[NEohioPAL] Keep Government out of the Arts

[Richard B. Ingraham]

This discussion have been very interesting.  Although I certainly fall into
the category that more funding for the arts would be a good thing in this
country, I will try to keep my comments here more neutral, if possible.

1.  As for funding arts education, from everything I've ever read about arts
education, I have only seen positive benefits.  By this I mean that all the
studies I've ever read or heard about showed the students who were involved
in the arts and had access to good arts education also did better on average
on the more basic subjects of English, Math, Science, etc...   

If someone knows of any studies that came to the opposite conclusion, I
would love to hear about them and read up on them.  But if students can be
motivated to do better in the core subjects by being involved in the arts in
some fashion, it seems like a no brainer that we should do whatever we can
to foster that.

2.  I don't know of any arts organization that funds itself fully from the
box office receipts.  Or rather I should say that I have never worked for
one.  (for better or worse)   It seems to me that if we (the artists) only
relied on box office receipts (or the equivalent for art forms that don't
have a box office) we as a society would be doing some pretty serious
censorship.  Probably much greater than anything our government would be
capable of.  At least in my opinion.  I have worked in for profit theatre a
few times and I am outspoken enough to tell you that it wasn't all that much
fun.  In fact just the opposite.  If that is what I had to do every day for
a living, I would have moved on to something else a LONG time ago.  I'm sure
not all for profit ventures come with Producers and Playwrights yelling in
your face (literally, yes while an audience is in the theatre!) telling you
how to do your job.  But so far that is what I have been graced with from
the for profit theatre world.  Although I guess my cruise ship work is kind
of a for profit venture?  Those have been pleasant experiences even if there
is a ... well... lack of "art" to the end product.  But those shows are not
exactly self sustaining, they are part of the "draw" to get people onto the
ship.  Most people don't go on the ship just to see the shows.  Even the
couple of forays into for profit productions I have worked on, they were
done in a partnership with a non for profit organization.  (think usage of a
venue, like Playhouse Square)  If the box office income was required to
cover all of those costs I doubt we would have much theatre or live
performances of any kind going on.  

I'm not sure what we would be left with if all the arts were for profit
only, but I suspect that the only place where much theatre would be going on
at all would be Vegas and it's shows that I sarcastically refer to as "flash
and trash".  Yeah, yeah, I know some people love that stuff...  but is that
all we as a society would really want as available entertainment?  I don't
know enough to speculate what that would mean for film, TV, Music, Visual
arts, Dance, etc....


3.  In regards to corporate funding it would be nearly impossible to rely
solely on those plus box office sales either.  As profits take a hit what do
you think the first thing a corporation is going to ax?  Ummm..  probably
funding for anything that doesn't directly support its business, and arts
funding is probably at the top of that list.  

A side story here...   

It's worth keeping in mind that corporations like to fund things that are
"in their back yard" so to speak.  So that means that as corporate
headquarters flee areas of the country like Cleveland we have less and less
corporate funders.  Would you be happy with a mass closing of arts
organizations in Cleveland (we are already starting to see that I'm afraid)
that is in direct proportion to the number of corporate headquarters we've
lost over the past 10 to 15 years?

Anyway back to my story...

In the lobby of The Cleveland Play House there used to be a plaque.  I think
it's still there, but I have not looked for it in some time, so maybe it's
still there or maybe they have tucked it away in some closet by now.  This
plaque was a list of the major corporate donors for the current season.  

When I started at the Cleveland Play House as a Sound Design intern in the
Spring of 1994 the plaque was nearly full.  I think it might have had
"slots" for maybe 12 to 18 little brass tags on it.  Something around that
size.  By the time I quit my job (by that time I was the Resident Sound
Designer) at The Play House in April of 2001, I think there was maybe 2
corporations on that plaque.

Boring story..  I know.. but it shows just how much loss of corporate
support organizations like The Cleveland Play House have lost.  And that was
in reasonably "prosperous" times.  I don't even want to think about what
serious economic downturns do to organizations such as this.

4.  Funding from large philanthropic organizations (like the Cleveland
Foundation) to non-profit arts organizations is great.  However there is one
big problem with such organizations.  Many of them rely heavily on financial
markets (such as the stock market) to generate money that they then donate
to other organizations and individuals.  Well if they are making a lot less
profit in the financial markets, then they also have less funding to hand
out.  That hurts any organizations that might depend on that funding to keep
their doors open.


Well I've rambled on more than long enough here, please feel free to form
your own opinions. :-)


Richard B. Ingraham
RBI Computers and Audio
http://www.rbicompaudio.20m.com