More on Naked Statues...

About bloody time! (Excuse my English)

John Ashcroft had the naked statues at the Justice Department covered at a cost of $8000 because he was embarassed by a bronzed breast.

The new Attorney General Alberto Gonzales let them be removed because he had "more important" things to consider. Gonzales is obviously someone with common sense.

WASHINGTON (June 24) - With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years.
Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall.
The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about and criticism of the deeply religious Ashcroft.
The 12-foot, 6-inch aluminum statues were installed shortly after the building opened in the 1930s.
With a change in leadership at Justice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced the question: Would they stay or would they go?
He regularly deflected the question, saying he had weightier issues before him.
Paul R. Corts, the assistant attorney general for administration, recommended the drapes be removed and Gonzales signed off on it, spokesman Kevin Madden said, while refusing to allow The Associated Press to photograph the statues Friday.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050624185809990004&ncid=NWS00010000000001

Art Museum Visits-I See Naked People

In an earlier post, I mentioned changing Michelangelo's art in order to "protect" children from nakedness.

Read this article for a sane viewpoint:

Art museums are often full of nudity. Why? Because artists love to create representations of people.
"The human figure has always been one of the most studied aspects of art," said Danielle Rice, executive director of the Delaware Art Museum.
"It's the measure of all things."
So if you go to a museum or art gallery where there will be depictions of art, how do you explain it to your kids?
Naturally, of course.
When children notice a nude figure, Rice who headed the education department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art before coming to Delaware, uses the moment as an opportunity to start a conversation about the subject. Does the image make them feel uncomfortable or embarrassed? Why is that?, she asks. She then leads the conversation toward the difference between nudity in art -- an ideal, or symbol of nature -- and nakedness, which is less ideal. "It gets them thinking," she said.
Milton Downing, who teaches art at Brandywood Elementary School in Brandywine Hundred and and Maple Lane Elementary School in Claymont and at the Christina Cultural Arts Center in Wilmington, explains how artists see the drawing of the human body as an artistic challenge and an important form of expression. He then points out what makes the image artistic. "Oh, course, I get some oohs and ahs," he says.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050621/LIFE/506210305/1005

Legal Help for Artists

I had a request from someone looking for legal help on an art issue.

I recommend any artist looking for help to start at their local Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. There are several offices around the country and this link should take you to a national list:

http://dwij.org/matrix/vla_list.html

Here in Illinois the local office is in Chicago:

William E. Rattner, Esq.
Executive Director Lawyers for the Creative Arts
213 W. Institute Place, Suite 401
Chicago, IL 60610
312 649-4111 Ph
312 944-2195 Fax
eMail: wrattner@law-arts.com http://www.law-arts.org/

And The Survey Said...

If the following article proves anything, is that parents are the ones who need to get involved with making sure that their children receive arts education. This is a hurry-up, stressed-out, don't bother me society but if we don't take action, who will?

Americans for the Arts, a non-profit organization committed to advancing the arts in America, conducted a survey focusing on the attitudes and opinions that Americans feel about art education.

·86 percent of Americans agree that an arts education encourages and assists in the improvement of a child’s attitudes toward school.
·83 percent of Americans believe that arts education helps teach children to communicate effectively with adults and peers.
·79 percent of Americans agree that incorporating arts into education is the first step in adding back what’s missing in public education today.
·79 percent of Americans believe that it’s important enough for them to get personally involved in increasing the amount and quality of arts education.

However, the survey also revealed that those “involved with a child” are uncertain when it comes to how to become involved in “advocating for arts education”.

·62 percent believe that there are other people or organizations in the community who are better suited to take action (than they are).
·40 percent say that they do not know how to get involved in arts education.

Art Advocacy Links

If you surfed here looking for art advocacy links, these are some of my favorites:

Americans for the Arts
www.artsusa.org

ArtsEdge
www.artsedge.kennedy-center.org/

Arts Journal Online newsletter
www.artsjournal.com

In addition, you can google search "Art Council" along with your state. If you live in Illinois, this is the link:
www.state.il.us/agency/iac/

I will continue to post links to sites that promote the arts and if you have a favorite, please post it here in the comments or send me an e-mail. Larger organizations like the Americans for the Arts have membership fees, but not all groups do. I prefer a grass-roots approach meaning I want to encourage people to support their local community artists, theaters, and music organizations. And when local schools want to cut art programs for whatever reason, stop them. The arts are a vital part of education and benefits are across all subjects.

