Government at all levels needs to push smart policies that sustain regional economies and encourage local officials to think, plan and act beyond their borders. The next president -- working with governments, mayors and other regional leaders -- should develop a policy for metro areas that includes incentives to encourage shared services and even government mergers. Covering only 12% of the land, the nation's 100 largest metro areas produce two-thirds of the jobs and three-quarters of the economic output, reports the Brookings Institution's MetroPolicy study. These metros, ranging in population from 500,000 in Lansing to 19 million in New York City, are home to two-thirds of Americans. They harbor the roads, railways, shipyards and airports that connect the nation's metropolitan economies to each other and to the world.
Obama's National Arts Policy Committee will be distributing the campaign's official arts policy platform to the Indiana and North Carolina arts community in order to cultivate a base of arts voters before the fast approaching primary. Obama is committed to the arts, and it's important we, as writers, artists, performers, and musicians, do our part to help win these importnat states!
Do you know any arts professionals in these states? Write me at obamaarts@gmail.com to get a pdf of the platform and a letter from our committee chairs, Margo Lions and George Stevens, Jr., to send out to your personal contacts. Or send me email and professional affiliations of people you know working in the Pennsylvania art community and we will send those documents out to your contacts. Any emails submitted will be kept private will only be used to send the official letter and policy document.
The Arts Policy Committee recenlty held an event in Philadephia to discuss Obama's arts policy platform and encourage artsits and art supporters there to vote for Obama in tomorrow's primary. Here are a few pictures frome the event.
If you have pictures or stories from arts events for Obama, I encourage you to post a blog for our group. And feel free to send us an email at obamaarts@gmail.com to get a copy of his arts policy platform to have available at your events.
http://www.artsusa.org/information_services/video_audio/default.asp#pink
Listen to Daniel Pink deliver the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts & Public Policy April 11, 2008—Author Daniel Pink delivered the 21st Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts & Public Policy on March 31 at the John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.
In this provocative lecture, Pink makes what he calls a “hard-headed case for arts education.” He explains how three powerful forces in the economy are making logical, linear, rule-based, “left-brain” abilities necessary in the workforce, but no longer sufficient. And he shows how these three forces—what he calls abundance, Asia, and automation—are making artistic, empathic, big picture, “right brain” abilities the most important abilities in just about every profession in industry.
Check out all this incredible Obama Street art and get inspired to create some Obama art of your own.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/obamastreetart/pool/
Happy Creating!
http://www.nysun.com/article/71714
I encourage everyone to host arts evvents for Obama in their area. If you'd like to share his arts policy papers with your group, email me at obamaarts@gmail.com to get a copy.
Here is the link:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-polartists4mar04,1,2194161.story
Obama's National Arts Policy Committee will be distributing the campaign's official arts policy platform to the Pennsylvania art community in order to cultivate a base of arts voters before the primary. Obama is committed to the arts, and it's important we, as writers, artists, performers, and musicians, do our part to help win Pennsylvania!
Do you know any arts professionals in Pennsylvania? Write me at obamaarts@gmail.com to get a pdf of the platform and a letter from our committee chairs, Margo Lions and George Stevens, Jr., to send out to your personal contacts. Or send me email and professional affiliations of people you know working in the Pennsylvania art community and we will send those documents out to your contacts. Any emails submitted will be kept private will only be used to send the official letter and policy document.
Do you have time to help us do some online research? I am looking for a few volunteers to help me do some online research for this big project. We need to find all the arts organizations in Pennsylvania and get emails for the staff of those organizations. We will be working on this right away, but since it's just online research, you can do this from home and at any time of day. If you have some time to help out, please reply back via email to obamaarts@gmail.com.
Thanks so much,
Shawnee Barton
Obama for America Arts Policy Committee Member
Do you have time to help us do some online research? I am looking for a few volunteers to help me do some online research for this big project. We need to find all the arts organizations in Pennsylvania and get emails for the staff of those organizations. We will be working on this right away, but since it's just online research, you can do this from home and at any time of day. If you have some time to help out, please reply back via email to obamaarts@gmail.com.Thanks so much,Shawnee Barton Obama for America Arts Policy Committee Member
ON THE presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama is a fount of inspiring rhetoric. So it's interesting that the Illinois senator's stirring policy paper on arts and culture briefly hands the microphone to someone else, quoting poet Dana Gioia, the National Endowment for the Arts chairman.
"The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct," Gioia said in a speech last year. "The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society."
Obama would turn that sentiment into policy, through an intriguing plan to reinforce - and reinvest in - the arts. Other candidates ought to take up this banner.
Class plays may not turn every child into Meryl Streep. Cello lessons may not yield a bumper crop of Yo-Yo Mas. Still, a good performance - charged with student jitters, long rehearsals, and warm applause - can resonate for years. It can move students who grow into teachers, lawyers, Web designers, and parents to pass their creative passions to the next generation.
But the stark reality is that school arts programs have been cut, and for too many people American culture can seem like a riot of action movies and shoot-it-out video games.
How does the country reclaim itself? Obama has compelling ideas.
He calls for a renewal of cultural diplomacy. America would welcome more of the world's artists and send more of its own artists abroad as ambassadors who can embody national values and help "win the war of ideas against Islamic extremism." A superficial propaganda effort would be disappointing. But it would be progress if after years of war in Iraq, the country could turn a more creative face to the world.
Obama would also send a corps of young artists into low-income schools and communities. And while this isn't a new idea, it would be exciting to have a well-trained, White House-approved army of artists putting paint, scripts, and violins in culturally parched neighborhoods and classrooms.
The Illinois senator offers other nuts-and-bolts ways to promote the arts. For example, he endorses a proposal to let artists who donate their work to charity deduct its market value, instead of just the cost of materials.
And instead of bashing the National Endowment for the Arts, Obama calls for more funding, noting that time has not been kind to the endowment's budget. The $145 million that it has today is less, especially after inflation, than the $176 million it had in 1992.
"Art addresses us in the fullness of our being - simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses," Gioia said in his speech. It's an insight that national policies should reflect.
At a recent arts industry event for Obama in Santa Monica, one attendee stood up and voiced her desire for either presidential candidate to publicly discuss the arts. Senator Obama may not have been at the meeting, but he heard her and all the other Americans who are looking for a candidate to stand up for the arts.
About nine minutes in to the victory speech he gave from Virginia on February 9th, Senator Obama told his supporters that he doesn't want teachers to "teach to the test," instead, "I want our students to learn art, and music, and science, and poetry, and all the things that make an education worth while."
YES WE CAN elect a president who believes in arts education!
Here is a link to the speech on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9XeEzokCvQ
We invite you to join Artists and Creative Industry for Obama! It is moderated by Obama for America's National Arts Policy Committee and has the most up to date information about where Obama stands on the Arts.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/CreativeAmericaforObama
While you're there, read Obama's official policy platform in support of art and culture and articles written by Art Policy committee members Michael Chabon and George Stevens, Jr.
