state arts action network
State Arts Action Network
Network Meeting
Friday, June 20, 2008
8:00 am – 11:00 am
Chair: Sheila Smith
Vice Chair: Anne Katz
Staff Liaisons: Jay Dick, Tim Mikulski
Sheraton City Center
17th and Race Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Logan 2 Room
Attendees:
Sheila Smith, Chair, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts
Anne Katz, Vice-Chair, Arts Wisconsin
Judy Weiner, Immediate Past Chair, Alliance of NY State Arts Organizations
John Barsness, Montana Arts
Lisa Caretto, California Arts Advocates
Lisa Carnevale, Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts
Donna Collins, Ohio Citizens for the Arts
David Cupps, Arts Kentucky
John D’Angelo, City Arts of Wichita
Sally Gaskill, Indiana Coalition for the Arts
Jenny Hershour, Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania
Dan Hunter, Mass. Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities
Mary Langholz, Washington State Arts Alliance
Whitney Llewelyn, Wyoming Arts Alliance
Ann Marie Miller, ArtPride New Jersey
Betty Plumb, South Carolina Arts Alliance
Jan Selman, Arts Leadership League of Georgia
Tommy Usrey, Louisiana Partnership for the Arts
Diane Scolaro, Vermont Arts Council
Staff: Jay Dick, Director of State & Local Govt. Affairs
Tim Mikulski, State & Local Govt. Affairs Coordinator
Stan Rosenberg, SAAN Consultant, Americans for the Arts
Guests: Scott Hutchenson, Louisiana Partnership for the Arts
Jeremy Johannsen, New York Partners for Arts Education
Laura Reeder, New York Partners for Arts Education
Jennifer Wohagan, Texas Cultural Trust
Introductions:
Sheila Smith welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked everyone to introduce themselves.
Jay Dick then said that this was the first meeting since the bylaw change to allow for affiliate memberships and he was pleased to invite our guests from New York and Texas to the meeting.
Jennifer Wohagan explained that the Texas Cultural Trust has established a new mission statement with the vision to create a vibrant Texas where the arts inspire. They group is working with the Texas Commission in the Arts and Texans for the Arts and they have launched a website at CreateTexas.org.
Laura Reeder explained that New York Partners for Arts Education is one of many statewide organizations in the state and they are working on trying to get all of them to work together.
Preparing for Budget Challenges:
Stan Rosenberg and Dan Hunter crafted a white paper that explains how organizations can prepare for budget cuts ahead of time. Dan said that the time can be used to organize as a cultural community and this paper offers strategies of how a State Arts Agency or Local Arts Agency can prepare for cuts in future legislative sessions. It is not a time to discuss the intrinsic value of the arts so your best argument is the economic development factor and communicate with the field about the coming cuts and develop a plan. If people are more prepared for it, they are more likely to take action to help.
Sheila added that it is important to use the Dun & Bradstreet number and to encourage the constituency to sign up with them. She then asked for a “how to sign up” document for Dun & Bradstreet from the Americans for the Arts research department.
The discussion led Sheila to ask SAAN members what they are doing with the elections as they are now less than six months away. Betty Plumb said that a board member called her to tell her that one of the candidates wanted information and she personally provided information to a Congressional candidate. In addition, she has a link to the South Carolina Creative Industries data on her website.
Sheila added that Americans for the Arts should consider providing the latest Creative Industry numbers for free instead of only allowing free access to last year’s statistics. Betty added that to help with the cost, she partnered with the State Arts Agency to have her reports printed in color while Sally Gaskill said that her State Arts Agency paid for the report outright. Ann Marie Miller said that she was helped by them as the Assembly budget committee chairman asked for all 40 legislative district maps and later remarked about it during a hearing.
Sheila also mentioned that her organization holds annual fundraisers for the Democratic and Republican Caucuses in Minnesota since it is easier than electioneering candidate by candidate. As C4 organization, she can do that, but Judy Weiner said that a C3 cannot. Sheila mentioned that while an organization couldn’t hold a fundraiser, the Board chair or lobbyist can.
