Several months ago I outlined the case for the Vermont
Arts Council’s request for a 100% increase from the State appropriations
process in two posts: The Big Ask,
and The
Big Ask, Part 2.
It gives me great pleasure to report that last week
Governor Peter Shumlin released his 2014 budget with a significant increase to
the Arts Council’s budget: $210,000, or 41%. In addition, the Governor recommended
increasing the Vermont Humanities Council‘s budget by $45,289 (or 26%), the Vermont
Symphony Orchestra’s by $27,393 (or 24%), and the Vermont Historical Society’s
by $74,525 (or 9%).
Without belaboring the point that this increase will almost certainly enable us to avoid leaving Federal funds on the table, this makes Governor
Shumlin by far the most arts and culture-friendly Governor since Phil Hoff, and
the thanks for this significant step forward is due to all of you who phoned,
wrote, or in countless other ways let Governor Shumlin know that standing up
for the arts at a time of economic uncertainty is good for business, good for
communities, good for schools, good for tourism, and, in general good for
Vermont. So, good for all of YOU who
made this case to the Governor, and Thank You!
So now the hard part begins…
Regardless of your political affiliation, the Legislature
has very hard choices to make this year. For example, should it fund low-income
heating assistance or fund weatherization? Fund programs that help incarcerated
individuals transition out of prisons, or fund programs that help prevent young
men and women from going to prison in the first place? Fund more arts education, or fund more free and reduced lunch
programs in schools?
Where public funding is concerned there
is always going to be disagreement among well-informed, well-intentioned
leaders. To me, however, this is really not an “either/or” but a “both/and” conversation. Every one of the choices listed above are
good. We need BOTH heating assistance
AND weatherization. We need programs BOTH
for incarcerated individuals AND for those who are at-risk. We need BOTH reduced lunch programs AND the arts
in order for our students and our communities to prosper.
But let us not lose sight of several important pieces of
information that are frequently overlooked by policy-makers.
Where the arts thrive, so thrives the school—attracting
young parents to the community, and providing a broad range of activities
(beyond academics and athletics) to engage young minds
Where the arts thrive, so thrives local
business and entrepreneurship—attracting and retaining businesses
requires more than just a salary.
Businesses need art and culture and recreation in order to have healthy,
productive, educated workers who are happy doing their work
Where the arts thrive, so thrives the
economy—for every dollar of public (state and local) investment in the
arts, Vermont and its municipalities receive more than $6.50 in tax
receipts. (Note: this is real impact,
not an expression of economic activity.
There’s a huge difference)
Where the arts thrive, so thrives the
community—communities that pay attention to the “look and feel” of
their downtowns, to what happens to their graduating seniors, to the quality of
life that their senior citizens enjoy attract more civic-minded and creative
people to serve on school- and select-boards, planning commissions and other
community-oriented bodies
This year, for the first time in a generation, Vermont’s
Governor has asked the Legislature to increase the support for art and culture
state wide. Now it is your turn. Please ask YOUR legislators to support the
Governor’s recommendations.
Ask them to choose art.
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