Town Hall Testimony
TOWN HALL TESTIMONY: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2010
My name is Stephen Caplan. I’m a Board Member of the Nevada Arts Council, and I’ve lived here for over 22 years, working as a musician and a Music Professor at UNLV.
I know the decisions you have to make are beyond tough, but I urge you to avoid using this budget crisis as an excuse to decimate arts funding—which is what is happening. It’s happening all over our city and state.
People say there is no culture in Las Vegas, but there are actually lots of culture. I have two daughters who attend Green Valley High School. I see this school and each one of our local elementary, middle schools and high schools as a mini-cultural center with vibrant music, theater and arts programs. However, the last round of budget cuts put a tremendous strain on these programs already—in some cases schools eliminated choral or theater programs altogether.
Our municipal governments offer gallery space for local artists, and performance venues such as Reed Whipple Center or Winchester Center--they offer arts classes for the public –everything from watercolor to singing and tai chi. But already imposed layoffs and budgets cuts will severely limit their ability to continue providing these services.
As a faculty member at UNLV, I experience first-hand how budget cuts have strained our ability to provide the performances and arts education that we are committed to. More budget cuts at UNLV will simply make it impossible to provide services.
All of these groups, though, in addition to individuals and non-profits arts organizations all over the state, receive support and guidance from the state’s umbrella arts organization, The Nevada Arts Council. This agency-- with an already miniscule budget-- provides financial support, as well as organizational support, networking and advocacy. The Nevada Arts Council received a 43% cut during the last legislative session. For every 100 dollars of state spending from the general fund, only 3 pennies go to arts and culture through the Nevada Arts Council. That said, I hope the 43% cut is enough.
You often hear the analogy comparing the state’s budget to the human body. Trimming the budget is compared to putting someone on a starvation diet. Now people are saying that further cuts to the budget can be compared to amputating limbs off the body. The Arts are the soul of a society. Losing a limb is devastating, but when someone loses their soul? Well, then they are truly lost.
So as you make your budget decisions, please don’t forget the vibrant contribution the arts make to our economy and to Nevada’s people. Thank you.
Stephen Caplan
Board Member, Nevada Arts Council
Las Vegas Town Hall
Good morning. I’m Jevan Burchfield, president of the Holland Project board of directors. Holland Project exists solely to harness the power of our youth in Northern Nevada by providing opportunities and participation in visual arts, music, diverse workshops and community activism.
Today, I work with and encourage local businesses and cultural leaders to support those same activities. I’ve earned my business degree from UNR, am a global project manager for Microsoft here in Reno and I assure you that the arts made a difference at a critical time in my life and that they provide the balance I demand when thinking about the quality of life in Reno and the reasons I stay.
I could have gone and still can go anywhere, but I choose to stay here and work with the Holland Project to give back to the area and do what I'm able to ensure our youth don’t have the same artistic barriers I did. Let me be honest—Holland Project youth and supporters are some of the most creative members of this community. We truly value a supportive arts community to keep young people like us here and contributing. In return, we give back to the greater community by identifying and fostering young creative minds for civic groups and new businesses that need and demand this talent while also providing economic, social, and cultural solutions to community and state issues. This only works if we have state and local leaders who realize that creative youth can provide these solutions for our state.
I wish to emphasize that the Holland Project benefits significantly from Nevada Arts Council grants—significant because we take this small but important grant amount and leverage it with other funding sources to provide inexpensive or free programming all year long to area teens.
As our elected leaders, I ask that you do not make further and deeper cuts to the Nevada Arts Council. If so, you will be endangering the existence of the Holland Project and many other small but increasingly vital arts groups. Thank you.
Jevan Burchfield
President, Holland Project
Reno Town Hall
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Good morning: I’m Tim Jones, chair of the Board of the Nevada Arts Council.
I would be remiss in my duties if I did not remind you that the Nevada Arts Council - a very small state agency in the Department of Cultural Affairs- absorbed one of the deepest cuts last session - 43%. We know that all state agencies, regardless of size, must do their part in the midst of this crisis.
You may look at agencies with the smallest budgets as a way of solving the budget crisis. But I would suggest that may not be the best strategy. This morning and during the Special Session you may hear the small amount of general funds that flows into our partner organizations. This is one of the most effective and efficient state agencies committed to creating jobs, providing lifelong learning opportunities and making this state a state worth living in.
