Advocate Testimonies
ARTS ADVOCATES TESTIMONY BEFORE
JOINT LEGISLATIVE SUBCOMMITTEE
ON GOVERNMENT--MARCH 10, 2011
My name is David LaPlante. I’m a senior vice president with Boston-based One to One, consistently ranked in the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies in America with offices in Boston, Baltimore, London, Brazil, Singapore, Salt Lake City...and Reno. One to One acquired Reno-based Twelve Horses in 2009, where I was CEO. I’m a founder and current chairman of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology and a University of Nevada alum. In the past I’ve served on the boards of organizations such as Artown, Holland Project, and EDAWN.
While my company’s DNA is in technology, our company’s success is centered on the blend of creativity, cultural intelligence, social psychology and neuroscience in the pursuit of understanding why people do what they do, why they buy, why it makes meaning to them.
With that experience and perspective, I’m here to urge you to not make any cuts to the Nevada Arts Council budget and to look at it as an increasingly important facet of economic development.
The ability for my company to recruit people to Reno is a critical aspect of our company’s future. To recruit top talent, especially the young tech savvy cultural intelligent talent, I have to compete head on with the cultural arts offerings of cities like San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles and Seattle. That’s not to say we have to be equal by any means - but that we simply must show that we have it and are committed to it.
It’s imperative that Nevada has a brand that stands for creativity and the cultural arts if we desire to compete for the important creative class knowledge workers and entrepreneurs that are vital to the technology driven knowledge economy.
You’re here trying to satisfy the bottom of our State’s needs hierarchy for basic physical and safety needs. But what it is that makes us human, makes us enjoy life, take risks, start businesses and lights up our brains with the dopamine necessary for happiness takes place above survival and safety needs levels in the forms of social belonging, identity, and self-actualization. It it there that we individually and collectively not only survive - but thrive. And it is there that the creative class, our cultural arts, and the knowledge economy resides.
Thank you.
Hello, I’m Clark Demeritt.
I’m here as a representative of Nevada’s youth and on behalf of the Holland Project, a youth-run all-ages arts and music organization based in Reno that has spent the past 5 years providing creative outlets to teens and young people in northern Nevada. In my 19 years as a Renoite, nothing has affected my life more than the arts. It’s shaped who I am and what I want to do with the rest of my life.
The main vehicle for this has been The Holland Project. It has offered me a voice in my local community and a sense of identity. It’s given me management, organization, and real work experience skills. Nevada Arts Council has supported Holland from its beginnings, and that means NAC has also directly affected my life and many young people like me. With funding from the Nevada Arts Council, we’ve been able to provide not only entertainment, but also valuable skills, experiences and opportunities.
NAC’s support of Holland and countless other arts organization has been crucial, as your support of the arts is crucial for a forward-moving, quality, cultural, economically and socially functioning, healthy and sound Nevada.
If support for the arts continues to be decimated, so will the interest of younger people to stay in Nevada. With broke schools, out-of-control statewide youth and teen statistics in nearly every depressing area, and hugely diminishing support for the arts, young people are given very little chance to succeed in Nevada, and are often forced to flee to artistically and culturally robust cities and states.
A lack of support and funding for the arts doesn’t simply affect mediums like painting or music, but our creativity to problem solve and to make decisions. The Governor, in his state of the state message, wanted Nevadans to “help set a new direction”; well, who better for this than Nevada’s youth? It is our worry, that without funding for the arts, young people may not be around to help. I hope when budget decisions are made you will keep in mind the youth culture, Nevada’s future potential and talent, and what is needed for us to thrive.
Thank you.
I’m Nettie Oliverio, Chair of the Arts and Culture Commission for the City of Reno, and I have had the pleasure of working with the board and staff of the Nevada Arts Council over several years. As anyone familiar with the roles of a state arts agency will attest, ours in Nevada is one of the nation’s Best Bang for the Buck institutions.
Operating on a slim budget, which was deeply cut by 43% in the last legislative session, the Nevada Arts Council is both creative and nimble, and reorganized to minimize funding cuts to Nevada’s Arts Industry, but the overall effect of the cuts was still significantly felt. Service to the Arts Industry includes vital grant support, professional arts business guidance, workshops and educational opportunities, to name but just a few areas of support. It is critically important to continue Nevada Arts Council’s funding at the same flat level because further cuts will erode the organization’s ability to serve the rural communities, which have no other resource in the state, as well as endanger the continuance of the Las Vegas office.
