Urge Your Senator to Support NEA Funding

Great news from capitol -- the House of Representatives funded the National Endowment for the Arts at $170 million. Although this is below the funding level of 1992, it is far better than expected.

The NEA funds a wide variety of arts programs and events across the country. You may not even realize its effect in your community or region. But to maintain any sort of viable arts presence, your action is now needed to press the Senate to vote for the spending bill. Here's the link, which will take all of two minutes to fill out the form and send it off. Hearing from constituents on what matters to them really does have an impact on legislators. If they don't hear anything, they're likely to conclude it's not that important. Well all you arts advocates out there, we know it's important because it's our jobs and our kids' futures that are at stake!!

http://capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=13627991

LA Arts Town Hall Meeting Official Website

Here's your opportunity to "attend" the big LA Arts Town Hall meeting yourself. They've put up a cheerful website, even though as I've reported previously, we were listening to some rather grim news. Explore the issues yourself!

http://www.artsforla.org/2009_la_arts_town_hall_information_center

Those Groovy Art License Plates

Want to support the CA Arts Council? Fully sixty percent of its funding comes from the sales of the iconic license plate. Designed by the iconic Wayne Thiebaud, who is now about 95, we in the art field should all have these. (My brother-in-law had Thiebaud as an art teacher at Davis, where Thiebaud was part of a very hip crowd of pop artists/educators). I'm looking to buy a new vehicle before the year is over to take advantage of the sales tax credit off our income tax. It's gonna look great sporting one of these plates!

Proceeds from the sale of the arts license plates supports the popular Artists in the School program, one of many programs that makes art education available to children.

http://cac.ca.gov/licenseplate/index.php

Art Education: the Antidote to Pharma Prescriptions for Kids

There's a natural way to elevate kids' moods that doesn't require a drop of drugs -- it's art!! Yes, art is an antidote to big Pharma's hold on the childhood of too many kids. Art-making is a brain activity that transports anyone to the "zone" -- that amazing place where time seems to disappear, and one's mood is raised to a different level than could ever be achieved through drugs. You can't run out of this mood-enhancer. And it's cheap, if not entirely free. ADHD? No problem. Art is kinesthetic because it's doing. Doesn't matter if there's a "popcorn" kid (one who's up and down out of their seat) in the class, because they can do their art standing up.

Art certainly offers a viable alternative to the prison pipeline we've got going now. It's quite shocking that we spend more on building new prisons than schools! We currently have 1% of the US population locked up -- more than other country in the world. And what are the majority of people in prison for? Drug offenses. Does anybody else see a corollary here?

Kids are naturally wired for art in its many, many forms. Drugs can't replace this deep need. Kids don't lose interest in hands-on, brain-based education; quite the contrary, their hearts, hands, and minds are totally engaged.

LA Arts Town Hall Meeting

I always like it when artsy people get together just to see what kind of jewelry they're wearing. I realize this is a rather shallow view, but I look forward to the displays of creativity worn about the neck and on ears. Yes, Tracy Cheney does enjoy fun jewelry.

Perhaps the anticipation of somber art news hadn't inspired many of the participants when they got dressed this morning. There were a few crafty pieces to admire among the crowd of 575, but for the most part, it wasn't a particularly festive group that gathered in the gray morning mist. The gray mood matched the sky.

This town hall meeting was an assessment of the state of the arts -- particularly funding.

I suppose the news many of us heard who were dependent upon grants confirmed what we already knew. The foundations who provide so much of our funding are in deep trouble, like any of us who lost money in the Wall Street fiasco. The largest supporter of the arts in CA, the Irvine Foundation, saw $600,000,000 disappear this year! Oweee.

I think the saddest news is that this was not the worst year... that's coming up, and will last for three years. I didn't know that foundations operate on three year cycles with the IRS. So this year sort of didn't count. Most foundations tried to delay the pain and maintain what they had committed to (except for positions like mine that were cut!). The deep gouges are expected to last through 2012. Of course, things could pick up!