Dan said that another strategy is to attend as many fundraisers as he can, both large and small and do not leave until the candidate knows you were there. And while you can’t necessarily make every one, ask a friend. Also, he helps organize a “get out the vote” effort which is a huge help when the time comes.
Sheila said that her organization presents Arts All-Star Awards based on answers from their questionnaire as an alternative to endorsements. As for questionnaires, it is important that C3 organizations cover a broad spectrum of issues with diverse questions. For example, the first question might be “do you participate in the arts?” followed by one about funding, another about non-profit tax issues, and ending with arts education.
Jan Selman added that she echoed Dan’s comments about getting involved in campaigns as she organizes volunteers for phone banking with up to 100 volunteers at a time.
Ann Marie asked how many SAAN members endorse and how do they go about doing it?
Lisa Caretto said that her board president wants to endorse, but their lobbyist explained that there is a process and method that should be adhered to. She was told that the candidates must be interviewed, not based on the fact that the board member happens to like someone.
Dan explained that endorsements are tricky, but Jan’s collection of volunteers is a bigger piece as candidates are more likely to remember that over an endorsement. Providing a network of phone bankers or canvassing volunteers will give organizations true political value. Also, board members can host fundraisers. Mary Langholz added that presenting awards is a political tool as well.
Laura added that at the regional level, candidates will come for a question and answering session with members of her organization and they send out a press release about it. And once a question about the arts is asked, the candidates will have opinions and it makes it easier to lay the groundwork for when they are in office.
Sheila asked if any of the SAAN members has held forums.
Anne Katz said that Arts Wisconsin held one a few years ago and all of the candidates showed up. Sheila said she did one in the past and now will make sure someone gets to every League of Women Voters forum to submit questions about the arts. In addition, she mobilizes the locals to flood the hall with pro-arts buttons and give one to the candidates.
Strategic Planning Update:
Sheila introduced Stan to discuss strategic planning. Stan said that Americans for the Arts is involved in their strategic planning now and SAAN is the only network that did its own strategic planning. This has resulted in promising and exciting things including creating a good relationship with the leaders of both groups. During the Council meeting on Thursday, Bob Lynch spent 45 minutes with SAAN and later Kate Gibney spent an hour with them. This continued consultation and discussion with Americans for the Arts leadership has reached a new level, so it is a very positive development.
In addition, SAAN is hoping to land a significant grant from the NEA. The decision will be announced in November and the Council also discussed ways to approach the NEA to obtain regional funding for SAAN.
On Friday, the Council spent time working on a few sections of the plan to outline some tasks for the next year. The discussion boiled down to a recommendation that instead of white papers, SAAN would take advantage of technology and create a SAAN blog. The idea would be to identify people in the Council and Network who would be willing to lead a discussion within the blog on several subjects they have an interest or expertise in. They would also identify other experts that could be brought in to help initiate the conversation.
Stan continued, stating that the idea is that over the next year, SAAN will do some or all of the subjects through a blog. In some cases, it could lead to pulling out highlights, creating a summary and releasing a virtual white paper on some topics.
Going over the staff coded version of the SAAN year one plan, Jay said that SAAN has two full-time staff members plus two consultants. Stan works with Jay to breathe new life into states that have struggling statewide groups. Last year they visited New Mexico and Wyoming. This year the plan is to meet with Oklahoma representatives at the convention and then visit North Dakota and possibly Alabama.
Judy added that Stan has facilitated the planning process from the beginning and although she was suspicious at first, he has done a wonderful job and SAAN owes him a debt of gratitude for that. Over the years, she has seen and met with a lot of consultants and “this guy tops the list.”
Jay continued stating that this is Alene Valkanas’ first year as a consultant and she will be working with four states to help them move to the next level of development (Kentucky, New Hampshire, Utah, and Arizona). The plan has her working with four more next year.
