*** Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive *** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Date]: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 11:53:12 -0500 [From]: "Chris Drew" [To]: "Cultural Exchange via Internet" [Subject]: Re: [forum1] Re: Arts Funding Riding the Meridian Ha-Ha Here I go again! The more it changes - the more it remains the same. The shift here in the U.S.A. feels like no shift at all to one like myself who has worked in the arts in an under supported community for the last twelve years and in such communities for 25 years. It seems as if government funding that used to serve small communtiy arts groups was that which was cut most during the Reagon - Bush - and Balance the Budget Clinton years. Well connected groups able to mount significant proposal initiatives still find funds with only a few crumbs left for small community arts groups. Corporate wealth funds those well established agencies with an audience to share who will holler their logos. If you can not make money for them then it is an unlikely match. They will help out the Boy's and Girl's Clubs - those large already funded National organizations that promise continuity. It is and always has been a sad state of affairs for grass-roots community arts agencies involved in building urban community arts infrastructures from the ground up with creativity and elbow grease. The audiences we serve are those who are very under-served, as well. This is why we must take the slow road of building our own instead of depending on those whose history has left us in the dust at the side of the road. We seek to build on the support of those left out because we know that people do appreciate the art that springs out from within their community even despite of the great programming aimed at discouraging their roots and aesthetic(s). With that said, if any one would like to prove me wrong by offering our community arts agency a reasonable opportunity for support we will make a reasonable effort to apply. However, we already have a filing cabinet full of foundation guidelines waxing eloquent over their glowing interest in supporting "minorities", "youth" and "urban" agencies. We also have a folder full of rejections. At some point the focus has to be on progress and not pandering for peanuts. I am honestly discouraged by this system. My encouragement comes from the liks of a 30 year old Choctaw artist who today sits in Children's Memorial Hospital watching his five year old son. His son was hit by a car and is in a coma. He traveled from Oklahoma to live at the hospital as his son goes through surgeries. This man built most of the frames artists in Our Screen Print Workshop for Artists use to print their images. He was one of the only paid employees in the history of our center. We paid him the minimum wage. He was on a social program for Native Americans studying to earn a high school equivalency certificate which we call a GED. That program actually paid his wages. At that time he was trying to make a marriage work. When the program ended - so did his marriage. I do not know that the two were exactly connected but money, self-esteem and the perception of others were issues. That was six years ago. I feel we should be in a position to hire some of the promising young artists such as this to teach others in this community. This is a need. We are located at the American Indian Center in Chicago. Chicago is at the center of our continent. It is a cross-roads for Native Americans from the far points of our hemisphere. We serve not only Native Americans - but artists of all backgrounds from around Chicago. Our case should be strong. We are told it is weak with every rejection. This to me is institutional racism. Yet - to complain is to waste more time. We are focusing on the needs and working though our website to build a small business selling the art we can create and print on T-shirts. One day we will have our own. Then we can tell our story to the world. Then we can make a place for artists to rest so they do not have to sleep in chairs at hospitals or in the homeless shelters or just get other jobs unrelated to their work and die into life because art is an unsupported activity in the urban communities of this nation. The funding system works best in this nation to support the museum/gallery scene built to service the wealthy. I could repeat a hundred stories equal to that above from personal experience. It is the need for our work that encourages me. I see it every day in the artists I meet. BTW - Thank you for the link to Creative-Capital.org. I will add it to our artists' resource page. Chris Drew Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center http://www.art-teez.org We dress Chicago and the Internet in t-shirt art. Come get some! 773/561-7676 -----Original Message----- From: Christy Sheffield Sanford Date: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 11:47 AM Subject: [forum1] Re: Arts Funding Riding the Meridian >I'd be really interested in knowing how other countries are funding the >arts. Now England is putting lottery money into many agencies and that >seems to be working well. In the U.S., there's a shift in progress from >government to corporate funding. Creative Capital, under the leadership >of Ruby Lerner, is one such attempt. They received 1,807 proposals and >will fund about 60 projects. http://www.creative-capital.org I hope >people will announce international collaborative opportunities here. >I'm working now with someone I've met only online, Reiner Strasser, a >German artist. > >I have been involved in curating/editing another online project: Riding >the Meridian. There's a RoundTable "dialogue" with me, Robert Kendall >(USA), Sue Thomas, Alaric Summner (England) and Ian Irving (Australia). >There are 8 hypertext projects. I hope you'll visit. >http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/ > >Annie Abrahams (France-Holland) >Diane Caney (Australia) >Deena Larsen (USA) >Marjorie Luesebrink & Stephanie Strickland (USA) >Talan Memmott (USA) >Reiner Strasser (Germany) >geniwate (Australia) >Dan Waber (USA) > >Best wishes to all, Christy >http://gnv.fdt.net/~christys/index.html