When I read that the Kansas Arts Commission had bit the dust last month, the news sent me into a swirl of memories and thoughts about the purpose of the arts and how to support them...
Attracted to the Arts, A Memoir
I was first attracted to the arts, particularly theatre, in high school. I had been in various choirs at church and in school and I enjoyed the feeling of ensemble that came from working together to create a program. We worked on challenging material, stuff by Handel and Bach. Every Christmas we would perform at the Bear Valley Shopping Center and in the lobby of the Brown Palace, and various places around town.
Then one night as a high school outing a bunch of us went to see “Luther” by John Osborne at the Denver Auditorium. I was spellbound. Even though by then I had been in a couple of plays at school I had never seen a live, professional production. “Luther” is not a very fancy show. There is no chandelier, no giant plant, no explosions. There isn’t even a sword fight or a dance number. It’s a “talking play.” All of the action unfolds through dialogue. It’s the story of a whistle blower wrestling with his conscience and huge pressure from his “superiors,” which includes not only losing his job but also the threat of eternal damnation. So the stakes are pretty high. But, even so, it’s a lot of talking. The audience stayed with it all the way through and at the end there was robust, appreciative applause. I can’t say that the production changed my life. I already had a fondness for the theatre, but that memory has informed my work in the arts to this day. Artistic projects can be about important things and a good story well told will keep people’s attention.
I’m not sure how this play came to be done in Denver. It was a touring production, probably the Broadway cast taking it around the country after the Broadway run had closed. It was a new play at the time, written in ‘61 and I saw it probably in ‘66 or so. There have always been touring shows. Companies from the East brought shows of one kind or another to the mining camps and small towns of the Old West. The “Carpa” or tent shows regularly came through the Southwest from Mexico. So I’m sure there was some “connector” between Denver and Broadway long before the 1960s. I’m sure this show came to town without arts council support.
Congress Authorizes NEA
It was about this same time - mid ‘60s - that Congress authorized the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as an “independent” government agency. Independent so that it could support things that “the government” might not approve of or have so much political trouble about that the project would get passed over in favor of something “more appropriate.” The early days of the NEA in the West were about subsidizing professional companies from out of state, usually the East Coast, to perform in under-served areas. Pueblo had a “Best of Broadway” series for many years that had NEA funding. Columbia Artist Management set up a system called “Community Concerts” that brought classical artists to really small towns in the West. There are still communities that have series called “Community Concerts” even though they are no longer booked through Columbia.
Funding from the NEA came to each state through the state’s art council. State arts councils were set up individually through legislation in each state and were eligible for NEA funds if they met certain criteria. States set up arts councils right away. It was an era when “culture” was considered important. Having ballet, symphonic music, opera, painting, and sculpture meant your community had “the finer things” and showed maturity. Your town was more than just a rough outpost in the nation’s developing expansion.
Some states like California, New York, and Utah had thriving, active arts councils. Others had limp, barely visible agencies. Colorado started off strong. John Love was governor and his wife Ann was a lover of the arts and was active throughout her life supporting the arts and historic preservation. Since then the Colorado Council on the Arts has struggled for adequate funding and even for a clear focus on mission. It has gone from being a division of the Department of Education, to being part of the Tourism Office, to the Office of Economic Development, and is now part of Colorado Creative Industries. On their website the word “artist” is giving way to the term “creatives” and the point is not to bring the finer things to the state, but to develop the workforce and enhance tourism. This is a recent move, so it remains to be seen how this new focus will play out for the actual grant making.
Kansas Arts Commission
As I became an arts professional in the 1980s, one of my favorite arts agencies was the Kansas Arts Commission, because they had really cool programs that developed interest and understanding in the arts and also supported working artists. One program I really respected was their Poetry in the Schools program. I knew a poet who was selected for an Arts Commission project where he was paid for twenty hours a week: Ten hours a week teaching poetry in an elementary school and was expected to use the remaining ten to write poems. The kids had an actual poet for a teacher and not some guy who fought his way through Ezra Pound for a semester in teacher’s college and the poet had the stimulation of teaching as he wrote. And the subsidy!
As of May 31, 2011 Kansas is the only state or territory of the US without an arts council. Their governor axed the commission budget with a line-item veto. He says private donations should fund the arts, not the .005 percent of the state’s 13.8 billion dollar budget that the citizens contribute in taxes for the Kansas Arts Commission. The state will lose any NEA matching funds in the process. The Arts Commission website now has this on its home page: “KAC Meeting Thursday, June 16, 2011 Meeting as be (sic) canceled until further notice.” Looks like the governor wrote it himself. For the story in more detail story click this link:
http://www.pitch.com/2011-06-09/music/kansas-arts-commission-sam-brownback/2/
Post Arts Council America?
Have arts councils lived their useful life? Most artists and organizations are funded by private donations or entrepreneurial enterprises anyway. In spite of the NEA and the arts councils being “independent,” nothing very cutting edge gets funded through them. Think of all the time we spent on two decades of “advocacy” to get the funding levels raised for the Colorado Council only to have it turned over to a “creative” to write “You won’t believe how high you can get in Colorado!” or some such, to promote tourism in the state. Doesn’t it seem like our time would have been better spent working together educating the public directly and creating demand?
It’s not too late to try that. It has always been a focus of the Colorado Performing Arts Jamboree to bring artists and presenters together to develop programming based on what they both know about the audiences of our state. As both groups pursue their professional development, artists of the state will be more talented and presenters more astute about their communities’ tastes and needs and the programming offered can be more adventurous. A desire for culture is what brought the arts councils into existence in the first place. I’m certain the public still has that desire. As that desire is fed and grows among the residents of the state renewed public support will emerge.
The story’s not over in Kansas, either. When the governor tried axing the Arts Commission through the legislature, the move failed. It remains to be seen what will happen when the citizens of Kansas pick up the axe.
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Mark your calendars for Colorado Performing Arts Jamboree 2012. We are back at Jeffco Fairgrounds again, January 20, 2012, 9-3:00. For an event summary of Jamboree 2011 with photos click on this link: http://venturewest.biz/Jamb_11_Demograph.html
If you don’t have the new Guide to Colorado Performers released at Jamboree 2011, you can still get one! Send me an email for details or click here where you can also see sample pages from the Guide. http://venturewest.biz/Guide.html