Going through the SAAN plan for year one, expanding CapWiz to 50 states is still on the radar, but it also requires additional funding. For the same reason, hiring a webmaster is unlikely. A SAAN regranting program will have to wait for years 2-5 as we have to work towards that. Recreating the SAAN website is a priority and if anyone has suggestions, please let us know. Tim added that his project for the summer will include surveying the SAAN about the page and then working towards recreating a new one later this year.
Elections Report:
Betty Plumb announced that Anne Katz has been elected SAAN chair and Donna Collins is the new Vice Chair. Also, all four Council members have been re-elected to fill full terms after filling partial terms the last time – Lisa Caretto, Jenny Hershour, Allen Hoffman, and Marla Musick.
Sheila congratulated everyone.
State of the State Reports:
(Reports were either given orally or submitted after the meeting to be included in the minutes)
Sheila Smith (Minnesota) – We are just four months from Election Day, 2008, when the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment will be on the ballot statewide in the state. It is a constitutional amendment that will create dedicated funds for environmental conservation, parks, and the arts. It has the potential to triple funding for the arts in the state. Sheila and Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA) are working with a large coalition of environmental and civic groups to pass the initiative, and they are raising $3M-$5M for the campaign. If you are interested in learning more you can go to MCA's website at http://www.mncitizensforthearts.org/ or http://www.yesformn.org/.
During the past legislative session, MCA spent a lot of time working on a challenge to the state’s smoking ban which exempted theatrical performances. The challenge had started when bars started to throw "Theater Nights" in order to be able to smoke, pretending by wearing "actor" buttons that they were in a performance. We successfully prevented any change to the law. The other big issue this session was a state budget deficit which threatened the arts appropriation. After carrying some cuts to the conference committee we managed to have them deleted before the bill went to the floor.
Sally Gaskill (Indiana) – The primary became a big issue in her state. Dave Matthews held a concert for Obama while John Mellencamp had a concert for both Hillary and Obama. The organization also did their own three-year plan and are forging more partnerships with other groups like Indiana University – Purdue.
Diane Scolaro (Vermont) – Vermont launched an art program called Pallets of Vermont that included 247 of 251 towns with schools, libraries, and towns participating. After items were auctioned and other fundraising was completed they raised $300,000 for the program. They are now preparing a second phase involving puzzle pieces. So far, 60,000 people are interested in participating. It is funded by $60,000 cash and $30,000 of in-kind contributions.
Judy Weiner (New York) – The state arts council received a $1 million cut. Next year it may be closer to a 5-10% cut. They are also looking at a new path and may consider regionalizing the state. Also, they are working on a legislative day where constituents visit their members in their districts on the same day. They are also expanding their webinar program and are looking further into social networking.
Whitney Llewelyn (Wyoming) – Received a WestStaff grant for CapWiz and are now reorganizing their website too. They are also working on board training and strategic planning and have applied for a state cultural trust grant to support a tour of the state and expansion of the organization.
Tommy Usrey (Louisiana) - After deciding not to renew our long-term lobbyist’s contract, we opted to hire one of Louisiana’s most prestigious law firms, Rodel, Parsons, Blanche and Koch which we felt could take our organization to the next level as a power to be reckoned with in the state in light of a legislature that was experiencing it’s first session after the new term limits forced over 60% of the members of the House of Representatives out of office.
As we entered the 2008 legislative session, the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts found itself working with a dynamic lobbying firm, the governor had budgeted a $60,000 decrease in statewide arts funding. The Louisiana Partnership for the Arts found this unacceptable and, with our two young and dynamic lobbyists, Kevin Hayes and Kevin Cunningham, and the cooperation of the Office of Cultural Development, our 501c4 arm, Louisiana Partnership for Arts Advocacy, crafted an amendment which was introduced through the Senate Finance Committee.