So why does this matter? Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity annually—a 24 percent increase in just the past five years. That amount is greater than the Gross Domestic Product of most countries. This spending supports 5.7 million full-time jobs right here in the United States, something Nevada is in dire need of.
Our industry also generates nearly $30 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal governments every year. By comparison, the three levels of government collectively spend less than $4 billion annually to support arts and culture—a spectacular 7:1 return on investment that our state is also in dire need of.
Right now, cities around the world are competing to attract new businesses as well as our brightest young professionals. International studies show that the winners will be communities that offer an abundance of arts and culture opportunities. Just yesterday the Reno Fire Chief told me about his home community, Corpus Christi, Texas, and how, despite an attractive corporate tax structure, available and easy transportation and other beguiling factors, large industries passed them by because the community was short on Education and Arts and Culture.
There are many options for you to contemplate over the next months as you work to balance our state’s budget, some of which are easier to choose than others. An easy decision that costs minutely little, but reaps big economic rewards for our state is the decision to leave the funding for the Nevada Arts Council at its current level.
Thank you for what you are doing for our state!
Thank you for your past support and realization that the arts make an economic, physical and emotional difference in the lives of all Nevadans and visitors to Nevada.
For the last 25 years, VSA arts of Nevada (Very Special Arts Nevada) has provided arts opportunities for ALL focusing on children and adults who are disabled or under-served by the arts. Each year, VSA Nevada conducts over 3,000 art workshops in classrooms, after-school settings, hospitals, nursing homes and VA facilities. Although we physically moved Reno’s Lake Mansion in 2004 with the assistance of state and local funding including the State Historic Preservation Office, we can’t continue to conduct this amount of arts programming with continued cuts at the federal, state and local levels as well as cuts in private support.
We hear and we all say – “think out of the box, be creative, be a global thinker.” These are the attributes that will get us out of this financial mess. Yet, the very activities that promote these qualities in our children and in adults continue to be reduced or eliminated through funding and staff cuts at all levels.
We are very concerned about the possibility of continued reduced funding to the Cultural Affairs budget. Nevada Arts Council’s funding was already reduced by 43% last session. Although this funding is a minute part of the entire budget, it makes a huge difference in the economic, physical and emotional lives of Nevadans. Artist Jasper Johns stated, “Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.”
Below are pieces of artwork created by students in self-contained (only kids with disabilities) classrooms. VSA arts of Nevada conducts 1,000 workshops each year in these classrooms at no cost to the school district, classroom, teachers or parents. If you are in the area of the Lake Mansion on Court and Arlington in Reno, we have 250 art pieces on exhibit in celebration of Youth Art Month, plus a free kid’s art festival on Saturday, March 19.
Thank you for realizing the importance of what we do day in and day out.
Mary Ellen Horan
VSA arts of Nevada
Lake Mansion
Town Hall Testimony: Stephen Caplan, Town Hall Meeting: Las Vegas
January 29, 2011
My name is Stephen Caplan. As a Professor at UNLV, I came here to thank you Senator Horsford for taking a strong stand on behalf of education. As a parent of 3 children, one home-schooled, one at Nevada Virtual Academy, and one at Green Valley High School, I’m here to thank you Senator Horsford for taking a strong stand on behalf of Nevada’s children. As a 24 year resident of Clark County I want to thank you Senator Horsford for having the courage to plan for Nevada’s future. And as a Board Member of the Nevada Arts Council, I’d like to speak to all of you about the value of the arts to Nevada.
Some people ignore the arts, or think of them only as frills, when in fact the arts are creative industries and a vital part of economic recovery. The small investment the state makes in the Nevada Arts Council has had exponential returns. It is estimated that Nevada Arts Council sponsored programs reach almost 2 and a half million people, including more than half a million children. Arts and culture can be a significant benefit to Nevada’s rural communities—witness the Goldwell Open Air Museum near Beatty or the Annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko. Certainly Las Vegas which is called “the entertainment capital of the world” benefits economically from the more commercial forms of art. However the impending opening of the Smith Center, and the recent Kennedy Center Any Given Child partnership are testaments to the impact of the city’s excellent non-profit arts groups, as well. The Department of Cultural Affairs and the Nevada Arts Council have already been cut by over 40% --that’s more than any other state agency. They’ve already been part of the “shared sacrifice” our state’s budget requires. Further cuts would just be bad business.
