Still Reeling

Finals are a hard reality after marching up to Capitol Hill. Those are some AMP Students with ArtServe! Click here to read more!

Enrich...Inspire...Promote...ART!!!

Arts Advocacy Day 2012 was an amazing opportunity for me as I enter the Arts Administration field for my first grad semester at EMU. I never imagined standing next to Ben Folds and taking a picture with him (gahhhhh...) following the amazing Nancy Hanks lecture. What made that possible? THE ARTS! As Ben stated, "Arts education is not a luxury, it's a necessity." I couldn't agree more. Even Alec Baldwin, whom I also stood about 2 feet from (permagrin), had a unique and powerful take on the arts, "Art is like water, it's essential...I'm here to help you carry the water..." 

In addition to advocating for the arts, we got to witness space shuttle Discovery's final trip during our Hill visits! It was carried over Capital Hill by a 747. WOW!

And it was only fitting for us to spread the word by AMPlifying Gandhi =) This was near the hotel we stayed in at Dupont Circle. He looks good, right?



We also had the privilege of thanking Senator Debbie Stabenow, among others, for her amazing continued support of the arts. All in all, I say this trip was a huge success. Met new friends that also value the arts? Check! Networked in my field? Check! Learned a WHOLE lot? Check! All while having the time of my life! Thanks to all those funders and faculty that made it possible for us to attend Arts Advocacy Day, it was truly amazing!

#AAD 2012

When I went to DC, I couldn't believe that I visited the Senate and House Office Buildings and met several congressmen and their assistants. It was a great experience for me because I've never met a congressman in Korea. To support the arts and say thank you so much for their current supporting the arts, our leader, Mike, dealt with every situation with agility. Especially, I felt comfortable because of him. Our team also did great job. I think they were so energetic! I could feel that all love the arts. Through this #AAD 2012, I could met congressmen and their assistants, made great new friends, and learn their passion for the arts. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Reflecting on Arts Advocacy Day

It has been a few days since we all have arrived back from D.C. and I can honestly say I had the best time and wish it was a longer trip! I made some great new friends and built on older friendships. My favorite part of the trip was the Nancy Hanks lecture. I thought Alec Baldwin did a phenomenal job on talking about his experiences growing up and how they shaped him. He really got me pumped up about funding for arts in education. He came from a family that didn't spend too much time thinking about the arts or exposing themselves to it but, later on in his life he could see how the arts were infused in his life he just didn't realize it at the time. Art is around us everywhere and to disregard it is a shame when it has so many beneficial aspects. The talking points during the Monday lectures about arts and health care were motivating. Half of the nation's healthcare institutions provide their own art programming for patients, families and staff. The reason for this is because studies have shown that having art will decrease the length of hospital stays, create a healing environment and reduce depression with a creative outlet. It is was interesting to hear so many different viewpoints and facts about how the arts help in so many different aspects such as health, education, the economy and a sense of pride. Rocco Landesman spoke of the grant from the NEA "Our Town". This grant helps with civic development and projects that involve partnerships to come together to place art at the center of the community. I also loved walking around town with new and old friends learning the city and getting lost on trains. The monuments were breath taking and inspiring. I can say that this trip was by far more than what I expected. Being surrounded by hundreds of people that are passionate about the arts is magical. I am happy I went on this journey with some great classmates and had the opportunity to make lifelong memories.

My Rediscovered Patriotism

I recently returned from an amazing journey to our nations capital. While I got to visit the monuments, and enjoy some of the local eateries and bars of Washington DC my trip was not designed for visiting tourist attractions. I took the sixteen hours of travel by bus and train to visit Michigan congress people, and senators, and discuss the importance of our government restoring the 155 million dollar contribution that the government used to give to the National Endowment for the Arts. This was far from a solo expedition. Aside from the other ten students from EMU, and our professor Susan Badger Booth, we came across hundreds of fellow art advocates from all over the country. We were all honored to come try to save the arts that have mattered so much to us.

Upon arrival I spent the first day in town walking around the monuments. I viewed some of the most intricate architecture in the world, with beautiful art work inside of them, and spotted some amazing quotes from people that have helped sculpt this great nation. I also saw a church with a rainbow banner over the entrance saying All Are Welcome. As a long time advocate of gay rights, this really warmed my heart. Seeing all the beautiful art work across the city, I felt so happy and inspired to be in DC advocating to continue funding of art.

