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Bush and the NEA


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I hope this topic doesn't get thrown out because it does involve all of us. How does everyone feel about Bush taking money away from the National Endowment for the Arts? I know as an artist, I was hurt by this because living in a country where basketball and football stars are treated like kings, we just continue to get lower and lower on the totem pole. And maybe because the NEA hasn't been getting the grants that it used to, is because PBS isn't showing the amount of Classical Arts that it used too? Just interested to see where this topic goes.

Thanks again!

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This is about arts, so it's fine (thank you for raising it). Our prohibition on politics is about having slogans in signature lines, or working "stupid as ***" into artistic arguments.

The NEA has been cut and cut and cut --you're right. The arts are always the first thing that goes. This country has never really bought into state support for the arts for historical reasons (we don't descend from the tradition of kings and princes supporting art, a responsibility that later democracies took over.) More money for the arts! But it's unlikely to become a campaign slogan.

I hope we have some who support the administration's position -- I'd be genuinely interested to hear it defended.

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I am far from a defender of the administration's position, but I read in the New York Times this week, "The White House on Thursday called for an increase of $18 million in the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts this coming fiscal year." Of course, even with this increase, the NEA budget will be far lower than it was at its peak. And some members of Congress have expressed opposition to any increase. I also found it interesting that the announcement was made by Laura Bush, not her husband, who apparently has weightier things on his mind -- like steroids.

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basketball and football stars are treated like kings

Sports are not funded by the government and they thrive. So what are they doing right that the arts are doing wrong? The arts in general are seen as only for the smart and/or the wealthy. The price of the ticket has nothing to do with this. The general public will shell out big bucks for sporting event tickets. I think we need to do more to break this elitest image. If we can't get T.V. (A&E and Bravo are now scarce with their ballet programs as well as PBS) or the movie theaters (The Company is showing in only 1 theater in San Diego County) to put us in the public eye, then we need to take measures to do it ourselves.

The lack of marketing is a huge problem in the dance world. I saw an ad on T.V. for Disney's figure skating show, and I thought if a dance company would advertise in that same manner it would really bring people through the doors. Half the time people don't even know a ballet company is in town performing. Cost is an issue of course, but people won't come to a show they don't even know is there.

I personally don't believe that the arts (or PBS) should be funded by the government. We should have to stand on our own two feet. OCPA Theater is an interesting case study for this. They do not take one dime from the government, they could, but they don't. They are currently expanding the theater and have become the Southern California Ballet Mecca for touring companies (source Dance Magazine). For years it was argued that PBS could not air their type of programming without funding from the government. The Discovery Channel, A&E, and Bravo have certainly proved them wrong.

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Regardless of what else I think of the present funding of the NEA, I realize that no matter how its budget is increased, or funded at all, it will come attached to an indivisible rider making the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag mandatory at all public and private events, the criminalization of abortion a conceptio, and the banning of alternative energy because it's bad for the Oil Interests. This is called a "poison pill", and allows a party in control to say, "we tried to fund what you wanted, but the majority wouldn't pass it!" :angry:

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Gosh, you scared me for a moment, Mel; I missed the evening news tonight, and I thought you were one up on me!

Mel's point about the "poison pill" is a good one, and one that many people don't know about. Another favorite is to stick "and repeal Social Security" onto a bill one doesn't like -- a tax increase, say, or funding someone else's pet project.

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It is important to note that the Bush administration did ask for a major funding increase, although I'd also note in the same breath that it's one thing to include funding in a proposed budget, it's another thing for it to be allocated. Ask all those folks who were waiting for the funding to combat AIDS in Africa.

Still, if the administration follows through and it isn't an election year ploy (and heck, even if it is) it's better than a cut. Politically calculated decisions aren't always for the worst.

To The Pointe, I'd argue that what's happened to Public TV without government support has proven the naysayers right, rather than wrong. We needed an alternative to commercial TV, and now we've got public TV forced to emulate its business model. I think it's great for any organization to be self-supporting, but I'd argue that market forces only drive art to be popular, not good, and the two are separate goals that don't necessarily have anything to do with one another. An argument some make is to think of the less popular art forms as the Reasearch and Development arm of culture, rather than science. R&D doesn't make money directly, but the whole industry is enriched by what's learned there. In the same way, I think we need the art that's there for the sake of enriching the art form and culture - not just making a profit. If it was just about that, let's disband all the ballet companies and just perform The Lion King.

