Funding the Arts

"F" is for Funding in my A to Z Challenge

Yesterday, I put up a couple of posts about Arts Education in Schools vs "Core Standards", including studies in which employers say that the arts make students more employable and give them needed creative skills.

This is my call for those corporations to step on up, and invest in their future. Put their money towards educating those kids, so five to ten years from now they will have a potential employee pool that better meets their needs.

There are two ways to get arts to kids. One is to get the arts back in schools, which can be done if the artist has the patience and time to formulate a program that fits into the mold of the Common Core State Standards. I teach such classes through Great Big Planet. I was in McKenny, Virginia just the other week presenting a program on Rainforests. The presentation utilizes props, video, student volunteers, and I bring a little live music into the mix. The kids learn about endangered species, how rain forests affect climate, indigenous peoples, and how to make a difference. Schools need funding to bring these types of shows to the kids.

The other way to get arts to kids is through after school programs. I have been part of the Ashland Stage Arts Program and Christian Youth Theater, both programs that teach performing arts to kids. My wife is a piano teacher and teaches kids in her studio. She has also taught dance. However, not all families can afford such after school programs. Businesses should make it easy not only for non profits, but also for individual teachers like my wife, to offer free or low cost lessons to kids. As I've mentioned before, there is a lot of talk about supporting the arts, but not that much about supporting the artists. Artists as teachers shouldn't have to struggle so hard to make a living, and kids shouldn't have such limited access to the arts.

Gold Cup trophies awarded to my wife's piano students through the NFMC

Personally, I'd love to have a studio where I could not only make the props and crazy stuff that I do from time to time, but also could produce large scale puppet theater, all the while teaching kids how to make stuff. Engineering as Art.

When Senator Mark Warner was visiting Ashland, Virginia last week, he said that the Fortune 1000 companies had done very well over the last couple of years, and are sitting on about two trillion dollars that needs to be re-invested in America. Arts education is a good place to start.

"F" is for Funding, and April is Parkinson's Awareness Month

Support the Artists

There is a lot of conversation these days about "supporting the arts". I think many times this becomes an abstraction that loses real meaning. I prefer the more concrete term of "supporting the artists".

After all, it is artists who create art. Yet many times, artists find themselves at the bottom of the financial totem pole. Artists are a sector of the community who often not only don't make a "living wage", they don't even make minimum wage.

There is a prevailing attitude in America that somehow you are rewarding an artist simply by providing the opportunity to create. To perform. To produce. The catchphrases "it will be great for your portfolio!" or "it will be great exposure!" are used over and over.

Artists on a whole have a great deal invested in their art. Besides years or decades of practicing their craft, there are material and studio costs involved. Graphic artists require top-of-the-line computers and software, tending to start in the $3000 range combined, and going up dramatically. Some programs run as high as $5000.

Videographers require not only high end computers and software, but video cameras as well. One can expect to pay $4,000 on up for a quality camera. Cameras with the ability to synch together for two camera coverage are in the $8000 range on up. Each.

Dancers require constant rehearsal to keep their bodies in shape. Choreographers must constantly study the latests whims of the pop entertainment world in order to keep their work current. Dance required significant studio space with specially designed floors and mirrored walls.

Sculptors require huge studio spaces, welding equipment, wood working equipment, and not only mastering the art of creating form, but must also have an engineering mind to build structurally sound sculptures. Materials from urethanes and silicones to stone and bronze are very expensive.

Set designers, lighting designers, costume designers, and technical directors must not only create an immersive environment from the void, but in addition to their design time and hands on fabrication of their creations, they must also attend rehearsals to see their work in progress, taking notes from directors, hearing concerns of actors, and making sure things look how the designer wants.

In a world where plumbers, electricians, waiters, carpenters, bus drivers, and sales clerks would never be told that simply doing their job should be reward enough without regard to monetary compensation, people somehow don't have a problem telling artists that simply the opportunity to work would somehow be "great" for them. Charities often call upon artists to contribute art for auction to support their charity. The irony is that many artists are more in need of support than the beneficiaries of the charitable organization.

I encourage artists to stand up and simply say "No." I encourage you to visit No!Spec. Value your time. Calculate the number of hours you work, and evaluate that at at LEAST minimum wage. Don't forget overtime. That is... if you work 80 hours in a week on a project, that is 40 hours straight time, and 40 hours overtime. If you are getting say, $600 a week and working 80 hours, you are only making six bucks an hour. Many artists make less.

There is a lot of talk about the "creative economy", and how "the arts" are essential to the growth of communities. It is imperative that artists be treated as essential. Change the language, and reality tends to follow. Support the artists.