Waving signs urging “Save Our Arts” and “Don’t Tax Behind Our Backs,” about 150 people gathered outside the Bellevue in Center City yesterday to protest a proposal to tax tickets for museums and performing-arts venues to balance the state budget.

State Sen. Larry Farnese, (D., Phila.) one of three state senators who participated in the noontime rally, said he would “join my colleagues in the Philadelphia Senate delegation, and we will fight to oppose this tax.”

Though Farnese openly opposed the tax at the rally, he did not say he would oppose the state budget when it comes up for a vote in the legislature. Farnese said that many of the arts institutions affected by the tax were in his district and that he and the Philadelphia Senate delegation, under Chairwoman Sen. Shirley Kitchen, would meet to “see what we can do.”

Farnese also said he had “not seen any language on how this money [from the tax] will be spent.”

“A community’s health is judged by the health of its arts,” said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery). He also encouraged the crowd to spread the word that the tax should not go through.

The proposed tax would add 8 percent to the cost of tickets to plays, museums, concerts, and zoos in the city and 6 percent elsewhere. Movie tickets and sporting events are exempt. “It’s ironic that [the arts will have] a higher tax than major-league sports,” said Todd Holtsberry, a member of the Secret Room Theatre and the Philadelphia Dramatists Center. “Their players seem to get paid a lot more money.”

Currently, fans at pro sporting events pay the city’s 5 percent amusement tax on tickets.

During recent budget talks, Gov. Rendell insisted that legislative leaders come up with additional sources of revenue to close a budget hole and recommended lifting some exemptions to the state sales tax. He said he didn’t care where the money came from as long lawmakers didn’t tax clothing or food. Senate GOP leaders chose what critics are now calling the “arts tax.”

The deal, tentatively approved by Rendell and Senate and House Democratic leaders, also calls for the bulk of the money raised from the tax to go into a separate fund that would be funneled back to cultural attractions statewide in the form of grants. Plans for the somewhat impromptu demonstration yesterday began Tuesday night when Thom Weaver, a theater lighting designer, sent out an e-mail to members of the arts community that went “viral.” He said excitement and fear over the proposed tax drew an immediate response.

At the rally, Weaver told the crowd that the legislators supporting the tax think they are “attacking the elite artists wearing their scarves and drinking lattes. . . . But take a look around you. I don’t see any of those here. I see hardworking men and women who need to provide for their families, provide for their children, pay mortgages.”

The protesters, mostly college students and members of the theatrical union Actors Equity, marched south down Broad Street to the University of the Arts after the protest, chanting “Save our arts!”

“I think it’s ridiculous that they’re taxing our arts,” said Tess Kunik, a freshman at the University of the Arts.

“There are better things that could be taxed,” said Graham Hooper, also a freshman at the school.

In these tough times, even a small increase in a ticket price can be the deciding factor for a family of four looking to spend an afternoon at the Philadelphia Zoo or the Museum of Art. A tax will decrease the affordability of Philadelphia’s myriad cultural attractions – and hurt organizations who are already seeing a decline in admissions and revenue. If Harrisburg is serious about looking for long-term solutions to fund arts and culture – then we should be invited to the table. Let’s band together to let our legislators know we think a sales tax on nonprofit cultural institutions is shortsighted – and that we want an invitation to the converstion. Once the budget agreement is drafted into legislation, we’ll only have a ten day window – so the time to act is not tomorrow, but NOW.

After the jump, find out what you can do to help this cause. ~D
Step 1: Find the Harrisburg office phone number (look for the 717 area code) for both your state senator and representative using our handy Legislator Lookup.

Step 2: Need some help with your message? Use the following call script: Hello, my name is ________, and as a resident of _______, I’m calling in opposition to an expansion of the state sales tax on the backs of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in order to balance the FY10 state budget. In these tough economic times, increases on ticket prices only taxes out working families out of theaters, museums, and zoos. Interestingly, sports and movies – which are huge revenue generators for Pennsylvania – remain exempt from the tax. This doesn’t seem right. I think that those of us who work in, or support these nonprofit institutions in our region should be a part of the conversation on long-term solutions for cultural funding. I ask that Senator/Representative _________ brings this message to caucus leadership before the budget is signed into law.

Step 3: Once you’ve delivered the above message, ask if you can meet with your legislator in person to deliver the same message. Need some help in preparing for a meeting? Email sarac@philaculture.org with any questions – and please report your call and if you’ve scheduled a visit to the same address.

In Harrisburg and across Pennsylvania, we are fortunate to have excellent nonprofit performing arts organizations. These groups are already struggling with the challenges of the continuing economic recession, and now the governor and some members of the Legislature want to force these community-based, nonprofit organizations to shoulder the burden of the failures of the state budget through a nonprofit tax.

It is both sad and astonishing to me that our state leaders would choose nonprofits to realize funds to solve the state’s budget problems. The proposal to tax nonprofits by charging sales tax on subscriptions, ticket sales, art exhibitions and museum admissions will only further damage the health of our state and its communities. The amount of revenue this plan would generate for the state is trivial, but the consequences for the nonprofit arts community would be severe.

Subscription renewals and ticket sales are already down for these nonprofits, while the costs of operating are up, largely due to the current economic situation. Financial support from local funding sources has also been greatly reduced.

Nonprofit performing arts organizations strive to make their presentations available for the communities they serve by pricing tickets to be affordable to all. If the Legislature and the governor approve this tax on nonprofits, the cost of tickets will be increased. A consequence will be reduced attendance at these community cultural events. Lower attendance will hurt many nonprofit organizations.

Some community-based groups will likely not survive under this burdensome tax. The cost of collecting sales tax and complying with bookkeeping and auditing requirements would add to the already increased administrative and operation costs that nonprofits are struggling to bear.