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I think we need the art that's there for the sake of enriching the art form and culture - not just making a profit. If it was just about that, let's disband all the ballet companies and just perform The Lion King.
:wacko:

I do not believe that making ballet more accessible to the general public means throwing quality out the window. I'm not speaking of laying our choreography on the alter and sacrificing it, just better marketing of our classics to the general public. Families will spend hundreds of dollars to take their kids to see Princesses on Ice in a packed auditorium, why not swan lake?

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The princesses appear more accessible that the swans, alas. People believe that they will not understand, that they need erudition to begin to understand the stage action. They are afraid they won't get it.

Part of the NEA budget, even if only indirectly, goes into outreach and education programs. If the grants are reduced, so is the outreach, so is the audience, therefore the grants get reduced. Ultimately, ever decreasing numbers of voters will value the arts and pressure their elected representatives to fund them. :dizzy:

I join those who cynically suspect that this proposal will be bulldozed by tying it to other legislation that is unacceptable to those legislators who are predisposed to support the NEA. :wacko:

It's also why we're seeing ballet companies like ABT staging a tribute to George Harrison and NYCB mounting a full-length Stroman.

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Even if it is election year politics (and to me this administration makes about as many promises it has no intention of keeping as an overaroused prom date) I hope some good will come of it. Dana Gioia, the current NEA chairman seems not to be particularly ideologically driven, and also to be a conservative in a simpler sense - he seems very interested in preservation, and in getting traditional "meat and potatoes" art out there to be seen - taking Shakespeare to all 50 states, funding the Balanchine Foundation to do more interpreter's archive filming. It doesn't hurt that he's in the same party as the NEA's usual adversaries, and I don't mind the NEA concentrating on access of the highest quality stuff, though R&D funding would be welcome. Perhaps it's similar to the observation that "only Nixon could go to China".

TTP, I can only say that you should see what the numbers look like for advertising when they're crunched. Mass advertising is expensive, and should be done, but you've got to have a mass audience to amortize it. What we're fighting against in the US is more than unfamiliarity and fear, there's actual distrust. It's people like Tom Tancredo, congressman for Colorado's Sixth District, who still say "why should I fund someone else's idea of good art?" I fund someone else's idea of a good military, principally because I have no expertise in that area. At some point, I need to trust that someone else has more experience than I do whether I like the idea of it or not. We don't get line item approval on the military, education, or any other area of government, I don't understand why we suddenly think we ought to on culture. It's going to take a change in the culture to change that attitude. I'd also be interested to know what kind of funding Mr. Tancredo's state or district is getting for someone else's idea of good art. It's probably the Denver Symphony or the Colorado Ballet, both mammothly subversive organizations.

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Sports are not funded by the government and they thrive. So what are they doing right that the arts are doing wrong?
But they ARE funded by the government - with our taxes for schools.

Athletics programs are part of most public school curriculums. Students are educated about sports nearly every single day at school. PE is largely a sports-oriented activity, not a dance activity. High school sports are big business, funded by all of us. Colleges, supported by government funds, continue this process.

No wonder this is what kids aspire to! It's part of their common culture as perpetuated by the school systems. It's a [/i]requirement. Is dance ever a requirement?

I don't see this situation changing until the arts are accorded the very same respect (read: funding) as sports within the public school systems from early childhood all the way up through university level.

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You know, I am a dancer for Ballet Internationale. Being in Indianapolis is not exactly the mecca for ballet but we do advertise as much as we possibly can with billboards, posters and radio advertisments. It is funny that you brought up Disney. Last year, our season closer was John McFall's Peter Pan. (We did a nice trade with Atlanta Ballet. Great people!) fortunately for us, Disney was in town about two months prior on tour with Beauty and the Beast. After speaking with management, Disney allowed us to put inserts into their programs. This idea was genuis. It worked for every show, except for the one on Easter weekend, but it filled the house. Although this ballet was not our Russian classical style, it DID fill the house. I guess it must be a matter of timing and getting the right audience. Disney is once again coming into town this time to perform The Lion King. This season we are closing with The Sleeping Beauty. I hate to say it, but even though I think Disney is "evil," they vicariously put food on my plate! Wierd, eh? Not until we did Peter Pan, did people really know we existed.

