What is Advocacy?
Advocacy is the presenting of arguments in favor of a cause of policy. Think of it as education. Advocacy helps leadership make informed decisions about what they will support. Advocacy is something everyone can do and should do to encourage and grow public support of the arts.
Lobbying is aimed at influencing members of a legislative body on specific legislation. Lobbying is about making positive change to laws that affect us and the cause we serve; it’s trying to influence the voting of legislators.
Lobbying always involves advocacy, but advocacy does not necessarily involve lobbying. Click here for more information.
Why Should We Advocate?
The Governor’s Recommended Budget would reduce the Nevada Arts Council’s state funding by more than 50% - from $1,800,000 to $700,000 for each year of the next biennium. If this occurs there will be very deep cuts to all grant categories, loss of staff, some programs and services and certain grant categories. Additionally, the state dollars in the Grants Program will be reduced nearly 80%.
Who Should Advocate?
The best advocate for public funding for the arts is you—the staff and volunteer leaders, the artists, audiences and patrons of Nevada’s arts organizations. You are the experts who can make the case for the public benefit of tax dollars spent on the arts. Whether talking to legislators in the state capital or the nation’s capitol, you are the key spokespersons who can ensure the government’s commitment to arts support.
In 2009, our legislators are tasked with the extraordinarily grueling challenge of shaping the future of Nevada for years to come. It is our collective responsibility - as arts advocates - to ensure that our legislators understand the value of the Nevada Arts Council and the role of Nevada’s arts and culture industry in general, and see it as an essential service of state government.
Does It Work?
If anyone ever questions the effectiveness of thoughtful and well-executed advocacy efforts, the inclusion of $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (Stimulus funding) should extinguish that notion. The Nevada Arts Council will distribute $250,500 of stimulus funding through the SNAP (Sustaining Nevada’s Arts Programs) Grants in early summer 2009.
So should the response by the 2007 Nevada State Legislature to the thousands of emails sent via Arts4Nevada.org, which led to an increase of $212,500 to the NAC for 2008 and 2009. All NAC grantees benefited from this infusion of additional state funding.
