Are you a Georgia resident who feels that the state should increase funding for the arts? Follow the link below to send a personalized message your legislators. Thanks to the Georgia Arts Network for setting this up, and let's send a strong message that the arts are a crucial part of a great state!
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Music Education Advocacy Alert: Only Days to Respond! January 28, 2015, Washington, D.C. -- As the new Congress begins to rewrite our nation's major education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), music education advocates have their first opportunity to deliver four key messages, in unison with the broader arts and arts education community:
Click here to customize and send an email before the deadline of Monday, February 2nd, and urge support for the arts in ESEA reauthorization! Urge Congress to Support Arts Education in our nation's education law! We need YOU to fill Assembly Hall!
Fulton County Budget Vote TOMORROW October 1. The Fulton County Board of Commissioners votes tomorrow on a proposal to cut the Arts & Culture budget from $1.5 million to $750,000. Reductions to the 2014 budget of the Department of Arts & Culture will jeopardize the existence of arts services, classes, camps, performances, and exhibitions offered by dozens of large and small Fulton County arts institutions, including Horizon Theatre Company. Over the past year, the arts community, along with our patrons, board members, and business partners, has come together to advocate for the arts in Fulton County and Atlanta. Our collective voice has made an impact, but we cannot stop our efforts now. We need YOU. Judy Mauldin, Chair of Fulton County Arts Council, sent a letter this week urging every arts supporter to join us in Assembly Hall for the public comment section of the meeting. The meeting starts at 10 AM at 141 Pryor St SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, and we must fill the hall. "The arts are the engine that drives the Georgia economy and makes it a great place to live and work. We must be mindful to speak in a collective voice as advocates for the arts" (Mauldin). Arts and culture are an important part of the quality of life and economy for those of us who live, work and play in Fulton County. The rewards are visible through the hundreds of thousands of children, families and citizens whose lives have been touched, enhanced or genuinely changed by the art these funds have made possible. Let’s remind them of that impact—THEIR impact. The dollars allocated to arts and culture institutions by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners are injected ten-fold right back into the local economy through job creation, sales tax, crime prevention, education and quality of life. A global city deserves a world-class creative economy and the arts mean business! THE FACTS
Visit Horizon's Arts Advocacy page on our website for additional information. Arts & Economic Prosperity IV is our fourth study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry's impact on the economy. The most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted, it gives us a quantifiable economic impact of nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences. Using findings from 182 regions representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, an input-output economic model is able to deliver national estimates. Quick Facts Nationally, the industry generated $135.2 billion of economic activity--$61.1 billion by the nation's nonprofit arts and culture organizations in addition to $74.1 billion in event-related expenditures by their audiences. This economic activity supports 4.13 million full-time jobs and generates $86.68 billion in resident household income. Our industry also generates $22.3 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal governments every year—a yield well beyond their collective $4 billion in arts allocations. Despite the economic headwinds that our country faced in 2010, the results are impressive. In the dark days of the most recent economic downturn, a wise man said:
"There are many orchestras in trouble and some are even disappearing, even though the cost of one jet fighter would wipe out the deficits of all the European orchestras for 10 years. It is grotesque when cost-cutting is always at the expense of the arts. This work defines the culture in a given place at a given time. When the names of politicians are long forgotten, the people who made that culture will not be... Plato, Rubens, Beethoven, Shakespeare…" -- Lorin Maazel, 2011 NEA Funding Restored in House Committee Earlier this week, the full House Appropriations Committee voted to restore FY15 NEA funding to the current level of $146 million, reversing an 8% cut initially offered by the Interior Subcommittee. This action demonstrates notably strong bi-partisan support for the NEA among policymakers, and represents a major departure from last summer’s attempt to slash the NEA’s budget nearly in half. Now that the bill has been approved by the Appropriations Committee, the next step will be floor consideration by the full House of Representatives. Timing of a floor vote is uncertain. Many thanks to orchestra advocates for speaking up and telling Congress how important NEA funding is to communities nationwide. If you’ve not yet weighed in, please make your voice heard!
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