Sunday, November 21, 1999
Arts advocates need to learn art of politics
Funding defeat shows lack of sales savvy
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's not so much a plan whose time has come as a plan that's long overdue:
• Provide up to $15,000 in annual funding to each of the city's growing mid-sized ($150,000 to $1 million operating budget) arts companies.
• Create a fellowship program for our best local individual artists.
• Bring arts into neighborhoods.
• Create a public art policy.
• Create a functioning city arts office.
The city's arts allocations committee spent the summer and fall putting together a sensible, fiscally modest set of recommendations for Cincinnati's arts programs and policies. (The appointed committee assesses requests for financial support from small local arts groups and individual artists, then makes recommendations to Cincinnati City Council.)
It is arguably the committee's most significant work in more than 15 years. It was 1983 when council last looked at its arts policies. The local arts scene has changed — and its needs have changed — drastically in the past two decades.
Unfortunately, we won't be seeing the results of that work anytime soon. By the end of Tuesday's session in front of council's finance committee, the small, solid plan was relegated to a back burner to simmer for at least another year.
The bright, committed people behind the recommendations forgot something vital: to sell it to the people who needed to buy it.
They had slides and charts. They had a hefty hand-out detailing how the recommendations and its list of modifications and improvements fit council's goals of downtown vitality, livable neighborhoods, youth at risk and a healthy local economy.
As presenter and committee member Thomas Law explained, it can “strengthen existing programs and fill in some holes in the patchwork quilt we call arts support.”
The recommendations carefully don't duplicate activities of the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts (and its Fine Arts Fund). The plan is modest in scope. All that it requestsis an increase from the city's current arts support of $403,740, or .14% of the annual budget, to $743,000 in 2004 or .26% (just more than one-quarter of 1 percent).
In his introduction Mr. Law went on to say, “We are teachers, artists, administrators. We are all volunteers. We are not lawyers, not lobbyists, not political strategists ... We are not big names. We are what we are.”
If there was one lesson to be learned from Tuesday's exercise, it is this: It's long past the time when any group can go before an elected body and graciously excuse themselves from being lobbyists or political strategists.
Members of the arts allocations committee spent early November trotting hard through council members' offices. That suggests a desire for a majority vote to carry the plan into action before the newly elected, slightly revamped council takes seats next month.
Whatever the results of the behind-the-scenes vote-counting, the only council members to hear them Tuesday were committee chair Minette Cooper, Paul Booth, Phil Heimlich and Tyrone Yates. The hoped-for call to action became a rehearsal.
It turns out they probably needed the rehearsal. The session was positioned as “action steps for implementing the regional cultural plan in Cincinnati.” The word “regional” led the proceedings astray. Mr. Heimlich, not surprisingly, pounced.
Arts are regional, he said, so where's the regional support?
Presenters patiently repeated that this was a city presentation. But the confusion had already been created.
It was evident that council members don'thave a clue what the city arts program is or how it operates, despite the flurry of recent visits by arts supporters. At one-tenth of 1 percent of the city's budget, there are plenty of bigger things on council members' plates.
The presenters did not explain that city money only goes to arts and artists working (and presenting work) within the city limits. They didn't have hard answers to too many of council's hard questions.
Mr. Heimlich made a better case for caution than the arts advocates made for progress, so much so that midway through the session Ms. Cooper delicately agreed that it's a matter best postponed until the next budget round, which is for 2001-2002.
The need for ongoing arts advocacy was re-emphasized Wednesday.City Manager John Shirey went before council with some suggested budget cuts for next year, including a miniscule ($8,480) trim to arts allocations.
That's a long way from a cry to arms for arts supporters, but it's a yellow flag. It's not too early to start working up a battle plan for the next budget round.
In some cities, arts supporters decide to be political strategists. Seattle's mayor is a former city arts commissioner. In Charlotte, N.C., voters defeat officials who do not support the arts.
As is usual in the arts, what happens — and what doesn't happen — is going to depend on the commitment of already overextended volunteers. What they're going to have to commit to is making high-profile arts advocacy a year-round part of the volunteer job.
HAVE PLAY, WILL TRAVEL: Hey, playwrights! Here are some opportunities:
• Launch Productions is looking for three one-act scripts to produce in spring. If your script is less than 45 minutes, has no more than five characters and attractively low overhead, send them along to Launch at PO Box 19253, Cincinnati 45219. Deadline is Dec. 15. No mention of financial renumeration for chosen scripts.
• Fitton Center in Hamilton is in the midst of its seventh annual national one-act play competition. Plays must be no longer than 30 minutes, non-musical, and simple sets are a plus. Deadline is Feb. 15. Five finalists will be given staged readings in April. Three winners will receive a fully staged production in June. Information: 863-8873.
• CATCO (Contemporary American Theatre Company) in Columbus is seeking unproduced, 10- to 15-minute plays from Ohio writers for its Shorts Festival 2000.
Scripts have to fit a setting of an urban, upscale restaurant; eight actors (four male, four female) will be available to be cast. The festival will run May 2-June 4. Submission deadline is Dec. 11.
Call Geoffrey Nelson at (614) 461-1382 Ext. 151 for requirements. Selected playwrights will receive a percentage of the royalties and travel and housing support.
• Finally, you have until Dec. 1 to submit your entry to Actors Theatre of Louisville's annual National Ten-Minute Play Contest. Winners share the $1,000 Heideman Award, but the cool part is that they're produced during the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. Send submissions to: ATL, 316 W. Main St., Louisville, Ky. 40202-4218.
Jackie Demaline is Enquirer theater critic and roving arts reporter. Write her at Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202; fax, 768-8330.
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