Dear Museum Listers:
I would add a point to the discussion from a comptrollers point of view.
Most of the money that arts organizations and museums spend actually
goes to pretty blue collar people. We pay movers to ship the art,
handymen to install it, security to guard it, printers to produce
catalogues and brochures, hardware stores for basic supplies....
Talk about your vendors with people - most of them are hardworking salt
of the earth people who cut us a deal. These are the type of people that
are hurting the most and that need every transaction they can get.
I remind people that money circulates. If you want to get many in the
hands of everyday people who work hard for their living - give it to a
museum or arts organization because they will actually put those funds
towards "non-artsy" tradesmen in the local community who are straining
to pay their mortgage.
The tourism and quality of life arguments are good one but it still
strikes some as elitist. I first skin the cat by talking about how the
high costs of our nuts and bolts pumps money into the local economy.
Cheers,
Daniel
Daniel Larkin / Administrative Assistant
Friends of Materials for the Arts
33-00 Northern Boulevard, 3rd Floor
Long Island City, New York 11101-2215
V: 718-729-3001, ext. 218
F: 718-729-3941
W: www.mfta.org <http://www.mfta.org/>
________________________________
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Gayle
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 6:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Political Friends of Museums
McCain's attacking of allocation for the arts fails on at least one
major front. A number of the institutions and organizations that
received funding help to promote tourism, which again, generates income
for the economy. In larger metropolises and resort areas, these
tourists may well be foreign nationals with dollars to spend. Tourism
to visit a tourist attraction stimulates the economy in terms of the
secondary purchases that the tourists make in order to avail themselves
of these things. Hotels, meals, other entertainment, airfare in some
instances, car rentals/mileage, taxes that benefit the local governing
entities. The list goes on.
________________________________
From: Judith Turner <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2009 3:18:46 PM
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Political Friends of Museums
Interesting list, Gayle.
It doesn't appear that funding for any of these projects benefited
institutions or research efforts in Arizona -- sour grapes, perhaps?
Funding for science, the arts and the humanities, including museums,
libraries and archives, really, really really needs to be
re-rationalized in this country. Of course, attaching pet projects to
something like the stimulus bill is not going to achieve that but after
all the cuts in recent years some legislators felt the need to help
their local constituents.
The months after 9/11, and even more dramatically the last 6 months,
show how empty the assurances that the private sector would pick up the
slack left by Federal cutbacks turned out to be. One could make the
case that the U.S. is now in worse shape than it was going into the
1930's in terms of meeting its citizens' need for an intellectual and
cultural life in an affordable manner.
People need assistance locally right now yet local institutions are
failing and/or flailing about. Museums that were free or charged a few
dollars for admission 10 or 20 years ago (when the overall economy was
in much better shape), now charge double digit admission prices to come
in the door and add a similar bill for the latest blockbuster exhibit
once inside ...
Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI
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