May 8th

We need to be ‘smarter’
There is a great deal of outcry now [which is definitely warranted] because the NEA withdrew funding from thousands of organizations and the fact that they are trying to eliminate the NEA altogether, but it really should not come as a big surprise. So we all yell and advocate to save the NEA [we have been here before]-even if we manage to save the NEA-what will it look like?
The reason they withdrew the grants is because they claim the grants did not match Trump’s priorities. So, even if they do not eliminate the NEA-his priorities are not going to change.
Are you willing to change your creative priorities?
We can’t be blind; we can save the NEA [this time] but again-what will it look like?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we shouldn’t fight/advocate. I am saying we have to be smarter, or we will find ourselves in the same position again, fighting for the NEA and funding.
Twenty-five years ago when we wrote grants for our Arts in Prevention Projects, we were told we didn’t qualify for arts funding and we didn’t qualify for prevention funding so instead of giving up we merged the goals of both programming ideologies. You need to fight for the funding that was allocated to you but you might need to use their own language, like Alyson Maier Lokuta said’ “ the Arts will make America Healthy Again”.
The right has been waging a war on arts and culture for over fifty years-for them it is about the ‘narrative’ and their ‘purist values’, it is not about the value of the arts, nor its’ power and impact on individuals and communities.
We need to fight with multiple goals-short term, mid-term and long-term goals and in multiple ways.

May 5: Our Arts and Cultural Ecosytem are under attack from within: This is Going To Be a Fight!
Trump and his administration are systematically attacking and are rewriting the narrative of our arts and cultural ecosystem.
As all of you know, Friday night the National Endowment of the Arts withdrew funding from thousands of organizations across the country, which will affect thousands of individuals in the communities they serve. As much as it is about the organizations themselves it is also about those individuals and communities across the country, they will be the collateral damage! The ARTS are an essential service!
Of course, his next step is to eliminate the NEA altogether as he tried in his first term but failed. The difference this time is he has the entire Republican party in his pockets.
One question is, if we manage to save the NEA, what will it look like? They will still control the narrative based on their ‘priorities’.
Another question to ask yourself, is, Why are the arts and culture always the first to go and we have to fight to save them. Are they still ‘undervalued’? To all of us in the arts, we understand their value but does the public? People say, they love the arts but do they truly understand the scope of arts power and impact?
In this administration it is all about messaging and marketing. So what do you think they are saying? I think it is all about control, and the message of the conservative right agenda.
We need to fight on multiple fronts, advocacy [but not sure what we have been doing is working well, we need a different approach], work from within, start with running for local offices [100K Project], messaging and marketing.
We MUST work together!