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By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
It was a successful year in arts advocacy. We kicked off 2022 with a set of four bold Arts Policy Platform positions that Arts Action Fund members not only voted overwhelmingly in favor of, but also made significant progress on:
President Biden issued a powerful Executive Order to reinstate the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with a focus on equity and diversity policy issues.
National arts services organizations, the nation’s arts unions, and the Arts Action Fund made a unified ask to Congress to build a path to indexing annual federal funding for the arts and humanities to $1 per person. To that end, Congress will likely be finalizing the first substantial increase this month in an Omnibus appropriations bill.
In the third COVID-19 economic relief package—the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)—the Arts Action Fund was part of a successful campaign to secure an extra $145 millioneach for the NEA and NEH. Moreover, many state and local arts agencies were able to secure millions of additional dollars in ARPA state and local regranting funds to support artists and arts organizations.
A groundbreaking number of 10 federal arts-specific legislative bills were introduced into Congress featuring creative economy, arts education, and equity policies. Each bill secured dozens of Congressional Co-Sponsors and will be reintroduced in 2023.
As the election season heated up, we launched our ArtsVote: Make Your Vote Count campaign, customizing our State Voter Factsheets with updated 2022 election laws for all 50 states. We created strategic social media toolkits for each state to highlight key voting deadlines.
Our success relies on the support and participation of our members. Help us reach our Year-End contribution goal of $30,000! Please contribute any amount you can afford.
Thank you for your generosity and have a safe and happy holiday season! Nina Ozlu Tunceli Executive Director P.S. Here is the official full-length Arts Action Fund 2022 Year-End letter.
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
The final FY23 Interior Appropriations budget, which specifically includes annual funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), will be negotiated in conference soon by members of both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. The current House version of the bill sets the allocation at an all-time high funding level of $207 million each for the NEA and NEH. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee draft set its allocation at only $195 million each for NEA and NEH. Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund have set up an easy way for you to quickly send two important messages in one step to both your Senators and your House Representative with these messages: Urge your Senators to accept the higher House-set funding level of $207 million each for the NEA and NEH for FY 2023. Urge your House Representative to stand strong on the $207 million allocation voted on by the House of Representatives earlier this year to fund the NEA and NEH FY 23 budgets. Contact your member of Congress today and make your voice heard about how vital the arts are to your state and our country!
1275 K Street NW, Suite 1200 Washington, DC 20005 T 202.371.2830 F 202.371.0424
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
October 19, 2020
Election Day is November 3rdand early indicators show 2020 will reach historic voter turnout levels in every state. As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, the great majority of states have encouraged mail-in/absentee voting and expanded in-person early voting.
While the national headlines focus on the presidential election, it’s important to note that all 435 U.S. House of Representative seats and one-third of the U.S. Senate are also up for election. Thousands more state and local office holders will be on the ballots as well.
The Arts Action Fund Political Action Committee (PAC) is pleased to provide you a copy of our 2020 Congressional Arts Report Card, analyzing and scoring the arts support (or lack thereof) of incumbent candidates looking to get re-elected to Congress. The Arts Action Fund PAC relies on this report to choose which pro-arts Congressional incumbents to support financially.
This Congressional Arts Report Card is also your one-stop guide to learn if members of your Congressional delegation support (or not support) the arts and arts education. I’m pleased to say that the majority of House members (252) received a passing pro-arts letter grade and a majority of Senators (54) received a “Thumbs Up” in our Report Card.
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
July 7, 2020
Earlier today, the U.S House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee strongly rejected President Trump’s fourth consecutive annual budget request to eliminate both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by instead appropriating$170 million in funding for each for fiscal year FY 2021! This represents an increase for both agencies of $7.75 million each over the current FY 2020 funding level of $162.25 million and it is the same amount that we recommended to Congress.
Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund President and CEO Robert Lynch and ArtsVote 2020 Chair and Arts Action Fund Board Member Ben Folds testify before the U.S. House Interior Subcommittee on February 6, 2020.
As you will recall, Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund president and CEO Robert Lynch and our ArtsVote 2020 Chairman and musician Ben Folds testified in support of the $170 million budget request on February 6, 2020. (Watch Ben’s testimony here.)
Additionally, we are very pleased to share that the House bill includes specific language requested by Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund to enable the NEA to waive financial matching grant requirements and to allow grantees to use the federal funds for general operating support as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These new funds would not limit eligibility to only recent NEA grantees and would apply to FY 2021 grants as well as any outstanding FY 2020 and 2019 grant funds.
Stay tuned. This bill will proceed next to the full U.S. House Appropriations Committee, then the House floor before moving to the Senate chamber for consideration over the coming weeks and months.
Arts advocacy makes a difference. Thank you for everything youdo to enrich people’s lives through the arts. If possible, please also consider contributing to the Arts Action Fund PAC.