The next day, we woke up very early to go to the Art Advocacy orientation and training event. We listened to veterans of the event talk about the kind of reactions we would receive from different congress members, and senators, and how to handle different meetings. We were introduced to many interesting facts about the impact of art funding, art education in schools, and in organizations, and the truth about how small the amount of money we are asking to restore really was. I initially felt very nervous about the two days to come. However, the Nancy Hanks Lecture that cam around that evening gave me not only confidence, but pride to be where I was.

The Nancy Hanks Lecture had several speakers, who could have just ranted about facts and figures that make the case for financing the arts, but they went much deeper than that. They told their own stories. They ranged from being raised by an artistic family, and having the luxury of a life surrounded by art, to stories of poverty that used art to escape everything, to Alec Baldwin, who found it himself, in inspirations from multiple artistic genres. Ben Folds gave me chills as he played two of my favorite songs by him with a group of student instrumentalists, in a style I’ve never heard them performed. Those musicians played together for the first time at 3pm and performed two beautiful pieces at 8pm later in that same day. If I would have left immediately following the Lecture I would have felt already that my journey was worth it, and there was still another amazing day to come.

I woke up the morning after The Lecture, and felt very patriotic. Knowing that I was on my way to capital hill, to meet politicians, and tell them what I believed they should do, made me proud to be in a country that I have that right. Before I had my first meeting of the day, I went to the Opening breakfast, where many of the speakers from the previous night said a few more things, along with several others including several actors, and other artists. After these speeches concluded, I had the chance to hand Alec Baldwin and actress Tiffany Thiessen, both AMP t-shirts. Once I took care of that, I made my way to my first meeting of the day. I went to meet Sanders Levin at his office, and got to speak with his top aide. He was nice enough, all though not terribly receptive, saying everybody needed to be prepared to make some sacrifices. From there I went to speak with John Dingell, a long time advocate of financing the arts. We got to speak with John for about five minutes maybe slightly longer. We mostly thanked him for his consistent support, and asked him what he thought we could do to help out cause aside from what we were already there doing. He was very honest with us, saying we need to get out there and vote, and inform out friends and family to vote with us. He warned that if the wrong shake ups happen this election year, the arts could see a substantial loss to the small amount we have already been receiving. After Dingell had to leave our meeting, we had the pleasure of speaking with his top aide for about fifteen more minutes. He was a nice young man named Greg, who I wish many successful years in Washington DC. My last meeting of the day was with Mike Rogers. I was most excited for this meeting because Rogers represents my home town Howell. Unfortunately we were unable to speak with Rogers himself, but we got to speak with his aide for about ten minutes. His aide was nice as well, but definitely did not seem terribly interested or impacted by what we were saying and doing.

Overall this is a trip that I plan to make again next year without question. It was informative, and made me feel proud to be an artist in one of the greatest countries in the world. I just probably will fly instead of taking the 12 hour train ride.

Tourist Time

OH-IO! What? No one else?

WWII/Pearl Harbor Memorial. And Emily, Derrick, and Shellie.

Honest Abe.

If the Washington Monument was the Federal Discretionary Budget, the Arts would own 1/4 inch of that building. 

After arriving in DC yesterday, I wanted to be a little touristy. Well, a lot touristy. I can't help it. A few of us decided to see some of the memorials and monuments, and buy popsicles from corner food trucks. Why are there not food trucks on every corner?! The monuments were really beautiful, and some of them were really powerful and a emotionally devastating. The Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial, especially, were astonishing to see (sorry for the lack of pictures, I was too awestruck to think).

After walking around the city for three hours (believe me, my feet feel it today) and getting lost every hundred feet or so, we decided to call it a night. It was the perfect way to spend the first day here, and I can't wait to keep this trip going.


Who is excited for Alec Baldwin in a few hours?? Gotta get him in an AMP! shirt!

Advocate for Tax Reform!

One of the issues we are advocating for during our time in DC is tax reform, specifically encouragement of charitable gifts to support the arts. Some of our action points for Congress are:

• Preserve incentives for charitable giving, including tax deductibility
• Reinstate the IRA Rollover
• Reject any attempts to create a hierarchy of deductions to nonprofits, potentially reducing incentives for charitable gifts to arts and culture organizations compared to other partners with the nonprofit community.

Why does Congress need to take action on these?