But back to Bush... $18 million is not a lot of money for the type of programming and outreach we need. When Clinton was in office and we saw that he was in fact an artist himself, that bread hope. I am not saying Bush does not follow the arts, but showing up to a Kennedy Center Honor's and not supporting us, it's strange.

I am so glad to see so many people speaking their minds on this. Keep it coming!

Edited by stinger784
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I am not saying Bush does not follow the arts, but showing up to a Kennedy Center Honor's and not supporting us, it's strange.

Showing up is about all that Bush did for (was it ABT's?) Romeo and Juliet, leaving after Act II. :dry:

Ballet Internationale is obviously blessed with an alert and resourceful marketing person. :thumbsup: That is a big advantage.

NYCB is currently running a beautiful tv ad featuring the company in Serenade. It must cost a fortune, and now that houses are so well sold, I wonder why it continues to air -- as recently as two or three days ago. But I'm ambivalent, because I enjoy watching it. :wink:

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But back to Bush...  $18 million is not a lot of money for the type of programming and outreach we need.  When Clinton was in office and we saw that he was in fact an artist himself, that bread hope.  I am not saying Bush does not follow the arts, but showing up to a Kennedy Center Honor's and not supporting us, it's strange.

Aw, just tell him you know where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are, and a few Ms would allow you to remember more clearly.

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I fund someone else's idea of a good military, principally because I have no expertise in that area

I don't know if it's still true, but I remember reading that the pentagon spent more on "art" than the NEA... at least the budget for military bands was larger than the entire NEA. (anyone have those statistics handy?)

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I don't know the figures for military bands, but the Air Force, at least, followed closely by the Army, expends considerable money on art-quality prints and photographs of service members and equipment as décor for offices and common areas of barracks. To be fair, some of it is pretty darn good, as are some performances by military bands.

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I can't complain about the Army exposing its recruits to decent art in the barracks. Perhaps the USO can be convinced to send some ballet on tour to the troops.

When discussing public funding, it is worth thinking about the relationships between gender and activity. Most of the people holding the purse strings in America are male. Most males have been exposed to sports from birth -- they've watched, cheered for, played. Most males have never seen a ballet, let alone -- horrors! -- participated in the activity. No wonder one is deemed integral to the common culture, and the other isn't.

(For the record, the private school our daughter attends DOES require social dance class (ballroom and swing) in freshman PE. It's not quite the same thing, but it's a start.)

As for the relationship between NEA cuts and abysmal PBS programming: my husband, who works in TV, doesn't see a direct relationship. He thinks the decline at PBS has more to do with other factors: its mandate to serve the entire populace at a time when cable channels have perfected niche programming, and reductions in corporate funding for major art series. (My own contention is that there is just a general stupidity at PBS about what constitutes quality. Leigh's comment about expertise, whether it be for military or arts, is well-taken; I question whether the PBS programmers actually do have much expertise.) The relationship my husband does see comes because NEA and PBS are NOT linked: he thinks NEA may be reluctant to put substantial money into one-shot programs that have no guarantee of being aired. Instead, they prefer to be conservative, as Leigh says, and fund the major arts purveyors (companies and orchestras) that have substantial likelihood of an ongoing audience.

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Hi All!

I couldn't agree with you more, Vagansmom. If dance/opera/Theatre/all things cultural were introduced in kindergarten, continued through all grades, and held as an extra-curricular activity, we wouldn't need grants! We could make it all on ticket sales alone! I wonder what would happen if we circulated a petition throughout this site and all of our individual studios and let those in charge know that there are many of us out here who vote...and then we could,"take the money and run"! We did a ballet last season called 'Across the Field' and invited football players to see it for free. The ones who came loved it. I really think that Ballet could become as important as sports once the word gets out to the general population.

Any other ideas out there?

Clara

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Well, guys, I can't agree with you more about how much I distrust the current administration in Wahsington And yet, I have to say, I'm hopeful abut the NEA -- partly because I happen to know Dana Gioia, and I like and admire and respect him, as a person and as a poet, and I'm absolutely certain he's on our side, and I have some hope, I really do, that he's going to be able to help. As Leigh has said, he's actually managed to get some budget increases, and he's not squandering it on stupid things.