Working closely with "the Kevins" and Senator Mike Walsworth, our self-appointed floor leader, we held two very successful Arts Advocacy Days in the Capitol and launched a statewide campaign using CapWiz to get our message to the Committee members. This combination enabled us to secure almost $1 million in new funding in the final budget. (Note: Governor Jindal signed the budget that included this increase to the appropriation for the Division of the Arts on July 15th.)
John D’Angelo (Kansas) – He is working to reorganize the state, working closely with the Kansas Arts Commission.
Lisa Caretto (California) – The arts are funded at 3 cents per capita from the general fund. They attempted to pass a bill that would take 20% of an existing sales tax on certain arts-related items for the arts council, but the bill did not pass. They had two resolutions pass through the legislature – one celebrating 30 years of the California Arts Council. They also had their first Arts Advocacy Day in 30 years. The budget is currently at a $20 billion deficit and likely will not pass through until August.
Jenny Hershour (Pennsylvania) – Pennsylvania is still in session and they are late on passing the budget for the third straight year. The state council on the arts received a $500,000 increase this year, but it is not quite enough as they asked for $2 million. They held an arts education day at the state capitol with the Speaker and have been working in a non-profit partnership to make sure arts are in the discussion of all non-profit organizations.
Mary Langholz (Washington) – The C4 Foundation had a successful arts day while the C3 Fund had a 3-day retreat for professional development and networking for state arts professionals. Over 200 people attended. There is a battle for Governor heating up in the future and the entire Legislature is up in the fall. They prevented a 1% surcharge on all tickets and made headway in the areas of lodging, arts education, and health issues for individual artists.
Lisa Carnevale (Rhode Island) – The state budget passed the week before and $58,000 was cut from their $2 million allocation. A statewide percent for arts bill was put on hold for a year to discuss further. The bill limited the contracts to Rhode Island artists. They had a successful arts advocacy day and have hired a consultant to help them with their agenda.
Ann Marie Miller (New Jersey) – The governor proposed a 30% cut in arts funding, dropping it to the lowest allowed by legislation that set it at $60 million. That was lowered to a 12% cut in the end. Meetings were held in 35 of the 40 legislative districts using “arts and history = dollars and cents” as their slogan. They also had support from hotel owners, superintendents, chiefs of police, hotel sales managers, etc. who went to the meetings instead of the usual arts advocates. Over 16,000 emails/letters were sent. They are also working with the state arts council to administer the “Discover New Jersey Arts” program.
Jennifer Wohagan (Texas Cultural Trust) – The Texas Film Commission won their first incentive bill for film, tv, commercial and video game production. They are also working with their advocates to not use the term “crisis” when arts funding is cut and have launched a new campaign called “Create Texas” with the slogan “Put Your Art Into It” as their phrase.
Linda Kreutz (Texans for the Arts) - Texans for the Arts (TFA) is laying the groundwork now and pushing forward with their ambitious legislative agenda, which includes a request for $1 per capita in arts funding, for the 81st Legislative Session beginning in January 2009. We launched a membership drive to bring more arts organizations into our member ranks, and an e-newsletter will be going out to members soon. We also are hard at work on Arts Advocacy Day set for February 10, 2009 in Austin where arts leaders and the citizens of Texas will join to celebrate the arts and visit with lawmakers regarding the arts in Texas and increased state arts appropriations.
Dan Hunter (Massachusetts) – The Massachusetts Cultural Facilities funding bill is in conference committee now. It took 10 years to move through the system. The money would be made available through $50 million of bonding and it would be available over a 10-year period. There have also been a handful of creative economy projects linking to chambers of commerce.
David Cupps (Kentucky) – In his first 4 ½ months in the position, he is facing major cuts in funding. In the next biennium, funding will be down to the level it was 10 years ago. On the positive side, they beat back an attack on arts education. They will soon have their first arts advocacy round table and decide their legislative agenda for the next several years since it has been very fractured.