Thank you for your time and your compassion.
Dr. Stephen Caplan
Professor of Music, UNLV
Board Member, Nevada Arts Council
Town Hall Testimony: Nancy Podewils, Town Hall Meeting: Reno
January 29, 2011
My name is Nancy Podewils. I am on the Boards of Reno Little Theater and the Sierra Watercolor Society, two community non-profit organizations which have been grateful recipients of grants from the Nevada Arts Council. I am also a patron of the arts and have donated to these and other arts groups.
Because of Nevada Arts Council grants, Reno Little Theater has been able to increase its programming and marketing to reach new audiences, and the Sierra Watercolor Society was able to take free hands-on watercolor instruction and supplies to additional underserved classes. The Nevada Arts Council staff have been invaluable to me in writing these grants—they have been so knowledgeable and helpful—and I thank them!
Reno Little Theater is also building a new community theater in the heart of one of Reno’s main multi-cultural neighborhoods. We have employed 75 workers and have begun partnerships with local businesses, who welcome having a cultural hub in their midst.
I urge you to maintain funding for the Nevada Arts Council and for Arts Education programs in our schools and community. They are crucial to the future of Nevada.
Thank you. And thank you for your willingness to serve the state during these challenging times.
Town Hall Testimony: Nettie Oliverio, Town Hall Meeting: Reno
January 29, 2011
Nettie Oliverio, Reno
Town Hall Testimony: Tim Jones, Town Hall Meeting: Reno
January 29, 2011
BUT TODAY, MY FOCUS IS ON THE STEADILY DECREASING AMOUNT OF GENERAL FUND APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE NEVADA ARTS COUNCIL.
IN THE SEVERAL YEARS I’VE SERVED ON THIS BOARD, WHAT BEGAN AS A SERIES OF ANNUAL MINOR REDUCTIONS IN THOSE FUNDS HAS CONTINUED AS A STEADY PROGRESSION OF CUTS—AND NOW, STATE SUPPORT FOR ITS VERY OWN ARTS AND CULTURE AGENCY IS, IN A WORD, PLUMMETING. IN FY 08, REGULAR STATE APPROPRIATIONS AMOUNTED TO 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS. IN FY 13, THAT AMOUNT WILL BE REDUCED TO $487 THOUSAND DOLLARS…A DRASTIC 73 PERCENT CUT.
THE NEVADA ARTS COUNCIL IS ONE OF THE VERY SMALLEST OF STATE AGENCIES, YET WE ARE OFTEN TARGETED FOR THE LARGEST CUTS…INCLUDING THE 43% CUT WE SUFFERED IN 2009. AND NOW WE ARE BEING ASKED TO TAKE YET ANOTHER 10 PERCENT CUT.
IN HIS RESPONSE TO GOVERNOR SANDOVAL’S STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS, ASSEMBLYMAN JOHN OCEGUERA ASKED TWO QUESTIONS. ONE, WHAT SHARE OF THE SACRIFICE ARE WE WILLING TO SHOULDER? AS CHAIR OF THIS BOARD, I WOULD RESPECTFULLY SUGGEST THAT WITH THIS MULTI YEAR SLIDE IN GENERAL SUPPORT---CAPPED WITH A 43% CUT LAST SESSION---THIS VERY SMALL STATE AGENCY HAS ALREADY SACRIFICED ITS FAIR SHARE.
HE THEN ASKED WHAT IS NECESSARY NOT JUST TO SURVIVE, BUT TO THRIVE IN THE FUTURE. I REQUEST STABLE FUNDING AT THE FISCAL YEAR 2010 LEVEL. STABLE FUNDING DOES NOT NECESSARILY HELP THE ARTS COUNCIL TO THRIVE, BUT IT IS CRITICAL FOR THOSE ARTISTS AND ARTS ORGANIZATIONS—THE EQUIVALENT OF SMALL BUSINESSES IN ALL 17 COUNTIES….STABLE FUNDING HELPS THOSE NEVADANS TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE AND IT IS WHY THIS AGENCY EXISTS.
