You can observe the arts hearing this morning

U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) will be in action today, chairing the House Education & Labor Committee arts hearing at 10 a.m. EDT to explore the relationship of the arts industry to the national economic and employment situation. You can catch the whole thing live on webcast by clicking http://edwork.edgeboss.net/wmedia-live/edwork/16137/300_edwork-2175stream_070124.asx or, if you can’t be online then, come back later and see the highlights at http://www.youtube.com/user/EdLaborDemocrats.     

If you’re in the Washington, D.C., area, you can attend the hearing, titled “The Economic and Employment Impact of the Arts and Music Industry,” by going to the House Education & Labor Committee Hearing Room, 2175 Rayburn House Office Building.

More experts join Miller arts hearing

A new message that arrived yesterday from the office of U.S. Rep. George Miller says that no specific results from the upcoming Thursday House Education & Labor Committee hearing on the arts, the economy and employment can be anticipated right now.

The e-mail said, “It is a little premature at this point to know what will come from these hearings because a variety of viewpoints will be shared about the cause and effects of the economic downturn on the arts and music industry. ”

Miller’s online outreach specialist, Mike Kruger, did report that subsequent arts hearings will continue the discussion about the value of the arts to local communities and the economy.

 Meanwhile, the list of experts testifying at the Thursday hearing  has increased by a few names:  Joanne  Florino, executive director of  the Roy H. Park  family’s Triad Foundation, Inc.,  in Ithaca , N.Y.;  Bruce Ridge, musician and chairman, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, Raleigh, N.C.; and John Thomasian, director, National Governors’ Association Center for Best Practices, Washington, D.C.

It’s Miller time – to answer questions about his arts hearings

How hard should it be to get a U.S. Congressman to answer a few questions about his own public actions?  Well, you be the judge:

For about six weeks now, I’ve attempted to get U.S. Rep. George Miller to respond to some specific questions about the arts hearings he plans to hold as chairman of the House Education & Labor Committee. As I reported yesterday, these committee hearings will begin Thursday by examining the impact of the American arts industry on the nation’s economy and employment.

But in spite of cheerful assurances from Miller’s online outreach specialist that responses would be forthcoming, I have not received answers to these questions:

U.S. Rep. Miller moves forward with arts hearings

Here’s an update on the Congressional-level arts hearings I mentioned back in February:

The economic role of the U.S. arts industry and the disproportionate job losses it may be suffering in the current recession will be examined by the House Education & Labor Committee in hearings starting Thursday, March 26.

Titled “The Economic and Employment  Impact of the Arts and Music Industry” and chaired by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.),  the initial hearing will investigate how American communities are affected economically by arts activity. The committee will also examine the the arts and music industries in light of media reports about heavy job losses and endangered institutions, economic troubles reflected by a National Endowment for the Arts study that found unemployment in the arts to be substantially greater in 2008 than the national unemployment level for that year.

U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who co-chairs the Congressional Arts Caucus, will provide testimony, as will Robert Lynch, head of Americans for the Arts; Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs; Michael Bahr, education director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival; and Tim Daly, co-president of the Creative Coalition, an arts, education and First-Amendment-rights advocacy organization co-founded by the late Ron Silver.

I expect to have more to report on this soon.

Some facts about the arts’ effect on the economy

An interesting comment was posted here over the weekend. The writer said he used to work for a consulting firm that assisted the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1970s. He observed, “Bureaucratically funded arts endeavors remove dollars from the economy they [sic] do not add tax revenue directly.”

Wow. Where to begin? Well first, a little back story: On Friday, I posted a press release from the office of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, stating that  the Congressman planned to hold hearings this spring on the economic and educational value of the arts. Miller’s staff has promised to forward to the Congressman some questions I e-mailed that afternoon in regard to these hearings; in the interim, I’m guessing that Miller’s decision to hold the hearings may be a reaction to the apparent elimination of some arts- and culture-related businesses from the list of those to be supported by the national stimulus package currently being considered by the U. S. Senate. Perhaps he’s interested in giving citizens, or at least his fellow elected officials, an accurate picture of the effects that arts have on learning and the economic health of communities.

But even if his intent is something completely different from that, the fact remains that the arts do have measurable effects on both education and the economy. 

Perhaps the commenter doesn’t realize that not all arts businesses are nonprofit. Broadway productions, the popular-music industry, most of the film industry, art galleries and auction houses, publishing houses, commercial and journalistic photography, graphic design - all these and more are for-profit, and immensely profitable they are, too.  

Perhaps he also doesn’t realize that even nonprofit arts organizations have a tremendous effect on local, regional and national economies through both direct and indirect economic impact. Like for-profits, nonprofits employ people and buy local services and products. They generate tourism, drawing visitors who not only buy tickets and paintings, but also pay for hotel rooms, parking, meals, drinks, souvenirs and other goods. Local residents buy many of those same things because of the arts; they also hire babysitters. 

In addition, excellent arts and cultural amenities help cities attract new businesses and help established businesses attract new employees.  

In the Cleveland area of Ohio, arts and culture generate over $1 billion annually in direct and indirect economic impact.  (Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, Northeast Ohio Arts and Culture Plan, May 2000). Nationally, they generate $166.2 billion in economic activity, support 5.7 million jobs and create $30 billion in government revenue – and that’s just the nonprofits. For every $1 billion of that arts and culture spending, nearly 70,000 full-time-equivalent jobs result. (Americans for the Arts, Economic Recovery & The Arts). 

(The Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit organization. Think it has no effect on the local – and national - economy?)      

 I won’t even go into the educational benefits of the arts here, but I hinted at the basics in my Feb. 5 post about ways that President Obama can promote American creativity.    

As the purpose of the national economic-stimulus package is not solely to generate tax revenue, anyway, but to help fund obvious economic sine qua nons such as education and to keep operational industries that employ people and provide needed products and services, I find it pretty bizarre of anyone to assert that arts and culture have no place in it.

It’s one of the most deeply ingrained and egregiously wrong myths of American society that the arts are a burden on the economy. The truth is that the arts are a large and vital part of the economy on all levels and that they enhance the educations on which our success as a nation ultimately depends.