revealed the state had a net economic impact of $387 million and contributed more than $18.6 million in tax revenue.
At the Georgia Chamber of Commerce annual meeting on Jan. 11, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who also was a Republican presidential contender, said states and school systems needed to invest in arts and musical education.“This country has always been at its greatest when it created and innovated something,” Huckabee said, adding that there needed to be “renewed focus on music and the arts for every student” for the United States to remain competitive in innovation.
Additionally, the funds invested by the state to GCA leverage matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. The matching funds from the NEA will be lost if the state grants budget is cut – a double loss for Georgia. These are Georgia taxpayer’s dollars, coming back to Georgia, which now will go to New York, or California. We must maintain a budget that least provides the NEA matching funds.
Governor Miller realized the value of cultivating culture in every area of Georgia, but especially in small rural areas that lacked resources. This concern was the birth of the highly popular and much needed Grassroots Arts Program, commonly referred to as GAP. This program allows Georgia’s cultural heritage to be sustained and every dollar is matched dollar for dollar. Yes, these are small investments, but they enable these organizations to leverage those funds into more funding. If this program is lost not only will Georgia lose precious cultural heritage organizations and institutions, but residents will also lose local community and family programming.
The loss of the Georgia Council for the Arts will result in the loss of more jobs. In this time of high unemployment, can we afford to lose even one more job? Can we afford to lose wage earners and instead pay them unemployment? This is like cutting off one end of a blanket and sewing on to the other end to make it longer.
The future. An investment in arts and cultural may be the most innovative workforce tools at the disposal of communities. According to the policy economic group of KPMG – the nonprofit cultural sector acts as a research and development arm for many for-profit enterprises, such as: Television, film, design, advertising, media, publishing, web design and the recording industry. A strong cultural ecosystem will provide the state with an edge in hosting future enterprises. The new economy is based on creative communities, Dr. Richard Florida of Carnegie Mellon university states in his book – The rise of the creative class – 30 % of the US workforce depends on regularly engaging in the creative process. This new creative workforce ranks quality of life as the top determinate for locating where they live and work.
Moreover, the creative and cultural industry is often the catalyst for restoring and revitalizing communities, such as downtown redevelopment and urban renewal. There are literally hundreds of success stories where relatively small investments in the arts have created enormous economic benefits for both rural and urban municipalities.
I urge you to reconsider the dissolution of the Georgia Council for the arts, for the logical reasons listed above. The residents of Georgia are counting on you to look after their best interest, can you honestly answer that this is in the best interest of those you serve?
It is also important to remember, the economy is beginning to turn around. We must not let go of valuable programs, which we have spent years building, for the enrichment and education of all Georgians.
Please keep Georgia’s important cultural heritage alive – now – and for future generations of Georgians.
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Thank you for your efforts on behalf of Georgia’s creative and cultural community, for our children, and our future.
Respectfully,
Jan Selman
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