SOME SPEAKERS HAVE SAID THEY DON’T ENVY YOU IN YOUR POSITIONS. I ACTUALLY DO, FOR YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUES HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME THE AGENTS OF CHANGE THAT THIS STATE HAS NEEDED FOR SUCH A LONG TIME. SOME SAY THAT THERE ARE NO EASYANSWERS FOR THE FISCAL SITUATION WE’RE IN. HOWEVER, SOME ANSWERS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS. THE CURRENT BUDGET PROPOSAL, WITH ITS EMPHASIS ON CUTS, CUTS AND ONLY CUTS----THAT PROPOSAL….. IS NOT ONE OF THE BETTER ANSWERS. I BELIEVE IN SHARED SACRIFICE…AS LONG AS IT IS TRULY SHARED—AND THAT MEANS FINDING NEW SOURCES OF REVENUE.
IN THE MONTHS AHEAD WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU AND YOUR LEGISLATIVE COLLEAGUES ON A MORE REALISTIC AND….RESOURCEFUL….. PATH FOR THE STATE’S FUTURE. THANK YOU.
Legislative Town Hall Meeting Remarks
by David Bugli
Conductor/Music Director - Carson City Symphony
Leader - Mile High Jazz Band
January 29, 2011
[These are the remarks that I had prepared for the Legislative Town Hall Meeting in Reno on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011. Because of time restrictions and the similarity of remarks by others witnesses who spoke before me, my verbal presentation as witness #117 omitted some of the text and was otherwise modified.]
I want to thank the legislators who are here today listening to our testimony. I do not envy you, in light of the tough work ahead of you in the upcoming legislative session.
My name is David Bugli, and I have been a resident of Carson City for the last 27 years. I'm here to support the Nevada Arts Council. For the purposes of full disclosure, I need to indicate that I am the 2007 recipient of the Governor's Arts Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, which is handled by the NAC. I come here "wearing several different hats."
First, I am a recently retired State worker. I worked for the State for 17 years, after having worked for the private sector. My last 16 years were spent in support of DWSS (the Department of Welfare and Supportive Services). In that role, I saw the important work that State workers do for the public, but I also experienced the "personal tax" of over a year of furloughs.
Second, I wear another hat: I am the Conductor/Music Director and founder of the Carson City Symphony, now in its 27th season. We provide cultural programs to our community using volunteers and grants, such as those from the Nevada Arts Council. Our "Strings in the Schools" program is now in its sixth year. With NAC support the program has consistently provided string instrument training to youths. Prior to "Strings in the Schools," there was no orchestral string instrument training in the Carson City Schools. We are now providing string instruction to 146 children, if you add in the two middle school classes of over 30 each, where we provide a string teacher to the schools at no cost to the school budget. In addition, the Carson City Symphony Association supports the Carson Chamber Singers, now in their 26th season, who regularly perform independently and with the Carson City Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic. The NAC supports the Carson City Symphony through grants.
Third, I wear another hat: I lead and play piano in the Mile High Jazz Band (MHJB), a 19-piece big band. We provide cultural programming. For the last seven years the MHJB has sponsored or co-sponsored a jazz festival in August in Carson City. Last year the festival, presented free concerts on the Legislative Plaza and elsewhere. Through our partnership with restaurants and cultural entities in Carson City, the festival presented about 40 performances, which represents a big cultural and economic boost to our local economy. In addition to monthly performances, the MHJB has presented eight "Jazz Extravaganzas" each January. The Jazz Extravaganzas are joint concerts of the MHJB with the Carson High School Jazz Band, and in recent years each concert has raised about $3000-$4000 to help Carson High musicians attend culturally enriching festivals, such as the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho. Again, the NAC supports the Mile High Jazz Band in its activities.
One final "hat": I am also an officer of the Carson City Arts and Culture Coalition, an organization that is made up of various visual and performing arts and cultural groups in Carson City that meet regularly to collaborate and share ideas. We understand the importance of arts and culture to our community.
I wish to emphasize that arts are a magnet for economic development. American non-profit arts organizations generate billions of dollars in economic activity. They help make communities attractive to the types of businesses we wish to attract to Nevada.