Good luck!

Exhibition space-in space...

I know finding exhibition space is hard for the self-employed artist but imagine the logistics involved in this:

The International Space Station (ISS) - currently in orbit around the Earth - is our only permanent human habitation in space. It is a great achievement of human ingenuity and international cooperation, as well as a cutting-edge research facility. The European Space Agency is interested to open the International Space Station to a new community of artistic and cultural users. This new study sets out to investigate and focus the interest of the cultural world in the International Space Station, to generate a policy for involving cultural users in the International Space Station programme in the longer term and to develop a representative set of ready-to-implement demonstrator projects in arts, culture and media.

For the full article see the Arts Catalyst page here:
http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/space/ISS.html

Art Museums Flourish

Depressed by all the bad news concerning art programs being cut, lack of funding, etc. etc., I came across this gem from the Seattle Times. About time for some positive news! Being a Cubs fan, the point about admissionto Wrigley Field is a bitter pill to swallow...

Art museums have learned the lessons of successful retailers in that they allow people to visit at all times of day, including evenings and weekends, not at a prearranged time. And a visitor can go at his or her own pace in a museum, looking, reading, thinking and enjoying. Plus, a concert, dance, performance or film is often included in the price of admission.

Speaking of admission, some museums, including all the great museums on the Mall in Washington, D.C., are free. Even the newly expanded Museum of Modern Art in New York, which charges the highest admission of any art museum in this country, is still a bargain at $20, compared with typical ticket prices of $40 at the New York Philharmonic and $32 to see the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002320703&zsection_id=268883724&slug=artmuseums08&date=20050608

Celebrities and their Causes

Star power can bring atttention to a cause, there's no doubt about that. In this article the discussion was, does a celebrity hurt or help? Strangely enough, I'm all for celebrities who promote the causes I like, but when they go out and stump for a presidential candidate I don't agree with, it makes me mad... hmmm.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/05/ING9QD1FIE1.DTL


Why would anyone object to these efforts? Two big reasons: Suspicion of the celebrities' motives and a sense that the celebrities don't really understand the problems about which they speak.

Case in point: The lead singer for rock group Coldplay, Chris Martin, has visited Ghana in his campaign against Western trade practices that he says undermine farmers in the West African country. Get rid of unfair tariffs imposed on Ghana, and those farmers would thrive, he believes.

Martin, who's married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, may be well-intentioned, but he's ignoring structural problems in Ghana that have far more impact than outside tariffs, says Franklin Cudjoe, a development director in Ghana's capital, Accra. Cudjoe derides what he calls rock-star economics -- the practice of musician-activists and others to focus predominantly on the West's perceived responsibility for Africa's economic woes.

IRS and the Arts Business

One of the biggest pains to being self-employed in a creative industry is trying to predict how much I’ll make during a given quarter so that I can let the IRS know. If I get it wrong, I get penalties or the IRS keeps more of my money than it should. So when I read this article I thought “so what?” Why shouldn’t an arts business pay its employees and its taxes like any other business?

When I gave it more thought, I realized many arts businesses operate with wildly uncertain income just like the artists they hire. Depending on grants or admittance fees isn’t like selling a product where sales can be predicted more easily.

On third thought, maybe the IRS regulations are at fault…

Here’s a part of the article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Shakespeare won't be on the playbill when Kent Phillips finishes plans for his theater group's next season. Instead of a 15-player production of the Bard's "Richard II," he is looking into a two-man show by Noel Coward.

Phillips, interim director of the Tacoma Actors Guild and managing director of Bellevue Civic Theater, didn't pull his Shakespeare plans for artistic purposes. He was reacting to news that the state has been auditing other theater companies and fining them for paying actors honorariums and stipends rather than treating them as full-fledged employees.

At issue is the practice among small and midsize theaters to treat some actors, technicians and designers as independent contractors rather than as employees. Theater directors say paying a fixed payment or weekly stipend is a way to honor and at least slightly subsidize their creative work -- and provide a stepping stone to higher-paid Equity jobs -- without completely breaking the bank for community non-profits.