Nonprofit arts organizations attract donations from people across the economic spectrum, and they serve people across their communities, including underserved populations.

    The arts are truly for everyone, serving all populations. These organizations are the ones that have programs that focus on healthcare, addiction, senior services, education, cultural preservation, etc. On top of all that they offer, nonprofit arts organizations create jobs (over 5 million throughout the entire country!) and economic growth. Also, arts and culture define our communities. 

Unlike other tax deductions, charitable giving incentives do not enrich individual donors: they are an investment for the public good. 

    Preserving tax incentives will only help nonprofits to expand and create more programming and opportunities for their communities. 

Diminishing charitable giving incentives in the interest of short-term revenue gain will have lasting unintended consequences for nonprofit services and jobs. 

   Many nonprofits cannot survive with even the smallest decline in giving--40% of financial support for most nonprofits come from charitable giving. Without this, these organizations wouldn't survive, leading to a spiraling effect of lost employment and economic growth, not to mention harming a community. 

Proposed changed to charitable tax deduction will reduce giving. 

   Donors do not respond to tax law changes. Previous examples show that donors will not give less because often most giving is "from the heart."

The public supports the charitable deduction. 

  A recent poll discovered that 7 of 10 Americans oppose eliminating the charitable deduction, regardless of lowering taxes or reducing the national deficit. 

My thoughts? 

This is necessary! These charitable donations are what many of my favorite non-profit groups survive on, and without them, they will struggle, if not fall completely. Daily, nonprofit arts organizations struggle with maintaining their donations and to make it even more difficult will be detrimental. Federal funding for the arts is not enough, especially when we receive 3 cents out of every $100 spent in the discretionary fund. That number is so minute that it's laughable, and it becomes offensive when more restrictions are placed on charitable giving. We are asking Congress for things that will do good, many of which were once in place. These items are not extreme, are very fair, and will only help.

We should preserve the things we love about our community. #AAD12

Leading US Creative Entrepreneur Drives NEA into 21st Century

 

 Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, 

photographed here with EMU AMP! Students

Chairman Landesman welcomed arts advocates to DC and thanked us for advocating with our representatives to restore FY2013 NEA funding to $155 million.  Landesman took pride in sharing one of his favorite new programs, Our Town, an initiative that invests in creative and innovative projects in which communities, together with their arts and design organizations and artists, are looking to increase their livability.  This program connected with students and their interest in Detroit's growing network of Creative Entrepreneurs working to make the city a more inviting place to live, work and create. 

Briefing on the NEA, AIE, & Nonprofit Tax Issues

Did you know? "Approximately 40% of financial support for nonprofit performing arts organizations is derived from charitable giving."  Without that amazing support, we would not have the public access to the arts that we now possess.

Arts in Education Programs

Today we're at the Omni Shoreham hotel listening to panels, meeting with the Michigan and Ohio state captains, and finalizing our plans for tomorrow. One of the panels earlier this morning was titled Arts in Education programs. A lot of the panel was taking about funding for arts education and the impact of No Child Left Behind on arts in public education. I think one of the more interesting points brought up in the panel was about waivers for No Child Left Behind. This is a new concept that started in the fall. States can apply for waivers for sections of No Child Left Behind, and say how they will supplement those sections and assess them. Eleven states were approved for this in the fall, and the second batch of waivers were approved this year. I think it will be really interesting to see if enough states apply fr waivers and are successful without certain provisions of No Child Left Behind, what the future of this piece of legislation will be.

Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium

We arrived just in time to hear Adrian Ellis talk about the Jazz at Lincoln Center program and the capital building project he led.  Marissa will give us her take on the Ellis keynote.

At the reception we ran into an EMU Arts Management Program Alumni - Ashley McDonald - who moved to DC soon after graduation for an AmeriCorps placement.  Now Ashley is working at a local DC Gallery and considering graduate school.

Alex Marr, Patrick Holubik, Ashley McDonald, Marissa Kurtzhals & Eon Kim

DC Arrival

Today is the day!

We are leaving on the train for Washington DC  tonight.  We arrive in DC 12:30pm Amtrak Time (AKA who knows when we'll get in.)  We've been invited to take part in the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium  at American University prior to Monday's AFA Conference, we hope to get into DC in time to hear the keynote by Adrian Ellis, recent Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

But that's 24 hours from now . . .  we'll keep you posted.