I am concerned about how the Nevada Arts Council has been treated and could be treated. It is a small and efficient agency. In the last biennium its budget was cut 43%. Now it is facing an 11% cut. I believe Nevada's arts council is the lowest per capita funded state arts council in the US. It receives less than one dollar per each Nevadan. The NAC is very streamlined. Its grants are important to arts agencies. Please don't cut the NAC budget any further, and don't gut the Department of Cultural Affairs.
Cultural tourism is a growing economic force. We can see this if we look at Reno's Artown, which is drawing audiences from all over. In Carson City we see a similar phenomenon: Western Nevada College's theater productions have drawn busloads of cultural tourists from out of state for years. Cultural activities bring in diners, people who need hotel rooms, and people with money to spend in our shops and businesses.
Nevada is facing a challenge. What Nevada needs is a workforce that attracts good businesses. We need a creative workforce, and that is fostered by arts education. We are seeing that arts organizations, such as the Carson City Symphony and the Mile High Jazz Band, can help fill the gap that cash strapped schools cannot. Consider our school dropout rate and the cost to society of having a high population of dropouts: arts can be an incentive for some students to stay in school. We need to create adaptive students, and the arts can help.
Nevada is facing a crisis. Some see it wholly as a "budget crisis," in that we are spending more than comes in. I think that is partially true, but I think it is also a revenue crisis. In the long term, we need the skilled and adaptive workforce that will attract business and boost our economy. I am a retiree, but I'd be willing to have my taxes raised to ensure we do not perpetuate the type of budget cutting that undermines the future of Nevada. I already know what it is like to have my "taxes" raised 4.6% when I had furlough days in 2009 and 2010.
Here's one final note, as stated by Nevada Citizens for the Arts several years ago:
From Las Vegas to Reno, from Elko to Fallon, non-profit arts are an economically sound investment. They promote tourism, spur business development, support and create jobs, help define neighborhoods, further redevelopment efforts, and generate revenue. Locally as well as nationally, the arts mean business.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Testimony by Scott Faulkner, Executive Director, Reno Chamber Orchestra
Joint Ways and Means Committee / Nevada State Legislature
February 9, 2011
I’m Scott Faulkner, Executive Director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra. Thank you all for your service to our state, and thank you for allowing me a few moments this morning to speak in support of level funding for the Nevada Arts Council’s budget.
Since 1974 the Reno Chamber Orchestra has been a cultural cornerstone of our state and has enjoyed great successes, which have brought regional, national and international acclaim.
Although the RCO’s vision of “Superb Music, Shared Experience, Enriched Lives” drives all that we do, we are still a small business that employs more than 75 different musicians, administrative and artistic staff throughout the course of the season. Within our humble budget, we help to attract and retain some of the most talented and creative employees in northern Nevada—people who are also teachers, engineers, stock brokers, and private business owners.
Our performances not only improve the lives of our audience members, by providing moments of solace, inspiration, education, and enrichment during difficult times, they also stimulate the economy at a rate more profound than most businesses. A National Endowment for the Arts study says that: “For every dollar spent on the arts, nearly four are generated in additional spending.” When people buy an RCO ticket they also: dine at a local restaurant; pay to get their hair done; purchase a new outfit; hire a babysitter; etc. Very few other businesses can claim this kind of wide ranging economic benefit and leverage, and very few investments by the State can boast this kind of return.
With this awareness of our role as economic stimulator, partnerships with other businesses and organizations are an essential aspect of what we do and what keeps us in business. [Attached is a list of corporate partnerships we enjoy and rely on.]
We have benefitted greatly from the support we have received from the Nevada Arts Council. With funds from our “Partners in Excellence” grants, we have paid salaries, funded operations, and lowered ticket prices to keep our concerts accessible to everyone. Personally, I have benefitted from NAC professional development grants which have allowed me to attend meetings of the League of American Orchestras, eventually leading to me serving on the League’s executive board, and chairing two different national committees. These are just a few of the ways Nevada Arts Council support has been meaningful to our organization. As a 501 c 3 organization, our board values NAC funding as an important part of the public/private nature of who we are and what we do for our community.