Now, they say, the state is telling them that workers should be classified as employees, meaning they should pay an hourly salary of at least minimum wage, plus contribute to the state's unemployment and workers' compensation funds.

For the complete article follow this link:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/theater/226100_theatertax27.html

No Child Left Behind Act-Good or Bad?

Something that sounds good in theory does not always work out in actuality. Take the No Child Left Behind Act which was intended to bring all students up to a basic standard in reading and math. Although the arts are considered a "core subject" by this act, strained resources are being redirected to bringing up scores in reading and math because the school district will lose money if this is not done.

I came across this article and in it was this nugget of information:

In California, the act's emphasis on reading and mathematics contributed to a 50 percent drop in the number of students in music education courses, according to a study by that state's Department of Education, which looked at data from 1999 through 2004.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050523/NEWS/505230321/1001/COMMUNITY

Yes there should be accountability in the education system but this act has problems as far as evaluation. The bottom line is that not all students learn by the same method or at the same age. Special education students are included in the evaluation numbers and obviously that skews the results. Some kids are just never going to reach the levels required-they just aren't capable.

So who is evaluating the No Child Left Behind Act?

The Arts Are Good Business!

A similar story to the last post-the arts are responsible for bringing in some money to a city or community. Maybe this is the line we should take when telling school districts not to cut the arts because they represent future income for the community. Take a look at this story from Tampa Bay Online:

TAMPA - All those concert tickets and Salvador Dali museum souvenirs really add up.
An arts advocacy group said Friday that local arts and cultural institutions pumped more than half a billion dollars into the Tampa Bay area's economy last year, up 30 percent from 1999.
The group, the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts, said the increase reflects the growing role arts institutions play in hiring and spending. Members also stressed that a growing, healthy arts environment is crucial for attracting and retaining businesses and workers.
The study found:
* Museums, arts centers and cultural institutions employed 7,800 people last year, compared with 7,000 in 1999, when the last study was done. The total payroll was $202.7 million in 2004, up from $146.7 million five years ago.
* Direct spending for the arts, which includes ticket sales and souvenirs purchased by patrons as well as day-to- day spending and capital expenditures by arts institutions, came to $270.3 million in 2004, up from $208.3 million in 1999.
* Total spending on the arts - that is, direct spending by arts institutions and patrons, plus the spending by those organization's clients and employees - was $521.3 million, up from $402.2 million in 1999.

House of Representatives Pass Funding for the Arts

Yes, I know this is a long post...

Remarks from Illinois representative Davis in support of increasing funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and for the National Endowment for the Humanities:

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chairman, I rise in strong support of Slaughter/Shays/Dicks/Leach amendment to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, NEH.
The arts are crucial for the flourishing and development of societies. As our economy continues to grow it is important that the arts remain a priority in our communities. As former President Kennedy stated, “I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battles or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.” Though some would consider our economy hard pressed for such funding as this, I implore my colleagues to consider the profound influence of arts-centric businesses.
While some of the country's concerns only affect a minority of people, the involvement in the arts spans all walks of life. Indeed, it weaves together all communities and crosses racial, gender, and religious boundaries. In my district, the arts create a sense of nationalism for the State and the rest of the country. For, what would Chicago be without the architecture of the Sears Tower, the flourishing talent in Second City, or the abundant museums? Indeed, the beating pulse of America lives and thrives through the arts.
Not only do the arts enrich societies, but the arts is also an industry. In my district there are 2,989 art related businesses and 44,709 people that make their daily living working in the arts. It is obvious that support of arts, also is support of the economy. Arts-Centric businesses supply 578,000 businesses in the United States and employ 2.97 million people. Even more, it is a growing institution, exceeding the total United States business growth rate by 1.7 percent. Not only do the arts help sustain the economy by supplying jobs and generating revenue, it helps to fuel future creative industries and workers.
These future creative workers come in the form of our children. The arts help in a child's brain development and their creative skills. A country without a full expression of the arts would truly create a void in a child's development. They too deserve the right to blossom and flourish their imagination from the various artistic resources.
We cannot disregard the contributions and growing trends of the arts. The arts and humanities support our culture, it supports our economy, and most importantly it supports our future. In my district there is a wealth of diversity. This diversity is preserved through the arts. The arts promote respect for diversity, and appreciation of other cultures. It seems to me, that these elements are necessary for building stable healthy communities. Madam Chairman, if we minimize these possibilities in the arts, we will be limiting the liberty of our imagination. I request my colleagues to join me in support of this amendment.

