The $50 million for the NEA to distribute was first passed in the House bill, then removed in the Senate bill, and finally brought back in the bill passed by all of Congress. Almost 100000 letters flooded into congress giving support to this tiny portion of the overall stimulus package. As Americans for the Arts president Robert Lynch writes,

The nation’s 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations and their audiences generate $166.2 billion annually in U.S. economic activity. They support 5.7 million jobs and provide nearly $30 billion in government revenue. This economic stimulus will minimize the concern that ten percent of arts groups could close this year and helps save thousands of arts workers from losing their jobs.

Hotly contested, called “pork,” “non-stimulative,” and “wasteful” by many republicans led by Sen. Tom Coburn (Oklahoma), Lynch’s statements (see audio recording below) bring into focus the true economic benefits of the arts in this country.  This will be a big boon for the NEA and new arts projects.  40% of the money will be dispersed to existing state and regional arts organiztions and agencies and the other 60% will go towards funding new arts projects. (!) Robert Lynch presents the importance of the Arts to Congress

via NPR:

On Ethics, Is Art Market Worse Than Stock Market?

Panelists for the Feb. 3 debate included (from left) Jerry Saltz, Amy Cappellazzo, Chuck Close and Adam Lindemann. Longview Photography

thanks Joseph

Xiu Xiu‘s Jamie Stewart (a frequent collaborator of TPG9 artist David Horvitz) is selling subscriptions of past ambient, experimental, and minimalist works.  For $100 Stewart will send you one CD per month for a year.  The edition is 50 so they’ll probably go fast. thanks andy

Building on the discussion that began with our eighth issue, “State of the Arts“, we’ll be hosting a Visual Arts Town Hall Meeting in Old Oakland Saturday February 21st from 3-5.  Moderated by curator Joseph del Pesco, the meeting will be a chance for artists, gallerists, political figures and the public to discuss the way government can influence and support local art production.  We’ll share opportunities that already exist and try to identify simple steps to creating a more sustainable visual arts community. Participants will include: David Huff (Program Coordinator/Curator Pro Arts), V Smoothe (“A Better Oakland” blog Editor ), Mike Bianco (Queens Nails Projects), Christian L. Frock (Invisible Venue), Kerri Johnson (Blankspace Gallery) Svea Lin Vezzone (Swarm Gallery) and artists: Amy Balkin, Steven Barich (Artopic.org), Helena Keeffe, Aaron Gach, Chris Sollars, David Stein Visual Arts Town Hall 465 Ninth St. Oakland, CA 94607 February 21st: 3-5 pm 1st hour: moderated panel of gallerists, arts administrators, and politicos coffee and snack break 2nd hour: artists from the State of the Arts project take the “stage” and respond to the panel and audience questions and comments This event is sponsored in part by PSAI Old Oakland Associates and Southern Exposure

In the spirit of transparency we’ve decided to show you where all those subscribers’ dues go.  Below is the financial breakdown for TPG in 2008.  A few things we noticed:.

• 2/3 went to our core business: Making art, paying artists and getting it to our subscribers.
• 1/3 went directly to creating art
• 18% went to artists and critics.

Compare that to the traditional gallery model where an artist must recoup his or her production costs and profits through their cut of works that may or may not sell.  Through the subscription model artists shoulder less risk and art supporters funds are used more efficiently.

Hi Eleanor, Unfortunately the Councilmember has a prior commitment most of Saturday late afternoon and going into the late evening on February 21.  Please feel free to keep our office apprised of any developments from your town hall meeting. Take care. Chris Miley City of Oakland Aide to City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan

Hello Eleanor, I received your invitation for Congresswoman Barbara Lee to attend your Town Hall Meeting about the State of the Arts on February 21st. Unfortunately the Congresswoman has a prior commitment that day and will not be able to attend. If a staff member is available, they will contact you directly. Thank you, Casey Payton District Scheduler Congresswoman Barbara Lee

This movie looks like a feast for the eyes.  There is something in the air about crafting in stop motion – miniature and using it for financial gain.  I love it. If only I was a well known blogger…

Hello, On behalf of Supervisor Chiu’s office, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for the posters and your invitation to your upcoming Town Hall Meeting. Supervisor Chiu will not be able to attend due to a previous engagement on February 21, 2009. We wish you the best on your event for the visual artists in the Bay Area. Regards, Lisa Montanino Office of the President, Board of Supervisors Dear Eleanor, Thank you for the posters.  I like one of them and put it up in my office.  With respect to the other one, I do not agree with asking non-profits to pay an artists fee.  They can barely raise enough money to do the services their mission requires them to do.  I do agree with the TOT being entirely for the arts and not for Chabot, Museum and Zoo. Sincerely, Nancy Nadel

We will be documenting here our delivery attempts, sucesses, and failures in our endeavors to get these posters in the hands of elected officials. On January 27th and 28th, we passed through many, many metal detectors as we delivered to San Francisco based politicians with varying degrees of security.  Many people were wary of us whenever we asked for their pictures, so some of these pictures are on the sly and some are simply of the buildings where the offices of all our elected officials (or their underlings) work.  In general the delivery process went smoothly, however we wonder how many will actually end up in our official’s hands.  At Speaker Pelosi’s office the gentleman behind the desk asked if the Congresswoman was expecting them.  When we said no, he gave us a gentle smile and said, “ok”. City Hall, San Francisco This stack awaits delivery to the mailboxes of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors On January 29th, we delivered to elected officials in Oakland.  It was weird how many of the offices of all the state representatives in Oakland had bullet proof glass separating the secretaries from the public.  Barbara Lee’s office had the most relaxed atmosphere, with workers in jeans.  The secretary of Mayor Dellums was very nice, while Loni Hancock’s secretary asked the most questions and seemed the most interested in our project.

Oliver sent this to me: A Handbook for the Nerd Companion

Welcome to a new day for optimism. Photo courtesy of Stephanie Hanson

Celebrating their 25th year, 4th estate, a book publisher, decided to make a video celebrating the world of books.  The stop motion animation is fantastic.  On their Vimeo site, you can watch the making of this project (also stop motion,) which is pretty impressive.  They had help from APT and Asylum Films. This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Cause you can at the last minute go camping very close by and it looks like this:

A couple of New York based musicians (Jaime Austria and Peter Weitzner) inspired by a Quincy Jones interview, where he said “…next conversation I have with President Obama is to beg for a Secretary of Arts.” are spearheading a call to the Obama administration for the establishment of a Cabinet level Arts position.  Names that are being thrown around are A Secretary of the Arts, Arts Czar, and Minister of Culture.  The campaign is drawing a lot of attention and currently the signatures on the petition number at almost 124,000.  You can add your name here. The position would not only create a direct voice for artists to the president, but would be able to look at the broad picture of the arts in this country.  Combining many disparate parts of government, the position could look at everything from arts education, the NEH, NEA, non-profit arts roles, cultural tourism, to arts copyright issues. Seems like a good idea to me.  As we have learned from TPG8, there are more US citizens that are artists than there are in the US military.

Do it. www.thepresentgroup.com/TPG-submissions.pdf

Click image to see full map. As Barack Obama enters office next week, his mantra of change will finally have a chance to prove itself.  Looking at this map from the Atlantic, we see not only the state of the nation he inherits, but also that things over the past 8 years have changed quite a bit already. Sources

Another example of someone believing in creating change in small doses- Ramit Sethi isn’t waiting around to see the change he wants in the world.  He’s contributing to it. Check out the grant/advice he is offering. It’s due this Thursday!!