We and our partners are using creativity to provide solutions to Nevada’s problems.
Our grants and services support Nevada’s arts industry - large and small businesses and entrepreneurs—the very same business sector that our government says is critical to Nevada’s recovery. Our arts organizations are paying taxes, buying goods, providing services and reinvesting in their communities.
That industry has a powerful ripple effect. Several years ago, the owner of the wild river grille, just across the street, chose that location because it’s in the arts district. His business plan succeeded and he just received a small business loan to expand his restaurant. He says his continued success is linked to continued arts activity in his neighborhood.
We all agree Nevada needs a refreshed plan for tourism…one that capitalizes on the International Cowboy Poetry gathering in Elko, Reno’s Artown, Carson City’s jazz festival, the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival - events that are growing in regional and national stature-- and all grantees of the Nevada Arts Council, they attract quality tourists who stay longer and spend more money.
The NAC and our grantees now provide primary education programs for our youth, providing that critical link between creative thinking and science, history and other core subjects. In fact, Arts Council grantees engaged nearly 500,000 children in arts education programs during fy2009.
The Nevada Arts Council receives important federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. If these cuts continue, and if our match is not met and those federal funds disappear, Nevada will no longer have a state arts agency.
The Nevada Arts Council accomplishes all this and more on a fraction… of a sliver…. Of the state budget: three pennies for every one hundred dollars of state spending.
Further reductions in the arts council’s budget won’t help fill the holes we all are desperate to fill, but it will destroy the work of thousands since the agency’s inception in 1967, and it will deny Nevada its opportunity to use creativity as a road to recovery.
Given a cut of 43%--and now possibly 53%, we believe the arts have given our fair share. Please allow us to do our part in rebuilding our state’s economy. Thank you.
Tim Jones
Chair, Nevada Arts Council
Reno Town Hall
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The following written testimony was provided by Scott Faulkner, Executive Director of the Reno Chamber Orchestra
Some points to support the Reno Chamber Orchestra’s case for state funding of the arts:
THE ARTS ARE GOOD BUSINESS—not just good FOR business…and certainly not just some fluffy, disposable, feel-good entertainment
The Governor has said that it is small business that will help us out of our economic struggles
The Reno Chamber Orchestra is a successful small business—and we are part of Nevada’s solution
Over the course of this season, the RCO will employ about 70 different professional musicians. These musicians pay taxes and spend their money in our community
The RCO employs an administrative staff of three year-round employees, as well as a full-time music director and two artistic support staff
Investment in the Arts gives the state a great bang for the buck. With our $550,000 annual budget, the RCO employs some 75 people, in addition to engaging a number of independent contractors and other businesses
With the employment we offer, the RCO helps to keep these highly creative, productive, and disciplined people living and working in our state
Whenever the RCO performs, approximately 500 people attend each concert. Unlike other many other services purchased by consumers, RCO concert attendees often stimulate the economy further on concert nights by—going out to eat before or after, hiring a babysitter, getting their hair done, buying new clothes, etc.
In part because of the support of the Nevada Arts Council, the RCO is able to keep ticket prices low, allowing us to serve the broadest possible audience including: students (including at-risk youth), seniors, young professionals, and highly educated and affluent members of the community. Helping Nevada to keep all of these people living, working, and inspired in our state
In addition to the positive and irrefutable impact we have on our economy, the RCO (and other arts groups) are in business SOLELY for the purpose of improving the lives of the citizens of our state
We understand that the State is in a very difficult position, and that everyone and every agency must do its part. But last year the Nevada Arts Council was cut 43%, thereby already doing its part. Funding to the arts through the Nevada Arts Council is currently .0003% - that is 3 cents on every thousand dollars of General Fund spending. Because of the highly efficient, effective, and demonstrated benefits of the arts and public support for the arts, further cuts to the Arts would be devastatingly short-sighted and would send negative ripples throughout our state. The Arts are a proven dividend producing investment in our state.
Thank you for considering this and for your leadership, hard work, and sacrifice during what will undoubtedly be a very trying special session.
Sincerely,
Scott Faulkner
Executive Director
Reno Chamber Orchestra
“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose…and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
-President John F. Kennedy
