Don’t forget about the Createquity Fellowship deadline coming up this Friday! ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The value of the creative sector to the U.S. economy? Half a trillion dollars. The value of the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s official inclusion of our sector in its GDP analysis? Priceless. Responses from the field have been mixed. Some areRead More
Thanksgiving public arts funding update
FEDERAL The biggest news on federal support for the arts is a lack of news. Following the 16-day shutdown in early October, the federal government was reauthorized at last year’s budget levels (post-sequester) until January 15. Which means we get to do this all over again in just a month and a half! Woohoo! Congress hasRead More
Around the horn: Big Papi edition
ART AND THE GOVERNMENT Glenn Beck is at it again: the right-wing broadcaster recently attacked the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture along with the Imagining America initiative on his Internet show, The Blaze. Far from a government agency, the USDAC is a “citizen-powered” art project that hasn’t received any public funding to date. Not one to be deterred by facts, Beck claimsRead More
Midsummer public arts funding update
FEDERAL The United States Senate is considering an update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as No Child Left Behind. The bill contains several pro-arts revisions, but as Narric Rome explains, political constraints probably mean an agreement is still far off. The Senate did, however, add the Arts Require Timely ServiceRead More
April public arts funding update
FEDERAL After a long lull, we’re starting to see some action on the arts and related topics at the federal level. First, the House and Senate have passed a continuing resolution enshrining the “sequester” cuts in the rest of Fiscal Year 2013, meaning that the National Endowment for the Arts and other federal agencies are sustaining aRead More
March public arts funding update
FEDERAL The internet just got a little less friendly for pirates. A new “Copyright Alert” system, the product of a voluntary agreement between internet service providers such as Comcast and AT&T, Hollywood movie studios, and major record labels, will inconvenience persistent illicit downloaders first with warnings and then stronger measures such as slowed service. TheRead More
Winter public arts funding update
Continuing a recent trend, the news from abroad is much more interesting than what’s happening here at home. Below, the round-up: FEDERAL Beyond the official departure of Rocco, it’s been a slow news season at the federal level for the arts. One series of developments, however, has involved the Internet Radio Fairness Act, or IRFA.Read More
Late fall public arts funding update
DOMESTIC – FEDERAL The National Endowment for the Arts will soon have a new Chairman. Rocco Landesman announced yesterday his plans to retire at the end of the year, in a decision widely anticipated among arts insiders. Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa will serve as acting chair until a successor is named. The Supreme CourtRead More
Early fall public arts funding update
DOMESTIC The big news last month was the campaign for and passage of a millage (property tax) in Detroit to support the beleaguered Detroit Institute of the Arts. Hyperallergic’s Jillian Steinhauer and ARTSBlog’s Kim Kober are celebrating the new legislation, which passed easily in Wayne and Oakland counties but only by a hair in suburban Macomb. The DIA took the campaign very seriously, spending anRead More
Around the horn: grantmakers edition
Back recently from the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference in San Francisco. More on that soon! In the meantime: ART AND THE GOVERNMENT – FEDERAL Republican House members are back on the warpath to eliminating public broadcasting money (along with other government programs). The first 1:36 of this interview with Grammy-winning jazz musician Esperanza Spalding has the makings ofRead More