The RCO’s grant funds from the Nevada Arts Council were significantly reduced in 2009, when its budget was cut by 43%. I ask that you will consider those 2009 cuts to be the Arts Council’s part of the shared sacrifice our state is making. To cut that budget any further would be destructive to our organization and many others in the state (not to mention the agency), while having a negligible impact on the State’s bottom line. With the amplified benefit to communities that receive Nevada Arts Council support, cutting its budget any further would be penny wise and pound foolish. Funding the Nevada Arts Council at its present level will be an investment that will be a helpful part of the solution to our state’s financial challenges.
Thank you again for your time.
Testimony by Julia Arger, Nevada Arts Council Board Member
Joint Ways and Means Committee / Nevada State Legislature
February 9, 2011
I am passionate about the ARTS, even more so since my experience as a NAC Board member has introduced me to the impressive catalog of talented musicians, writers, dancers, photographers, visual artists, and folk artists active in our state. These individuals and arts organizations depend on grants from the state for their continued existence in the art world. The NAC has already absorbed a 43% cut in budget. To take another 10% cut would be critical to this agency’s ability to assist the ARTS community.
Sadly, there are some who consider the ARTS frivolous. To me, they are ESSENTIAL. They are good for our economy and enhance the quality of life of our community. For example, in the areas of health and education, they have a significant impact. If you have visited Renown Medical Center in Reno you can’t help but embrace the visual art on the walls and the colorful atmosphere of the new children’s ER. Even the piano playing contributes to the healing atmosphere. The arts are valuable components of the healing process for many patients, young and old. The arts help stimulate the elderly as an activity that keeps them mentally active; the arts are therapeutic. The arts play a vital role in our children’s education. Early exposure to the arts can lead to professional careers as journalists, composers and entertainers, architects and graphic artists to name a few examples.
The business community relies on a strong art focus to entice potential employees to relocate to our state. Today I am submitting copies of several letters from businesses, both profit and non-profit, who value the essential connection between a healthy arts industry and the business community. These examples demonstrate the considerable impact of grants, programs and services provided by the Nevada Arts Council. I hope you will take a moment to read them.
Finally, while I implore you not to make further cuts in our budget, I even encourage you to consider replacing a portion of the devastating 43% cut we have already suffered. Please SUPPORT, don’t abandon the ARTS.
Joint Ways and Means Committee / Nevada State Legislature
February 9, 2011
I’m here to speak on behalf of Northern Nevada’s young people and NAC support of arts programming for youth.
The Nevada Arts Council supports my organization, The Holland Project, a youth-run all-ages arts and music organization based in Reno that has spent the past 5 years providing creative outlets to teens and young people in northern Nevada
NAC funding was incredibly important 5 years ago in helping Holland—as a fledgling organization—become a reality. Today, it’s imperative to our continued success. NAC supported Holland Project early on, making it possible for our project to not only exist, but to provide excellent programming, to serve our demographic well, to lay a strong and professional foundation, and to grow. Since our inception, Holland Project has relied on NAC to help support some of our most important programming and operating endeavors, and has also been able to leverage those funds to receive additional support from other funding entities. To put it simply, NAC has been nothing short of crucial to Holland’s development and success, and remains crucial for our future endeavors in serving teens in the Truckee Meadows.
Nevada is rife with devastating statistics in regards to teens—drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy, suicide, high school and college drop out rate, educational spending—all at or near the bottom of the list for all 50 states, costing Nevada MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars each year in “after math costs.” Across the nation, arts and culture programs, opportunities, and experiences have been proven to reach these kids when nothing else can--making huge and positive differences for individuals and the cities they live in. The continued drastic cuts to arts and culture programs in schools, in our communities, and on the city and state level, is not only confusing and disappointing...it's counter-productive.
And what happens to the kids that don’t become statistics? They leave. Every day we lose young Nevadans to bigger, more culturally active, supportive cities—and this is a huge threat to the future of our state and its progress. The more culturally vibrant we make our own cities in our own state, the better the chance we have to keep future talent here—and not let other cities and states reap the benefits of our smartest, most creative and most driven individuals.
NAC funding crucial to Holland--and organizations like ours, as it is to the young people in this state. After such devastating cuts to this agency, I ask you to maintain stable funding for NAC and help ensure Nevada’s cultural and economic growth and progress--for all of us, of all-ages.