Two weakening floor amendments to cut NEA funding were defeated by overwhelming margins.

Illinois Arts Education Initiative

Take a minute to look through this site:
http://www.artsalliance.org/al_arts.shtml

This is the Illinois Arts Education site which is detailed below. If you live in another state, please try to find a similar initiative. Arts education needs help!

The Illinois Arts Education Initiative is a statewide coalition of education, business and arts advocates led by the Illinois Arts Alliance and the Chicago Community Trust dedicated to implementing a comprehensive, standards-based arts education program for Illinois public school students.

The Illinois Arts Education Initiative was created in response to diminishing arts education offerings in Illinois public schools and broad disparities in the number of arts education offerings found among school districts and among schools within the same school districts.

The Illinois Arts Education Initiative will increase public awareness of the impact of arts education on overall student achievement and broaden our knowledge of the status of arts education in public schools throughout Illinois. The coalition will make recommendations based on the findings of statewide research that is underway, lessons learned from Chicago Community Trust demonstration projects, examples of successful arts education programs in Illinois schools districts and from innovative solutions that have been implemented in other states.

Covering Up Michelangelo's Nudity

Here's another subject for debate: should art work be changed so that it is not "offensive" when it is used in a classroom?

When coming up with lesson plans for my 1st and 3rd grade kids, I took care to use artworks that didn't include nudity. But the following story takes place in a high school. Certainly there will be some snickering, but does that give the authorities the reason to change Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel painting???

This story is from the Arizona Star:

It's one of the most recognized works of art in the world - the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
But, after several recent controversies about art at local schools, students in a mural class at Palo Verde High Magnet School knew from the beginning that their duplication of Michelangelo's masterpiece could be problematic.
If they were to paint the famous scene of God and a naked Adam touching fingertips, it might not go over well with students and administrators without some compromise.
Still, it took a while to get things right.
First, they painted a fig leaf over Adam's private parts.
"We knew we needed to cover it," said senior Lorel Voss, who thought the religious reference would be a bigger issue than the nudity. "We put a fig leaf. No one said anything for weeks."
But the fig leaf turned out to be more distracting than the area in question, school officials say. So, teacher Chelsea Farrar suggested a bush. But students thought it would be ugly, and went straight to administrators.
The compromise: A flowing sash to hide the area.
The situation illustrates the difficult balance educators face in integrating fine art into the high school classroom. It's a balance being debated frequently this year and one that Tucson's biggest school district will address with a committee that meets for the first time today.
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/printDS/74617.php

Louise T. Blouin Foundation

Some gems from a recent article about a new arts organization, the Louise T. Blouin Foundation:

• The international nonprofit arts organization has a wide-ranging agenda to support cultural development around the world, through research and new programs.
• Louise Blouin MacBain, a 46-year-old French-Canadian, has pledged $30 million to establish the Louise T. Blouin Center for Creativity in London and to fund the first year's program budget. MacBain said that after she learned she had dyslexia at the age of 8, she became aware of how creative many bright people with learning disabilities are, making links among seemingly disparate subjects. So through an interdisciplinary, international foundation, she said she hoped to show how creativity benefits countries economically and culturally.
• Robert Lynch, the president and chief executive of Americans for the Arts, said that he was particularly intrigued by the foundation's international ambitions and its research agenda on creativity and connections between the arts and the economy.
  “Creativity is at the core of the American economy right now,” Lynch said, adding that his group's recent study on creative industries found that 578,486 businesses in the United States alone are connected to the arts in some way.

Grass-roots Advocacy

After the last article, I googled the National Coalition Against Censorship (and came up with probably enough material for several months of posting).

Here's what they would like the general public to do:

1. Keep us informed of controversies over artistic expression in your community.
2. Participate in the public dialogue when the work of another artist or the choices of an arts organization are debated. Talk to representatives of the media, speak on panels and write to the press.
3. Help us form local networks of support by your participation and advocacy of free creative expression.
4. Give us your ideas.

