We Need that Money!

There is a moment in THE PRODUCERS when Max Bialystock throws himself to his knees, looks up to the heavens and shouts "I want that money!" I have been saying the same thing myself from time to time lately . . . especially when I am thinking about all the bills we have to pay while working on the show.

The early draft of the latest recovery package included some language about supporting the arts with government money. Of course, the Republicans targeted that money right away as "pork." Never mind that the arts drive billions of dollars in the American economy and that every arts organization has employees and most have been laying off . . .

We need that money!

We are accustomed to our American government regularly slashing arts funding, we are a market-based economy, after all. Teh thinking goes that if the arts truly had value, people would support it with government intervention . . . however, real studies show that ticket sales equate to about 60 percent of any arts organization's total budget. Therefore, that extra 40 percent has got to come from somewhere. But it's not going to come from the government thanks to the Coburn Amendment recently passed in the Senate. They can bail everyone else out but the arts are on their onw!

It might be too late, but the only thing we can do now is write to our Congressmen and women and tell them that we think funding for the arts is important. I have already done so and I hope you will soon. Village Green writes elegantly here about her e-mails to Senators Brown and Voinovich. Also, Check out the Americans for the Arts website here for more ideas about making your voice heard. If we don't speak now it will surely be too late.

We should get that money!

A friend forwarded to me a story I am not altogther sure is true. Here it is:

"During World War II the military chiefs came to Churchill saying they desperately needed more funding for the war effort. When he asked where they thought the money could come from they replied "the arts budget." "If we did that then what would we be fighting for" he replied. These Republicans think the arts are some kind of frivolity and have no comprehension that it is central to our culture and what we are."

We're not going to get it. But we should.