Save the Arts in PA

Tomorrow is week two of artless Wednesdays in Pennsylvania.  How will you be participating?  For tips visit http://bit.ly/4r8vX.

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I was on a conference call this afternoon with U.S. Congressman Todd Platts.  He represents the 19th Congressional District in PA which includes York, Adams, Cumberland and parts of Perry County.  The point that he kept pressing home about advocacy was the need to make personal contact with members of Congress.  He suggested that we invite the members to our arts events made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as making frequent visits to district offices.

His comments sounded very familiar to me and could easily apply to the advocacy that we do in Pennsylvania surrounding the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.  Frequent and personal contact with legislators and their staff could only help our case.  Inviting legislators and staff to events that are funded with PCA grants helps create friendships.  So I urge you to contact your legislators today and tell them that funding $14 million for the PCA grants to arts organizations and $1.2 million for the administration of the Council is a priority to you and tell them why.  What do you do with the funds that you receive from the PCA?  Do you fund a artist residency in an elementary school?  Do you provide free admission to your event to senior citizens?  Please visit or call your legislators TODAY!

Contact information for your legislators can be found at http://capwiz.com/artsusa/pa.  Or give me a call at 717-234-0959 and I’ll locate the information for you.

Thanks,

Jenny Hershour
Managing Director
Citizens for the Arts in PA

From WETM-TV.

SAYRE – One Northern Tier theatre is joining a state-wide protest against cuts in funding for the arts.

Right now arts in Pennsylvania receive 15-million dollars.

Governor Ed Rendell is proposing a one-million cut in funding.

To protest, the Sayre Theater will drape a black drop-cloth over the facility’s marquee.

Art facilities across the state are also declaring Wednesday as “Artless Wednesday”.

The goal is to also show neighbors what it would be like if art didn’t exist in their communities.

From WJAC-TV.

Black curtains drape outside the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, or SAMA, in downtown Altoona.

Starting Sept. 9, museums across Pennsylvania have been asked to participate in ArtLess Wednesdays.

It’s a campaign push by the Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania: http://www.citizensfortheartsinpa.org/index.asp.

While the museums will stay open, each one will take a different approach towards the campaign.

SAMA Executive Director Gary Moyer said the Altoona museum will drape black curtains and dim lights inside.In Johnstown, curtains will drape over paintings.

And in Loretto and Ligonier Valley, workers will turn off the lights inside.SAMA already laid off one employee in their education department.

As far as fall programs go, Altoona site manager, Barbara Hollander, said they pushed their in school artist program to the spring. They’ve also stopped bringing original works of art into schools and hospitals.

“We’ve gone so far and to see this happening, it’s so sad,” Hollander said. “It’s going to be hard to come back from this.”

This is an original post for the Philly Moms Blog by Cecily Kellogg. You can find Cecily’s more frequent diatribes at her personal blog, Uppercase Woman.

One of the best (and most challenging) jobs I ever had was at a local community arts center (The Abington Art Center, to be exact). I was hired as a marketing person to try to help them overcome some visibility issues they had (including being behind a huge stone wall) and raise their profile in the community. It was hard work, but so incredibly rewarding. I believed whole-heartedly in the mission of this art center, and some of the programs they created were just amazing. They make a real difference, every day, in the lives of their local children and adults.

One of my jobs there was the help coordinate a summer concert series. The Abington Art Center has an amazing back “lawn” (and sculpture park) that made the concerts perfect. I was in charge of these concerts for three years, and by my last summer at the organization over 1,500 people attended. You cannot imagine the deep and intense joy I felt each year as the lawn filled with people, and the children danced and danced. It made every minute of hard work (and the low pay that often comes with working in non-profits) worthwhile and a joy.

Arts organizations throughout the Philadelphia area have been a casualty in this economic climate. Individual funding is down as families tighten their belts, and both government funding and other grant giving organizations have been forced to decrease the amount of funding they can provide. I know every single arts organization has been affected, but I worry about the Arlington Art Center and wonder how they are holding up during this crisis because of my connection to them.

The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, along with most of the arts organizations in the Philly area have decided to call attention to the financial plight of the arts by participating in Artless Pennsylvania today, 9-9-09. This means that all of the art galleries, art museums, and local arts organizations today will remain dark. Actors are not acting, dancers are not dancing, musicians are not playing. Some galleries will cover the works with black cloth, others will simply be closed.
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From the Ridgeway Record.
By Amy Cherry, Staff Writer

9/9/09 marked the beginning of “Artless Wednesdays” being held across the state each Wednesday until a state budget is approved.

Elk County Council on the Arts, located on Main Street in Ridgway, was closed yesterday as it participated in the statewide arts advocacy mission.

The gallery windows were draped in black fabric with signs posted on the windows in demonstration of the 50 programs and projects in Elk, Forest, Jefferson and McKean counties which received funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts since 2007.

“As citizens we deserve a responsible state budget, to be passed in a timely manner,” noted Abbi Peters, ECCOTA executive director. “I urge residents to continue applying pressure to our legislators, call, e-mail, stop in their offices and remind them of the faces, the lives, the jobs that are affected by the drastic cuts and elimination in programs and services that are currently being proposed in the budget. These programs and services are vital to the quality of life and future of our community.”

The Artless Wednesday initiative was started by discussion of arts advocacy groups, Save the Arts of PA and Citizens for the Arts in PA.
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B. Whitaker’s blog stungun artifice, menntions artless wednesday’s.

artless wednesday’s are also mentioned today on the blog ginchy news.

From The Daily Review.