WASHINGTON–More than 500 artists and supporters of the arts converged on Capitol Hill Tuesday to mark National Arts Advocacy Day. Led by the nonprofit group Americans for the Arts, advocates called on Congress to appropriate $180 million next year for the National Endowment of the Arts. The agency received $167.5 million this year, but supporters say more is needed to sustain America’s creative community.
A host of well-known speakers came to campaign and testify before a house appropriations subcommittee. Actor Jeff Daniels told the subcommittee how the thriving Purple Rose Theatre he founded helped to revitalize his hometown.
“Theatregoers were coming from all over,” he said. “They parked their cars at our meters. They ate our foods. Drank in our bars and taverns. Because of the arts, my sleepy little hometown is now a destination.”
Joseph Riley has been the mayor of Charleston, South Carolina since 1975. Under his leadership, the city has flourished as a center for the arts with the establishment of the Piccolo Spoleto and MOJA Arts festivals and the rise of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra as one of the South’s leading orchestras.
After giving a keynote speech at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., on Arts Advocacy Day, Riley spoke with the Medill News Service about the importance of the arts for young people.
What role should government have in promoting opportunities in the arts for young people?
Every level of government should be encouraging arts funding to support young people. It’s the way we encourage the creative spirit. And young people so often can be intimidated by their creative impulses, and the arts allow young people and challenge young people to express themselves. And that is a very important part, I believe, of a successful life. The arts open doors and open minds of our young people.
What are some of Charleston’s prominent youth arts programs?
We have so many programs from working with our art museum and our children’s museum to our after-school initiatives, and of course with our school district with its comprehensive arts program. It’s really at every level. We’ve got a wonderful and famous band, Hootie and the Blowfish, and they volunteer and work with our young people in the inner city with music. That’s such a fabulous creative medium. There are just all sorts of ways that the arts are used [in Charleston] to engage young people and creative more positive experiences for them.
What would you say to people who argue that public arts funding can’t be sustained during a time of financial crisis for many state and local governments?
When times are tough, you just work harder. Remember what Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression. He funded artists and writers who made great contributions to our country. So I would argue when times are tough human beings need the arts more, not less.
Many legislators expressed their support for public funding for the arts. At a Hill event hosted by Americans for the Arts, Speaker Nancy Pelosi touted the importance of appropriations for the arts in the stimulus bill.
“We recognized in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act the value of the arts and investing in the arts as a critical investment in our community,” she said.
Congress will not finalize appropriations for the 2011 fiscal year for several months. The $180 million requested by Americans for the Arts is almost $20 million more than what President Barack Obama requested for the agency. However, Americans for the Arts representative Liz Bartolomeo says the group is confident there is enough support in Congress to approve the nonprofit’s spending proposal.