Many have commented in some productive way on the unrest and uprising in Baltimore just three weeks ago. I have struggled to find words that could be at all meaningful. The more I think about it, the more I try to contextualize the value of my work as an advocate/lobbyist for public funding for the arts, and answer the very difficult question -- Does my work matter/make a difference in people's daily lives. This question was significantly reinforced over the weekend by a puppet. Yes, "Princeton" the puppet in search of a "purpose" in AVENUE Q (don't miss the really wonderful treatment this musical receives by Baltimore's STILLPOINTE THEATRE.) Ultimately, I do believe my work matters, the question now is 'how much?’ And, what more can I do with this platform I work from to create a stronger and more engaged sector that revels in a strong public trust, and gives back every day as thanks for it. A recent ON BEING Pod-cast helped me begin to explore that question.
Each year for the last five, in my role as Executive Director of Maryland Citizens for the Arts, I have advocated directly and indirectly for sustained or increased funding (via a General Fund appropriation of taxpayer dollars) to support the nonprofit arts sector in our state.
When I started this job, funding was leveled off at $13.2 million after being reduced by $3 million, as a direct result of the great recession. At the end of the most recent General Assembly session, funding was approved at it's highest level ever in Maryland, at almost $16.8 million. These numbers tell me that our leaders in Annapolis have a great deal of faith in the value of the arts. As a sector we make an enormous impact economically, over $1 billion annually according to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development study released annually by the Maryland State Arts Council. But, and to get to the point of my Blog title, what impact are we having socially -- or more, what are we doing as stewards of public trust (what responsibilities do we have), to create access for all to the instrinsic benefits of arts experiences.
Each year for the last five, in my role as Executive Director of Maryland Citizens for the Arts, I have advocated directly and indirectly for sustained or increased funding (via a General Fund appropriation of taxpayer dollars) to support the nonprofit arts sector in our state.
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| Government House, Annapolis, MD |
Recently I was asked very publicly, via social media, where, in the Maryland Constitution, does it say that taxpayers must support the arts. Well, good question..., it doesn’t. And yet, for nearly 50 years, Maryland taxpayers have chosen to do just that. However, with this public trust comes a great responsibility, one that goes beyond creating art for art’s sake. In the above referenced pod-cast, the award winning and visionary composer Mohammed Fairouz, the youngest composer ever to be recorded by the Deutche Grammophon label, says no. “Art for the sake of Art is a pretentious concept. It is un-interesting to me. Music (art) is inextricably linked to our humanity. The days of art as elitism are over, the days of artists speaking over people’s heads and then claiming that we are more clever, more special than people who don’t understand what we are saying, are over." John F. Kennedy, in an address to Amherst College just one month before his assassination, said: “In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation” (highlighted in the same interview). I think the two ideas are not dissimilar. I think we, as arts professionals must, as Fairouz says, “speak to our audience”.
About a month ago, I attended the 20th anniversary celebration of a Maryland arts nonprofit called “Joe’s Movement Emporium”.
The event documents referred to the founding artistic director’s (Brooke Kidd) vision for a “community responsive” mission. I love this phrase. Here was not an organization which decided all this underserved metropolitan DC neighborhood needed was an outdoor theater festival, but rather one which listened to the needs of the community and built a strong nonprofit arts center around those needs — 20 years later it is thriving, and so is the community it serves.
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| Joe's Movement Emporium, Mt. Rainier, MD |
As organizations and institutions which are awarded a public trust, we must all be thinking, with every event, every program, every Tweet; how are we making change, creating access, fostering opportunity for those we serve. First Lady Michelle Obama recently told a group of donors at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York "I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum. And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself. So I know the feeling of not belonging in a place like this.” (Washington Post, 5.12.15, Richard Cohen Opinion.)
I do not presume to have an answer — I only want to begin a bigger a conversation. No matter the percentage of an organization’s budget is funded by public investment, that organization has a deep responsibility to expand the quality of life of those it serves. Can we compare public grants of any size to various pieces of our operational budgets, sure… it makes a great “you help keep the lights on” argument. Better, I think, to define the effect we have on those who support us, namely the members of the communities in which we operate, in ways that reflect access, opportunity, engagement and growth.
Mr. Fairouz has written a ballet called SADAT which instrumentally chronicles Anwar Sadat’s journey to and address before the Israeli Knesset in 1977. The music is Mr. Fairouz’s own interpretation of Sadat’s words: “Turn the song into reality that blossoms and lives.” Are we turning our music, art, poetry, dance, theatre into reality that lives? We, the publicly funded nonprofit arts sector, have a responsibility to do just that.
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