The thing is, he's a poet -- so he's not nearly so hip to the way dancers work, you know, communally. A poet can do his thing on any scrap of paper, in any cafe, on the bus if it's not too dangerous.... Dancers need to get together in the same space, and so on. But he does respect dance.

I don't think he knows the field -- indeed, just last week after a talk as SFPALM, Arthur Mitchell asked of no-one in particular, "Who is the head of the NEA now? I've never heard of him..." and when i spoke on Gioia's behalf, Mitchell wasn’t hearing any of it and just said "well, he needs to get to know the field.'

And he probably does.

But he IS a poet, a real poet, a people's poet in the Italian tradition, and his book "Can Poetry Matter? was necessary and challenging and puts the question really clearly. If it came down to it, he'd probably be as much on the side of a slam poet as of John Ashbury -- not that he's a vulgarian, but that he wants significant form to do the work of containing strong feeling. And at the same time, he admired and befriended some mighty cryptic poets, like Edgar Bowers, a great gay poet I met at Gioia's house.

Monumentum pro Gesualdo would not be beyond Gioia’s understanding or appreciation.

........................................................................

Since you may not know anything about him, I’ll enter here my favorite of Gioia's poems, "Planting a Sequoia." It comes from his excellent book, The Gods of Winter, which is a dirge, almost a Kaddish, written in memory of his son, Michael Jasper Gioia, who died in infancy.

"Planting a Sequoia"

by Dana Gioia

All afternoon my brothers and I have worked in the orchard,

Digging this hole, laying you into it, carefully packing the soil.

Rain blackened the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific,

And the sky above us stayed the same dull gray

Of an old year coming to an end.

In Sicily a father plants a tree to celebrate his first son's birth --

An olive or a fig tree -- a sign that the earth has one more life to bear.

I would have done the same, proudly laying new stock into my father's orchard,

A green sapling rising among the twisted apple boughs, a promise of new fruit in other autumns.

But today we kneel in the cold planting you, our native giant,

Defying the practical custom of our fathers, wrapping in your roots a lock of hair, a piece of an infant's birth cord,

All that remains above earth of a first-born son,

A few stray atoms brought back to the elements.

We will give you what we can -- our labor and our soil,

Water drawn from the earth when the skies fail,

Nights scented with the ocean fog, days softened by the circuit of bees.

We plant you in the corner of the grove, bathed in western light, A slender shoot against the sunset.

And when our family is no more, all of his unborn brothers dead,

Every niece and nephew scattered, the house torn down,

His mother's beauty ashes in the air,

I want you to stand among strangers, all young and ephemeral to you,

Silently keeping the secret of your birth.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It's a wonderful poem, and typing it out has kept me in tears.... the words are SO just ("when the skies fail"). It's a bitter feeling burying a child. This poem is quite filled with bitterness…. It’s a monument, just as the sequoia is a monument, and it has secrets as well as a vigil to keep, which is most of what monuments have to do.

In any case, he’s not just an administrator. He’s an artist himself, and he has artists’ interests at heart. At the same time, he’s got a feel for the game – he invented the Jello cube – so he’ll have some skill in handling the people who DON’T care about art.

.................................

At this point , ihave to say, I miss some of the people from the old board, like Vagansmom, who would check up on my posts and I think would love this poem. I do miss the rest of the crowd.

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He is a fine poet.

I'll echo something that Paul said, it struck me also that Gioia thinks like someone who works in a solitary art that isn't resource-intensive like classical ballet. He had a few comments in papers that sounded like he didn't viscerally understand why people had such trouble making art on their own initiative. Because some of us need more than pad and pen to create our work!

Still, he seems to have smoothed the ruffled feathers of a few opponents to the NEA and I hope he keeps up the good work.

Paul - check a few posts up in the thread. Vagansmom is still around.

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Yes, Paul, many, many thanks for taking the time and choosing that poem to post.

Farrell Fan, no doubt you are right about the "for the most part, thankless job" - but the "wins" on his part must make up for it, one would think.

And I'll send a message to vagansmom for you. :(

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