Headline of the Day

Great headline from Humid City on the arts funding drama.

Arts Advocacy Tool Kit

With the latest Division of the Arts cuts, it seems like a good time to re-post the Fundamentals of Arts Advocacy Powerpoint from Americans for the Arts. Download it here.

Louisiana Arts Funding Cuts

Time to rev up the emails, faxes, pitchforks...

The Decentralized Arts Funding Program grants dollars have basically been zeroed out by the Governor along with a significant cut in Statewide Arts Grants in the 2009/2010 state budget. The Arts Council of New Orleans administers the Decentralized Arts Grants in this region and the Louisiana Division of the Arts administers Statewide Arts Grants.
The House Appropriations Committee will be meeting next week and we need to deluge them with emails, faxes and phone calls urging them to reinstate the grants dollars. Please go to the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts’ website, www.lparts.org, type in your zip code in the "Write Your Legislator" box at the lower left hand corner.

Copyright Webinar

The Arts Council boldly plunges into online programming with our first Webinar, a primer on Copyright on April 1. It's free to anyone with a fast intenet connection. Here are the details:

The Arts Council presents its first online webinar! Join ELLA Project Co-Founder and Supervising Attorney Ashlye Keaton as she discusses the importance of copyright registration, remedies for infringement, and a tutorial on the Copyright offices new eCo online filing system.

This webinar will go live at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1. Participants need a Flash enabled computer, speakers, and a high speed connection. Participants will be able to interact through flash polls, live chat, and submit their questions to be answered in real time. If you can't join us on April 1, the whole presentation, including audio, will be available for free streaming on demand from the Arts Council's website.

To join this webinar, please email Gene Meneray for the link to the meeting room, and an overview of the webinar.

This workshop is funded with support from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation

Le Petit

Not good.

Colton

Nice T-P article on Colton School, with appearances by Arts Council friends David Weinberg, Angelamia Bachemin, and others. Hopefully they can work something out with the RSD and keep it operating in it's current state. The location is ideal, and with a little (okay, a lot) of capital improvements, it could be a real catalyst for cultural development.

Tax Credit Fun

Good to see the Governor looking to extend the tax credits. We know they can be pricey, but the film tax credit has been great, and we're starting to see some permanent infrastructure come into place. Also, we still think that if the music credits can reach their potential, we'll see significant industry development.

One Mo Time

The Arts Council database contains over 400 painters in the metro area. If we updated our database better, that number would be much higher. Now, from all accounts, James Michalopoulos is a great guy, long time supporter of the Arts Council, top notch painter, and we do love us some New Orleans Rum, so please don't think we're picking on the artist. But, with all the great artists here, did we need the 5th Michalopoulos JF poster in the last 11 years?

Sharks patrol these waters

Another reminder from USA Today of how bad it is (and could get) for performing arts orgs. We knew when NBA teams were worried about ticket sales next year that the Symphony, Opera, and Ballet would be next.

Also in the article, the usual suspects again state that supporting the arts doesn't support the economy. In 2007, the non-profit arts supported 3742 full time jobs. This doesn't include art galleries, music clubs, or for profit festivals, just the non-profit arts. The stimulus to the NEA will secure these jobs, and as anyone who works in this business will tell you, it's just about the most middle class industry out there, on par with teachers and cops as far as salaries and community benefit. These people need our support.

New Economic Impact Study

Large new study on the effectiveness and economic impace of the state tax credits for film, music, and video games. Here are our quick takeaways:

• Over $600 million in direct economic impact from the film tax credits, but at a $100 million cost.
• The Sound recording credit is vastly underused, with only 19 projects taking advantage of the credit in 2007. Why? Too cumbersome? Musicians being musicians?
• Regardless, that same 6 to 1 benefit holds for both the film and music tax credits, it's just on a much smaller scale for music.
• Despite the reputation as musical hotbed, La is ranked #32 for location quotient for the music industry.

Now for some errata:

• CD sales were still 82% of all music sales in 2007. Digital downloads were 11%.
• Average Jimmy Buffett ticket price is $136!!! Good god.
• Buffett grossed more than $35 million touring in 2007.

Anyway, worth a read if you have a few spare hours and plenty of paper.

Carol Hallock Video

Arts Council member and Arts Market of New Orleans artist Carol Hallock has a great new YouTube video showing her painting style. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUCqPc39Omw

28th time as farce

The drama continues. The main problem with the Square is that there is no entity who manages the art colony. Why the Department of Finance is charged with managing the artist squabbles is beyond me. They don't ask the Arts Council to collect sales tax. Now, I'm not saying the Arts Council wants to manage the square, but if New Orleans ever wants the art colony to thrive, or even survive, someone needs to be put in charge.