Betty Plumb (South Carolina) - Governor Mark Sanford’s budget cut the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) base budget by 23.3%. The S.C. house version of the state budget cut the SCAC by 2.69%. The Arts Commission needed $585,000 for FY 09 to keep their grants program level-funded from the prior year’s one-time funding of $585,000. The Senate Finance Committee added $585,000 in a proviso of one-time funding for the Arts Commission. A day later, the Board of Economic Advisors announced a $90 million revenue shortfall. However, the “arts proviso” money remained, passed the House and Senate and escaped the Governor’s veto pen. If the Arts Commission had not received the $585,000, their grantees would have received a 30% cut to their grants. This was a real success story for the Arts Alliance and advocates from across the state.
Unfortunately, the Arts Curricula Grants Program within the State Department of Education’s (SDE) budget was cut by $93,027 from $1,597.584. This occurred when both the House and Senate agreed on an across the board cut of 5.823% as they addressed a $30 million shortfall within the particular funding stream. There was no need for a Conference Committee or an opportunity to advocate for this funding as it was immediate and affected all line items within this portion of the budget equally.
The Arts Alliance had a very successful Arts Advocacy Day at the Statehouse and a “sold out” Legislative Appreciation Luncheon in honor of the Legislative Arts Caucus. Membership in the Arts Caucus is growing and includes 84 out of 123 House members and 40 out of 47 Senate members. The featured speaker at the Luncheon was Emily de Cou, Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra sharing his childhood experiences with arts education. An Arts Advocacy Workshop was held following the Luncheon and facilitated by our “pro bono” members of the Government Relations Team at the law firm of Nelson, Mullins, Riley, Scarborough.
The Arts Alliance presented its fourth “Scottie” Award for lifetime achievements in the arts and arts education – the special evening event within the Arts Commission’s Statewide Arts Conference, co-sponsored by the Arts Alliance.
Jan Selman (Georgia) - Georgia’s arts advocates have worked for three years to get HB291 passed. This bill creates the Georgia Arts Alliance. It is the first piece of arts education legislation passed in recent memory. The Alliance will have three standing seats: The State School Superintendent, Commissioner of Economic Development, and Executive Director of the Georgia Council for the Arts. Additionally, the Governor will appoint : a CEO from a large corporation, with more than 1,000 employees and the CEO from a small corporation with less then 1,000 employees, the CEO of a foundation, and the CEO/President/Executive Director of a large arts organization, with budget over one million, and a small arts organization with a budget with less than one million. The Lt. Governor gets one appointment, a large school system representative and the Speaker of the House will appoint a small school system representative. Additionally, there will be a 30 person advisor board from around the state made up of people that have a proven tack record in supporting the arts. These folks will come from: business, arts, tourism, and education. Instead of working in silos, all the segments will come together to focus on arts in education. The first task they are charged with is writing a cultural policy for the state.
ALL-GA, as an all volunteer organization with minimal resources, directed, almost elusively, all of our efforts towards getting HB291 passed. It was a long and hard fought battle, however, I am please to say that the people of Georgia wholeheartedly, without reservation, supported this bill and their advocacy actions were directly responsible for the passage of HB291. We are now working on phase two, influencing the appointments to the Alliance and drafting ideas for the state cultural policy.
John Barsness (Montana) – They are preparing for a 90-day session next year. The state has a $1 billion surplus, yet the arts have had flat funding for several years so they are working for increases. They lost two lobbyists in the last few years with the most recent one currently running for office.
Anne Katz (Wisconsin) – The state’s last increase for arts funding came in 1992 and they have had a deficit budget for the past 12 years. Fortunately, Lt. Gov. Lawton is a passionate advocate for the arts and speaks everywhere about it. She is now working on a new creative economy funding initiative and is supportive of $1 per capita funding for the arts. The Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Tourism are in favor of the increase and the State Superintendent of Schools is a former music teacher. Unfortunately, the Governor doesn’t get it. Advocacy efforts are focused on more money in the budget. They currently have 33 captains in all 33 senate districts and three-fourths of the Legislature is up for reelection in the fall. They are also working tirelessly on arts education issues.