There are a great many organizations out there that advocate for the arts in one way or another-and we could go broke joining them all. I'm advocating a grass-roots approach and the NCAC pretty much says it all.

Censored Art

I'm going to put this article out there and see what people think. (I did pull out student's names) Question: how old do you have to be to enjoy freedom of expression?

3 censored paintings may be sold
Associated Press
ROY — Three paintings by a Roy High School student that were removed from a school art show are attracting interest and could be sold or possibly displayed in a Los Angeles gallery. High school administrators removed the oil paintings by (student). One painting was of a female breast and a hand overlaid by a black censor line. Another depicted a woman's torso, a hand, and the lower half of cleavage. The third showed two hands on a curved hip. Roy High art teacher Jeffrey Lowe, who defends the art, said he has since received two phone calls from people wondering if (student) wanted to sell the paintings. One person also called from California and wants to get the pictures displayed in a gallery, Lowe said. (student) said she is open to selling the paintings but has no idea how much to charge. "It's all new to me," said (student), who is headed to Weber State University in the fall to major in art.
District administrators said (student's) paintings were causing a disruption. Some students and faculty had complained about the pieces, saying they were offensive. The weeklong art show was in the school's main foyer. Principal Lee Dickemore declined to comment Wednesday. The 17-year-old artist's left hand is underdeveloped and allows for little movement. "No wonder she is drawing hands," said writer Wendy Toliver, 32, of Eden. "Her art is beautiful to me," Toliver said. "I would love it in my office. It's gorgeous. It's not vulgar to me." (student's) paintings are the only ones that have been removed, though some others also have drawn complaint. These include several that show a boy and girl kissing, and a work called "The Bather," which displays a woman's upper buttocks. Some parents say high school isn't the place for some pieces of art. "It's probably not things I would want my high school child to see," said Michelle Marshall, and her daughter, (another student), a junior, agrees. "High school students don't view art in a very mature way," she said. "They would be laughing at it."
Svetlana Mintcheva, director of Arts Advocacy for the National Coalition Against Censorship, said art is protected by the First Amendment. "Removing it shows ignorance of art history and a religious standard gone amok," she said.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600129782,00.html

Block Parties

No, I didn't say "blog parties" though that sounds like a good idea...

I read an article about a neighborhood block party that featured community resources, e.g. Big Brothers & Sisters, Junior League, Family Services, etc. The block party also had fun activities for the kids including arts and crafts, Play-Doh tables, two bounce houses, a rock-climbing wall, and music by local organizations. Art, music, physical activity-what more can you ask for a community event?

Not only is the whole concept a great idea to copy in your own neighborhood (and yes you would have to do some organizing but so what?) but it seems like a good opportunity for local artists to get out there and show the kids what you do. You never know when you will inspire someone.

Art Thought For The Day

When I go to Chicago I often see the most interesting art/architecture several floors above street level. This means I get a stiff neck/look like a tourist/get mown down by cabbies whenever I'm downtown.

The town where I live has several buildings on the National Historic Register and even though the architecture is more visible (read: only one or two floors from street level) you still have to make an effort to see it.

So here's the thought for the day. Take your camera, whether it's a Kodak disposable or swanky digital model and go to your local downtown district and look up. Take pictures of architectural details (and here it definitely helps if you have a zoom lens) and make your own visual art scrapbook.

You'll have a new perspective on where you live.

Hip-hop Producer Advocates for the Disadvantaged

I've never thought of a hip-hop music producer as being an advocate for the arts but Russel Simmons, founder of Def Jam records, is doing what he can to promote music to the disdvantaged.

Here's an excerpt from an article on mvwire.com:

"Simmons’ interests extend far beyond the business world, and he spends a great deal of his time and considerable energy working for social, political, and philanthropic causes, pushing hip-hop on to new plateaus of power and relevance. In 1995 he, along with his brothers Danny and Joseph Simmons (Rev. Run of Run-DMC), founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. The organization is dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as offering exhibition opportunities to underrepresented artists and artists of color. Following the historic Hip-Hop Summit Russell organized in June 2001, he and Minister Benjamin Muhammad founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) to harness the cultural relevance of hip-hop music as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well being of at-risk youth throughout the United States."