Arts organizations and patrons are set to come out in force for tonight’s City-County Council meeting, in which $1 million worth of city arts funding will be up for discussion.
After the Capital Improvement Board voted in May to suspend arts funding, the Arts Council of Indianapolis was forced to amend its annual grant list. “Proposal 234” was the outcome.
The proposal passed unanimously through committee in June. The full council must pass it before funds can be disbursed to individuals and groups through about 55 grants.
Mike Knight, a spokesman for the Arts Council, said the list of organizations that might receive funding has not been released.
“Until the proposal is approved, that seems premature,” Knight said. “It’s been a tough year of cuts for every business. But we’re confident that the arts provide a real value — economically, spiritually and educationally.”
You know, that’s lovely. So why don’t you go find a nice rich patron or six to endow you, instead of taking it out of MY pocket?
This attitude that the government should subsidise the arts involves a massive conceit on the part of the arts community that they are vitally important, coupled with an equally-massive presumption that taxpayers are actually willing to pay the price. I got news for you, Mr. Knight: In a downturn economy with Jimmy Carter II and the Supreme Soviet a Democratic Congress at the helm, the last thing people are thinking about are the flippin’ arts.
Keesha Dixon, executive director of Asante Children’s Theatre, said scores of needy institutions would lose funds if the proposal doesn’t pass, which is why she is supporting it. Dixon’s office started an e-mail campaign last week encouraging people to attend the meeting en masse.
Here is a perfect example of a completely wasted campaign. Why didn’t her office use that campaign to try to drum up free-will donations, instead of trying to force people like me — who frankly couldn’t give a damn about her theatre — to ante up our hard-earned tax dollars?
“Everybody is responding to this (economic downturn) by finding new networks of resources, whether it’s a person who’s unemployed or a company facing reductions,” [Knight] said. “We would do what we’ve done throughout this entire process, which is take a step back and start to work on meeting with the city administrators, city council, civic leaders and business leaders, and do our best to find additional ways to grant funds.”
Maybe you should try panhandling!
Oh, wait.