Trish Poupore (Virginia) - Virginians for the Arts is working with Governor Kaine's office to finalize preparations for its Governors Arts Awards celebration in mid-September. Ten award winners will be recognized.
VFTA launched at new web site July 1--it still has the old domain address (VaforArts.org). The organization continues to encourage participants to sign-on to its "Arts Build Communities" public awareness campaign.
The Virginia Commission for the Arts begins its July 1, 2008 fiscal year at $6.2 million. Like most of the rest of the country, Virginia is experience an economic downturn. In fall 2007, all state agencies were asked by Governor Kaine to reduce spending, and its FY07-08 state appropriation of $6.37 million was cut by $191,220.
The "major" Virginia arts organizations have initiated a statewide collaborative celebration of the arts, "Minds Wide Open," which will take place for first time between March and June 2010. The state's arts organizations, from the smallest to the largest, have been invited to conduct programming centered on a common theme during Minds Wide Open months. In 2010 the theme will be Women in the Arts. The state collaborative effort is designed to enhance the visibility of the arts in Virginia, to provide an opportunity for arts organizations of all sizes to work together and to allow smaller organizations to benefit from marketing and publicity efforts of the larger organizations.
Donna Collins (Ohio) - Ohio Citizens for the Arts has been working with constituents to develop tools aimed at informing the field (at the local level) about how to secure support and funding for the arts. These tools are key to helping our members understand the current financial times in state and federal funding for the arts and how we must use every available resource to make our case for cultural vitality, economic growth, and educational excellence in and through the arts. In regards to financial hard times, the Ohio Arts Council (along with every state agency) took a 10% cut to the biennial budget – this cut depleted nearly all of the dollars gained (11% increase) in the originally adopted budget for FY2008-2009 for which Ohio Citizens for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council felt was a significant move forward.
Ohio Citizens for the Arts continues to work with high school and college students to build the foundation of advocates in the state – most notably through the High School Student Advocates program and COSAA (Central Ohio Student Arts Advocates) at The Ohio State University. Arts Day 2009 is scheduled for April 1st. Each year the High School Student Advocates leave a commemorative gift at each legislator’s office on Arts Day and the 2009 book will be A Street Called Home by Aminah Robinson, artist and author.
Sheila and Anne then adjourned the meeting.
*Visit with Randy Cohen:
During the State of the State reports, Randy Cohen stopped into the meeting. He gave an overview of the hot topics within the research department of Americans for the Arts including that the arts and healthcare is a big issue on the horizon. The accreditation firm for hospitals, the Joint Commission, reports that 44% of heath care facilities have art therapy programs and the Children’s Hospital of Tallahassee has found that it has helped doctors work with children before they go into a CT scan. A study shows there is a 98% success rate with it and it saves over $500 per procedure.
Anne asked (on behalf of Sheila) about the idea of an attitudinal study of the arts like Sheila has seen the environmental groups use regarding wording used in pools. Randy said that benchmarking is key and developing a new range of evaluation mechanisms would be needed.
Stan added that going forward, he would hope that there would be direct contact and discussions with the SAAN and Randy to set the research agenda into the future since it is the foundation of messaging and branding. Randy agreed.
Judy stated that the Creative Industries reports are now a critical tool for advocates so SAAN would like to have the most recent data for free instead of older data available online. She said that not every state can pay $300 but she would be okay with a token $25 amount.
Anne thanked Randy for his accessibility and help over the years.
Randy added that Americans for the Arts is also doing field research for local arts agencies, private sector, and the changes in funding.
Lisa Caretto said that a member of an important committee told her that they think that private donors give enough to the arts so the state shouldn’t have to. She wants to know if there is data to counteract that. Randy said that national data comes from Giving USA and the best tool we have now to pick up private sector funding is through the Conference Board study on innovation in the workplace. Businesses are starting to get it as 70% feel creativity is important while 80% aren’t finding creative people that fit.