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
The coronavirus has already had a devastating economic impact on America’s nonprofit arts sector—financial losses to date are estimated to be $3.2 billion. Since the first U.S. case was reported on January 20, cancellations and closings have been reported in thousands of communities spanning all 50 states. In order to support the sector at this vital time, request that your members of Congressinclude $4 billion—to be distributed though the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—to help offset the losses of the nonprofit arts industry, and expand eligibility through additional federal programs to ensure artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in the creative economy can utilize business interruption relief.
In a national survey by Americans for the Arts, 91% of responding arts organizations indicated that they have cancelled one or more events. Many arts organizations have closed their doors for months to come. More than one-third of respondents expect to make reductions in staff; 26% have already reduced their creative workforce. These estimates are based on more than 3,000 respondents to an Americans for the Arts nationwide COVID-19 impact survey, and then further extrapolation of those data nationally using IRS data about nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. The survey is ongoing, and these figures will be updated regularly. Given that losses documented in the survey have occurred only in the last two months, Americans for the Arts anticipates additional billions in potential revenue losses for the nonprofit arts and culture field.
Join us in calling on Congress TODAY to designate a minimum of $4 billion—to be distributed through the National Endowment for the Arts—to help offset losses in the nonprofit arts industry and expand eligibility through additional federal programs to ensure artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in the creative economy can utilize business interruption relief.
1000 Vermont Avenue NW
6th Floor
Washington DC . 20005
T 202.371.2830
F 202.371.0424
One East 53rd Street . 2nd Floor
New York NY . 10022
T 212.223.2787
F 212.980.4857
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
February 10, 2020
For a fourth-straight year, the Trump administration has proposed to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB). As misdirected as this proposal is, we are confident that Congress—as it has done in the past three fiscal years—will again reject this short-sighted budget request in a bipartisan, bicameral manner, and increase funding for these federal cultural agencies.
In the past three years, Congress not only dismissed these initial calls for termination, but in fact gave steady increases in funding to several of our nation’s cultural agencies. Check out a brief history of budgetary proposals and final funding for these agencies for the past three years with the President’s most recent budget request in red below:
Key Federally Funded Arts Agency
President Trump’s FY 19 Budget Proposal
Final FY 2019 Funding
President Trump’s FY 20 Budget Proposal
Final FY 2020 Funding
President Trump’s FY 21 Budget Proposal
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
Termination
$155 million
Termination
$162.25 million
Termination
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Termination
$155 million
Termination
$162.25 million
Termination
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
Termination
$242 million
Termination
$252 million
Termination
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
Termination
$445 million
Termination
$445 million
Termination
Be sure to check out Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund President and CEO Robert L. Lynch’s full statementregarding the president’s budget proposal. Additionally, ArtsVote 2020 Chair Ben Folds testified on behalf of Americans for the Arts to urge the House Appropriations Subcommittee to increase NEA funding to $170 million for FY 21. Read Bob and Ben’s written remarks and watch Ben’s testimony on the Arts Action Fund website.
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
Dear Arts Advocate,
Last Thursday December 5th, the Arts Action Fund kicked off its Year-End Fundraising Campaign to raise $30,000 by the end of the year.
We’ve already raised one-third of that goal from members like you! In fact, I am contributing $5,000 personally to the Arts Action Fund PAC. These funds go exclusively to the only political action committee in the country dedicated to supporting pro-arts federal candidates, who are committed to advancing the nonprofit arts in America. Additionally, I’m making a second contribution to the Arts Action Fund to carry out its grassroots activities to train arts advocates across the nation.
Attached below is a copy of the email that our Executive Director Nina Ozlu Tunceli sent you last Thursday. Join me as an arts champion. Please contribute to the Arts Action Fund today.
Thank you for your commitment to the arts in America.
Robert L. Lynch
President and CEO, Arts Action Fund
Treasurer, Arts Action Fund PAC
———————————————————————————————————————–
FROM: Nina Ozlu Tunceli, Executive Director of the Arts Action Fund on 12/5/19
Dear Arts Advocate,
Contribute to The Arts Action Fund’s Year-End Campaign this Holiday Season!
Thanks to members like you, we’ve had another effective legislative year in securing an increase in funding for the arts and humanities! We kicked off the ArtsVote 2020 campaign by interviewing presidential candidates such as Mayor Pete Buttigieg in our ArtsVote 2020 podcast with Ben Folds. In addition, we’ve been training grassroots arts advocates in Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and North Carolina on how to ask key arts questions to presidential candidates campaigning in these early battleground states. Help us move into 2020 stronger than ever!
Thank you for your generosity and have a happy holiday season!
Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director
P.S. Here is our official Year-End Letter to members, detailing the achievements we have made in this past year and how you can continue to help in this upcoming election year!
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
Hello Arts Advocate,
While fiscal year (FY) 2020 began on Oct. 1, the U.S. Congress must still pass the 12 appropriation bills to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2020 (the government is currently operating under a continuing resolution [CR] through Nov. 21). At least one of your U.S. Senators sits on the powerful Appropriations Committee. They need to hear from you now about your support for robust federal arts funding and how it supports your community and state.