Furthermore, state leaders are considering slashing or eliminating the funding to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Created by Gov. Scranton in 1966, the council has been a powerful advocate in Pennsylvania for fostering and supporting cultural projects and organizations that benefit our local communities and our state.

If the Council on the Arts were to be shuttered due to poor budgetary planning by our state leaders, our communities will suffer to an incalculable extent. Pennsylvania has already experienced a “brain drain” as our young adults move to other states that offer more opportunities. Imagine if the shortlist of creative outlets currently available in Pennsylvania for our young adults is further reduced.

Our leaders in Harrisburg may see the nonprofit tax as a quick fix, but the tax will be profoundly destructive to the cultural community. Ultimately, this long-term damage will further diminish Pennsylvania’s potential for growth and prosperity.

Instead of burdening these organizations with a nonprofit tax, they should be supported and nourished by our state leaders. It is unthinkable to further starve and threaten nonprofits for the sake of increasing tax revenues to fill funding gaps in the budget.

I challenge our state’s leaders to reduce costs in a responsible way while finding innovative ways to balance the budget without harming community arts organizations.

This proposal to tax nonprofits for ticket sales to cultural and education events is a self-defeating plan. Inevitably, the meager revenue generated by these new sales taxes will wither as nonprofits fade out of existence due to poor tax policy decisions.

The capital region’s nonprofit arts organizations are good community partners and a cultural resource for Pennsylvania residents young and old, from every walk of life. We can’t allow state leaders to take that away.

Dr. William M. Murray is chairman of the board of the Harrisburg Symphony Association.

By Elliot Eisner

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.
Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it
is judgment rather than rules that prevail.
2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution
and that questions can have more than one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving
purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.
When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source
and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young
what adults believe is important.

SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press. Available from NAEA Publications. NAEA grants reprint permission for this excerpt from Ten Lessons with proper acknowledgment of its source and NAEA.

From The Daily Review.

By WARREN HOWELER
Times Editor

SAYRE — Motorists who travel by the Sayre Theatre Wednesday will notice something different — a black drop-cloth covering the marquee.

The action that will soon be taken by the Sayre Theatre and the other theaters managed by the Bradford County Regional Arts Council will be repeated by facilities across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania that specialize in the arts — such as libraries and museums — in recognition of “Artless Wednesday.”

The black drop-cloths will cover theater marquees and other such art-related symbols is part of a state-wide protest of the budget proposals being thrown around in Harrisburg that either eliminate all funding for the arts for the 2009-2010 fiscal year or cut it by two-thirds, according to Sayre Theatre Manager Marjorie Ross.

For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the total state budget for the arts in Pennsylvania was $15 million. In his proposal for the current fiscal year, Gov. Ed Rendell proposed a $1 million cut in funding.

However, Senate Bill 850 — which was the Senate Republican’s response to Rendell’s budget — eliminate all funding for the arts from the state budget, said BCRAC Executive Director Brooks Eldredge-Martin.

Senate Bill 850 was later defeated in the state House of Representatives and Pennsylvania still has no budget in place for this fiscal year, which began on July 1.

In the meantime, Senate Republicans have proposed an alternative figure for arts funding for the current fiscal year — $5 million, said Eldredge-Martin.

Wednesday’s visual protest is aimed at showing people within the state what it would be like to have one day without the arts, said Ross.

“So you might go into a museum in Pennsylvania on Wednesday and their statues will be shrouded,” she said. “At theaters like ours, our marquees will be covered in black.”

“We’re just trying to say ‘save the arts in Pennsylvania,’” Ross stated.

There is an expectation that some funding will cut from the arts budget for this fiscal year, said Ross.

“But to give us a big fat zero is a shame,” she said.

Ross noted that some of the initiatives offered by the Bradford County Regional Arts Council that could be loss through the elimination of the state’s arts funding include the artist-in-residency program and the arts programs that are presented at the theater for school-age children.

“All these things will be gone,” she said.

Ross also stated that it costs every taxpayer in the state of Pennsylvania $2.50 a year to support the arts.

Ross encourages anyone who is concerned about this issue to contact their local state representatives.

Pennsylvania is in day 68 of the state budget impasse. This impasse is hurting nonprofit groups all over the Commonwealth including arts organizations. It is so important for Pennsylvania’s arts organizations, arts patrons, and those who are touched by the arts everyday to continue to keep members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly informed as to what the arts do in our communities. We need to be persistent in delivering the message that, as their constituents, funding at $14 million for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) grants program and at $1.2 million for the administration for the PCA is a priority.

artless Wednesdays…what is it all about? Starting Wednesday and continuing each Wednesday until a budget is passed, we are asking for arts organizations to make a symbolic gesture to draw attention to what our communities might be like if there is no state support of nonprofit arts groups. Our hope is that your gestures will create opportunities for discussion on “Main Street, PA.”

To learn more visit the artless Wednesday site.

Arts & Citizenship (75″) from Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Vimeo.

All state funding for PA Council on the Arts is in real jeopardy.
Budget negotiations are ongoing now, and your action on this issue is needed!

Let your state senator, state representative, and the governor know how important funding for the arts is to you. Phone calls and hand written personal notes get the most attention.

Governor Edward G. Rendell’s Office, 225 Main Capitol Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120. Or phone: (717) 787-2500. Or fax: (717) 772-8284.

To find the legislators that represent your district, please click here.

The Arts Bank’s neon sign at Broad and South Streets will be dark for a couple of weeks. As recently as Wednesday night, it proclaimed “Arts Ban” – not a cheery thought, given that it’s on the Avenue of the Arts. Phillip Van Cleave, the University of the Arts’ vice president for facilities management and operations, said the school had planned to relamp the sign, but just hadn’t gotten it done before the K burned out.

By Michael Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist