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The Blue Moon
is published bi-monthly by the Kentucky Arts Council. Please send comments,
questions and information to The Blue Moon, Kentucky Arts Council, Old
Capitol Annex, 300 West Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601-1980 or call 502/564-3757V/TDD
Toll Free: 1-888-833-2787
E-mail: kyarts@mail.state.ky.us
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NATIONAL
ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS AWARDS MORE THAN $66 MILLION IN SPRING GRANTS
 The
National Endowment for the
Arts (NEA) recently awarded more than $66 million through 903 grants
in the second round of 2003 fiscal year grants. The Arts Endowment will
distribute $66,042,860 to nonprofit national, regional, state and local
organizations across the country, funding 839 projects in the Access,
Arts Learning, Heritage/Preservation and Leadership Initiative categories,
as well as 64 partnership agreements with state and regional arts councils.
Twelve Kentucky organizations received a total of $1,031,400:
Eastern Kentucky Child Care Coalition, Inc., Berea
CATEGORY: Arts Learning
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education $28,000 to support the Eastern Kentucky
Child Care Coalition. This program of hands-on activities for children,
artist and teacher workshops, and artist residencies teaches about the
region's artistic and cultural heritage to children enrolled in childcare
programs within underserved counties.
Save the Children Federation, Inc. (consortium), Berea
CATEGORY: Arts Learning
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education $40,000 to support Passing the Pick and
the Bow project. Student classes in Appalachian Mountain music for children,
ages eight to 18, from rural Appalachian communities will attend three-day
Mountain Music Schools taught by regional master musicians and 10-week
sessions taught by local teachers.
Covington
Community Center, Inc., Covington
CATEGORY: Access
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts $10,000 to support The Gateway Project,
featuring mosaic tilework as a means of identifying different neighborhoods
in the city of Covington. Artists Jackie Slone and Rosemary Topie will
direct this intergenerational project, which will engage the participants
in discussions about the city's history and their individual heritage.
Kentucky Arts
Council, Frankfort
CATEGORY: Partnership
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: State & Regional $616,400 to support Partnership
Agreement activities.
Kentucky Arts
Council, Frankfort CATEGORY: Folk Arts Infrastructure
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts $33,000 to support a folklorist
position and other related costs. The position will oversee three areas
of expanded outreach by the Kentucky Folklife Program.
Kentucky Educational Television
Foundation, Inc., Lexington
CATEGORY: Arts Learning
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education $60,000 to support Art to Heart. This
early childhood educational resource is designed to help teachers, parents,
artists and childcare providers nurture creativity in children from birth
through age eight.
Kentucky Assembly
of Local Arts Agencies (aka Arts Kentucky), Louisville
CATEGORY: Heritage/Preservation
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts $25,000 to support the Kentucky
Festivals Cultural Heritage Improvement Project. The project will develop
and maintain a system of resources used to provide training and support
to the organizers and volunteers of festivals in seven rural Kentucky
communities.
Kentucky
Center for the Arts Corporation, Louisville
CATEGORY: Arts Learning
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education $54,000 to support a drama and oral history
pilot program led by ArtsReach for middle and high school students. The
students' work will revolve around personal oral histories that each will
explore and recreate through dramatic expression.
Louisville
Orchestra, Inc., Louisville
CATEGORY: Arts Learning
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education $50,000 to support Making Music Partnership.
This collaborative project between the Louisville Orchestra and Jefferson
County Public Schools includes classroom visits, ensemble performances,
curriculum materials for students and teachers, newsletters and full orchestra
concerts.
New
Performing Arts, Inc., Louisville
CATEGORY: Access
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music $25,000 to support a national conference that
will address model frameworks for developing and sustaining music presenting
and programming in rural and underserved communities. The project will
include dissemination via Internet of the conference results, as well
as artist residencies in rural Minnesota, New York and Texas.
Appalshop,
Inc., Whitesburg
CATEGORY: Folk Arts Infrastructure
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts $30,000 to support a folk
arts coordinator position and related costs. The coordinator will be responsible
for working with music education, presentation and apprenticeships for
youth and adults in a five-county area of eastern Kentucky and southwest
Virginia.
Appalshop,
Inc., Whitesburg
CATEGORY: Arts Learning
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education $60,000 to support the Appalshop Arts
Education Initiative. Project activities will include after-school arts
programming for youth, artist-led curriculum workshops for arts educators,
and the documentation of youth arts education program models and curricula.
For a full listing of the grants awarded in this cycle click
here.
Americans for the Arts Surveys Philanthropic and Economic Conditions
in Communities
The following article contains excerpts of "A Report to the Americans
for the Arts" by Bill Keens, President, Wolf, Keens & Company
 This
past May, Americans
for the Arts convened a series of audio conferences devoted to the
discussion of a report that summarized the principal findings and data
from a recent research initiative. The aim of this research was "to develop
a more current and complete picture of what is happening in our field"
in these challenging times.
The research was conducted over a period of six days in March 2003.
Twenty-eight local arts agencies (LAAs) were selected from all major regions
of the country, and each was sent 12 questions for consideration. A follow-up
interview with each LAA executive collected both quantitative and qualitative
responses. The nine quantitative questions asked for revenue and expenditure
data for the 2003 fiscal year and projected for the 2004-2005 fiscal years.
Three qualitative questions asked respondents to assess the economic and
philanthropic conditions in their communities, and to elaborate on the
strategies that they have employed--or would like to see employed--to
address the challenges they face.
The 28 LAAs encompassed by this survey represented a range of budget
sizes, were distributed throughout the country, and included both public
agencies and private nonprofit entities. The story told by their current
year (2003 fiscal year) budgets and future financial projections varied
in its specifics from one organization to another. But taken as a whole,
this group presents a picture of relatively stable support for the local
arts agency sector even as a slumping economy causes some erosion. The
data included the following insights:
- Earned income is expected to drop from year to year, falling from
23.3 percent of the combined revenues of these organizations in the
2003 fiscal year to 22 percent in the 2005 fiscal year. That represents
a loss of nearly 6 million unrestricted dollars in two years as individuals
and local contracting entities, such as schools, curtail their spending
on tickets, goods and services.
- Total public support--local, county, state and federal combined--is
expected to decline slightly from the 2003 fiscal year to the 2004 fiscal
year, then bounce back as the general economy recovers in the 2005 fiscal
year. Public support--which provides the lion's share (46 percent) of
what these 28 organizations collectively depend upon--drops by a combined
$3 million from the first to the second year, and then is restored by
the same amount from year two to year three.
- For every 3 public dollars spent on these agencies and the programs
they provide, tthe private sector generates $2 more in match, and earnings
yield another $1.50 toward the total. This is the picture of a revenue
partnership across all sectors, albeit one that is experiencing some
stress.
- Perhaps the most significant story offered by the aggregate data
is one of fiscal responsibility and fiscal skill. Only two or three
of these 28 agencies are expecting to run a deficit in these three years.
The data gathered by AFA also found that although state arts agency
grants are by no means the largest source of support on which local organizations
depend, these dollars (like earned income) are disproportionate in their
importance. They are often used for core program and operating costs that
can otherwise be difficult to cover, and cutting them has a direct impact
on the local agencies, their constituents, and the activities they sponsor.
Furthermore, local governments sometimes hinge their support on the states
putting the first dollar on the table, so that when state funding is cut,
the effect is magnified.
Interviews with the heads of these 28 LAAs bear out the credo that good
leadership, strong messaging, and an organized, vocal citizenry are critical
components of a supportive environment. Among the constituents of these
agencies, there is a sense that the smaller and mid-size arts organizations
are getting harder hit than the majors, some of whom have more fat to
cut and more reserves on which to rely. That said, one person observed
that even the majors have been "in denial," and that they may not be ready
for a sustained downturn, if that is what materializes. This downturn
may be exacerbated by a contraction in "supply" (a needed contraction
according to some) as organizations fold or merge in response to shrinking
support and demand.
This research showed that as local arts agencies look to fundraising
at the local level, more attention is being paid to the broad base of
small donors than in the past. Although a $50 or $100 gift won't make
a huge difference, a thousand of them can.
Overwhelmingly, those interviewed expected the economic challenges facing
them to be temporary--or rather, cyclical. Some executives have been around
long enough to have worked through three full-blown recessions, only to
see their local economies recover. If anything threatens to be a drag
on local recovery, it is the condition of the states. In one interview
after another--from California to Massachusetts--people cited what one
called "the referred pain" of staggering state deficits. Because governors
and state legislators are forced to address these deficits, they are curtailing
or appropriating revenues that would otherwise pass to the cities and
counties. As the federal government places more responsibilities on the
states and collects fewer tax revenues, and as the states deplete their
reserves (including their tobacco settlement funds), the localities can
expect more such pain.
There appears to be agreement that local advocacy is essential to influence
local decision-making, and that the national research and data supplied
by Americans for the Arts helps mightily in making the local case for
support.
Use this opportunity to get to the tax reform table, one person urged.
Tax policy is the source of all funding, and if the arts are not in the
discussion, there's always a danger of being cut out altogether. While
the experiences of arts agencies may differ from region to region and
from state to state, a strategic response is called for in order to ensure
the continued support for the arts at all levels.
NEW SURVEY FINDS MORE AMERICANS RANK CHORUSES AS NUMBER ONE FORM OF
ARTS PARTICIPATION
 A
national study released recently found that choral singing is the top
choice for participation in the performing arts by adults and children,
with an estimated 28.5 million regularly performing in a chorus. The study
also estimates the number of choruses in the U.S. to be 250,000, marking
the first time the total number has been determined.
This new data was by Chorus America, the national service organization
for choruses, and is based on a study that sought to identify the scope
of choral participation, public attitudes about choral music, and the
key motivations and behaviors of choral participants. Professional research
firms conducted the study in 2002, using two national phone surveys of
the general public, hundreds of in-depth interviews with choral singers,
and six focus groups.
"Aside from the large numbers of Americans who are involved in choral
singing, we think the most important finding with long-term implications
is the role of education and families in early exposure to the arts,"
said John Alexander, president of Chorus America. "This study provides
the most useful evidence so far about the power of singing to influence
people's lives, and suggests the vital role that parents and schools can
play in its early introduction in a meaningful way."
The Study's Major Findings Include:
- An estimated 28.5 million Americans regularly perform with a choir
or chorus, more than any other art form.
- The 250,000 choruses include an estimated 12,000 professional and
volunteer community choruses, more than 38,000 school choruses, and
200,000 church choirs.
- Early exposure to choral singing is the dominant common factor among
adults who participate in choruses, with more than half of the respondents
reporting growing up in households where someone regularly sang in a
chorus, and more than two-thirds reporting hearing choral music frequently
in their homes through recordings or radio. Almost 69 percent said they
had their first choral singing experiences in elementary or middle school.
This finding provides further evidence to the growing body of national
data indicating that early exposure to and training in the performing
arts is a key determinant in arts participation by adults.
- Choral singers are far more likely to be involved in charity work,
as volunteers and donors (76 percent), than the average person (44 percent,
according to a 2001 report by Independent Sector, the national organization
of charities).
Chorus members in the study affirmed that performing great music well
for enthusiastic audiences remains a key factor in sustaining their involvement,
and may help to explain the number-one ranking of choral music for participation
by Americans. The study finds that choristers strongly believe that the
impact of their singing is an enormous good to society, and that this
is a way of "giving back" to their communities. Chorus America, headquartered
in Washington, D.C., represents the growing choral community in the U.S.
and Canada, and provides data, programs, and networking for professionals
and volunteers in the choral field. The 28-page report, America's
Performing Art: A Study of Choruses, Choral Singers, and Their Impact,
is available in its entirety at the Chorus
America website.
Southern Arts Federation Offers Web Radio
 Do
you find yourself slaving away at the computer in a room full of silence?
No more! With a couple of clicks of the mouse you can tune into Jazz
South Radio and listen to a constantly updated selection of some of
the best southern jazz artists being recorded on independent, small and
mid-size labels. Kentuckians that you might hear include the jazz ensemble
Java Men and saxophonist Miles Osland.
Providing airplay and exposure for southern jazz artists, Jazz South
Radio is produced by The Southern Arts Federation (SAF), a not-for profit
regional arts organization that works in partnership with the state arts
agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. SAF is funded by the National
Endowment for the Arts (NEA), foundations, corporations, individuals and
member states.
SENATE APPROVES ARTISTS' TAX DEDUCTION MEASURE, HOUSE NEXT
In April the U.S. Senate passed legislation that includes provisions
allowing artists, writers, composers and other creators of original art
work to take a full fair-market value charitable contribution deduction
for the donation of their "literary, musical, artistic, or scholarly compositions."
Current tax law allows artists to deduct only the costs of materials,
such as paint, brushes and canvases, while ignoring the true value of
the work.
The Artist-Museum Partnership Act, S.287, introduced February 4, 2003,
by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Robert Bennett (R-UT), with 14 other
senators co-sponsoring the bill, was attached to the CARE Act, S.476,
with several other changes to the federal tax code aimed at increasing
charitable giving.
In addition to extending the charitable deduction to artists for donations
of their work, the CARE Act allows a deduction up to $250 for charitable
contributions by taxpayers who do not itemize their deductions.
The National Association
of State Arts Agencies and other arts advocacy organizations have
been pressing Congress for several years to correct the tax code prohibiting
artists from taking the charitable deduction available to collectors and
others who donate works of art to charitable organizations. Now, with
passage of the measure in the Senate, the bill goes to the House where
it is likely to be approved.
Representatives Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN) plan to
introduce the Charitable Giving Act of 2003, which is similar to the CARE
Act passed by the Senate. It is essential that the artists' charitable
deduction provisions be included.
The extension of the fair-market value deduction for artists donating
their work is expected to promote gifts to museums and libraries hard
pressed for acquisition funds. The measure is also intended to protect
the public's access to works of the nation's patrimony which otherwise
would be sold into private collections at home or overseas.
What you can do:
Advocates are encouraged to join NASAA in thanking Sens. Leahy and Bennett
for their constant support of the artists' tax deduction legislation and
their leadership in seeing the measure through to Senate floor passage.
Please phone or fax your words of appreciation to Sen. Leahy at 202-224-4242,
fax 202-224-3479; and to Sen. Bennett at 202-224-5444, fax 202-228-1168.
The other cosponsors of the Senate artists' bill are Sens. Jeff Bingaman
(D-NM), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Tom Daschle (D-SD),
Richard Durbin (D-IL), Bob Graham (D-FL), James Jeffords (I-VT), Tim Johnson
(D-SD), Edward M.. Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA), Joseph I. Lieberman
(D-CT), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and John Warner (R-VA).
Phone or fax Rep. Blunt at 202-225-6536, fax 202-225-5604; and Rep.
Ford at 202-225-3265, fax 202-225-5663. Ask them to include H.R. 806,
the Artists' Contribution to American Heritage Act introduced by Reps.
Amo Houghton (R-NY) and Ben Cardin (D-MD). This bill is identical to the
Leahy-Bennett bill included in the Senate's passage of the CARE Act.
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