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed their version of the Interior Appropriations bill by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 84 – 9, that included $2 million in increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)! You may recall that the U.S. House bill, approved earlier this summer, provided a $12.5 million increase in funding to those agencies.
These positive results are the outcomes of grassroots advocacy—from Hill visits during the National Arts Action Summit, to the emails (like this one) advocates have been sending to their congressional delegation throughout the year.
As negotiations are ongoing to finish up FY 2020 funding, it is vital to call on U.S. Senate appropriators to include these remaining pro-arts funding levels in the final legislation.
This includes:
Bipartisan Senate passage of FY 2020 spending package that included the Interior Appropriations bill.
Education bill—includes arts education grant funds and a provision calling for maintaining a federal “report card” in arts education
Defense Department bill—includes language supporting creative arts therapies for service members
Veterans Department bill—includes language supporting creative arts therapies and $5 million for veterans
Justice Department bill—includes a provision supporting inclusion of arts-specific intervention strategies for juvenile justice programs
Please take two minutes to send your message to your U.S. Senators. Thank you for taking action to support these end-of-year funding priorities.
1000 Vermont Avenue NW
6th Floor
Washington DC . 20005
T 202.371.2830
F 202.371.0424
One East 53rd Street . 2nd Floor
New York NY . 10022
T 212.223.2787
F 212.980.4857
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
Dear Arts Advocate,
On June 25, the U.S. House strongly rejected President Trump’s budget request to eliminate both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by approving $167.5 million in funding for fiscal year (FY) 2020! This is an increase for both agencies of $12.5 million over the FY 2019 funding level of $155 million.
The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate for possible consideration (the Senate may also take up their own version of this appropriations bill).
Why Is This Important?
This is the third year in a row that the Trump administration has proposed a termination of both the NEA and the NEH in his budget proposal to the U.S. Congress. The past two years, Congress has rejected this request and moderately increased funding for the cultural agencies. This year, the House is sending an even stronger message of the importance of arts funding by increasing the appropriation by $12.5 million.
The funding increase matches the 2019 Arts Advocacy Day ask, which would help broaden access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts and to advance creativity and innovation in communities across the United States. This also follows public witness testimony Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert Lynch gave before the Interior Subcommittee in February, asking for the cultural agencies to be funded at $167.5 million, as well as a Dear Colleague letter circulated by Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY)–asking for the same amount of funding for the NEA and NEH–signed by a record-number (184) of members of Congress.
We are hopeful that the Senate will follow the House’s lead in expanding funding for the NEA and NEH. We’ll be keeping close watch over every step of the appropriations process in case any threatening actions surface. Stay tuned for more updates after the July 4th recess!
Want to do more? Help us continue this important work by becoming an official member of the Arts Action Fund. Play your part by joining the Arts Action Fund today– it’s free and easy to join!
1000 Vermont Avenue NW
6th Floor
Washington DC . 20005
T 202.371.2830
F 202.371.0424
One East 53rd Street . 2nd Floor
New York NY . 10022
T 212.223.2787
F 212.980.4857
By Southern Oregon Artists Resource, 1965 contributed posts
View all Southern Oregon Artists Resource's posts. About the author: SOAR: The Southern Oregon Artist's Resource is a directory of Southern Oregon artists, artisans and those who serve them and calendar of their art events, and Art Matters!, our blog posting Southern Oregon art events and matters of interest to artists, enthusiasts and patrons of the arts near and far. SOAR was created and is maintained by art advocate and web designer Hannah West in Jacksonville, Oregon to promote our diverse and talented arts community to our visitors and the rest of the world.
Dear Arts Advocate,
The Democratically-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate have finally resolved with the President the details for the Omnibus Appropriations bill for FY’19 (4.5 months late) to avoid another partial government shutdown tomorrow. It’s expected that the President will sign the bill passed by both chambers into law by midnight tonight. As anticipated, both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) each received a $2 increase to bring their annual budget up to $155 million. Several other federal cultural agencies and programs (see chart below) received healthy increases as well.
Congress responded to your advocacy calls, emails, and visits to save these vital cultural agencies and took it a step further by actually increasing their annual budgets by $2 million each, despite President Trump’s attempt to terminate them. The NEA and NEH administer thousands of arts and humanities grants to state and local nonprofit cultural organizations, universities, and governmental agencies in all 50 states and U.S. Territories and 435 congressional districts across the nation.
These FY’19 appropriations levels will be in place through the federal government’s fiscal year ending September 30, 2019. On March 5th, arts advocates kick-off Arts Advocacy Day for a much larger increase for the cultural agencies FY’20 budget, beginning October 1, 2019.
Please support our ArtsVote2020 grassroots and political efforts to build an even stronger pro-arts Congress.