Not all was doom and gloom: $50,000,000 was secured for the arts in Obama's stimulus package. This will be distributed out to state art agencies. 85,000 art supporters -- many in the room -- had written or called Congress. Rep. Norm Dicks shepherded it through. Robert Redford and other celebrities made calls the night before the vote.

What will the public get from this money? 40,850 arts-related businesses employ 190,267 people in Los Angeles County. In LA, 4.3% of all businesses are art-related, and that's 2.3% of all jobs across the US -- 6 million of them. There are more non-profit art organizations than ever. In 1965 there were 7,000. Today it's 100,000! Now 10% of those are in danger of going under, as 20% of the private funding disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The arts are the most invisible, secret weapon. It's too bad we have to continuously make the case for our existence!

Looking for Exciting Kid Art Classes This Summer?

ART WITH THE ANIMALS

Every now and then I have offered art classes for kids. I'm teaming up with Reptacular Animals this summer for a truly unique art teaching experience -- they will bring a different exotic animal to class each week as the class models! If you're looking for kids art classes in Los Angeles, these will be fun ones to attend.

Instead of going to the zoo, a mini-zoo of kid-friendly animals will come to art class. The children get to handle the animals, and then make an art project based on them and their habitat. Doing something exciting like this is enough to get me out on a Saturday morning. This will be a very memorable art experience for creative kids. I'm having fun planning what we'll be doing. Drawing with a 10 foot python draped around the shoulders would be a totally different way to learn art!

Check out Reptacular's really neat website to see who will be coming to art class http://www.reptacularanimals.com/. They have over 150 animals from giant reptiles and creepy crawlies to furry pocket pets and colorful parrots.

This will be hands-on instruction in every sense of the word. We'll be drawing, painting, and making sculptures of the live animals. We'll look at animals in famous artworks.

Saturday classes run throughout the summer. Children may come to one or all sessions. An art camp will be offered during the last two weeks of August. Those are the hardest weeks of the summer for kids and parents...all the other camps are finished...kids are bored...parents can't wait for the school year to begin again.... So, that's why you'll want to bring them to make some art. This is an unparalled opportunity for kids who want art classes in Los Angeles!

Here are the details:

For elementary school-aged students.

All materials supplied.

Classes will be taught at Berkeley Hall School located at 16000 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles 90049 -- halfway between the San Fernando Valley and the west side off 405.

Saturday classes 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. $125 for 7 weeks or $20 a class for drop-ins. July 11 - August 22.

Summer Camp 1 August 17 to 21 (focus on color)
Summer Camp 2 August 24 to 28 (focus on media)
10:00 to 2:00 p.m. $200/ sibling discounts.

Call 818.727.1594 to register!

L.A. Town Hall Meeting About the Arts

Friday, June 12th, art educators, artists, and arts organization leaders will be streaming into downtown LA for a town hall meeting at the Japanese American Cultural Center. The sorry state of arts funding is sure to be on everyone's mind. This all-day event will be exploring arts advocacy. The roster of speakers certainly have years of experience to share.

Even if you can't attend, check out www.artsforla.org/townhallsessions to see what's happening. There have been events, petitions, rallies, and protests around the state -- and even at school board meetings. Since artists are used to problem-solving in all aspects of creating and teaching, you have to believe that this dire situation we find ourselves mired in can be turned around -- creatively!

One of the cool things experienced when working through the creative process is watching chaos begin to form into order. And then discovering how all the pieces come together once the solution becomes evident. Surely, the same is true for our present crisis. The solutions may not be evident now, but the creative process sets about working on them even when we're not fully aware of doing so. The "right brain" techniques used by artists a great deal of their time can't be made to produce on a specific time table -- it's not like a "left brain" function such as adding two numbers together to get the same predictable answer every time, anytime. Ah, that's a major reason why citizens need to be taught through the arts: they need to know how to problem-solve -- especially in situations where there is no one right answer to be found!