THANKS FOR YOUR OUTPOURING OF EFFORT - WHAT TO DO NOW:
Suggestions for effective advocacy efforts over the next two weeks
As we enter into the two weeks that will produce a final budget for the 2010-12 biennium, I thought it might be useful to share some thoughts on the kind of advocacy efforts that hold out the greatest promise for good, and some concomitant thoughts on strategies to avoid.
* The House budget vote was not an up-or-down vote on the arts, and we run the risk of being ineffective or even counterproductive if we mount advocacy efforts that assume that that vote was such a single issue referendum. The budget vote was on a huge package of cuts and a few spending increases, rolled into one giant package (not least to avoid single issue up-or-down votes), Arts were more an "innocent bystander" than a core feature of that package, as many legislators have related to our advocates when they called to express concern. As a result, we must avoid being negative and judgmental about that vote in our advocacy efforts. This is a "teachable moment" for the legislature in general, and House members in particular -- tell them what VCA funding means to the institutions in their home districts, and what would happen if the Commission were abolished, but do so from a constructive point of reference.
* We must always remember that politics is the arts of addition, not subtraction. Use this an opportunity to educate, not attack.
* If you are in a district represented by one or more of the 12 budget conferees, please pull out all the stops to have your local institutions and arts supporters reach out on an unprecedented scale to him, her or them. A list appears below. But even if you are not represented by a conferee, make calls and write letters to your own legislators. We do not need to overwhelm conferees with out-of-district calls and letters -- instead, we need to be sure that every legislator (all 140 of them) hear from every institution and every arts supporter whom we can persuade to communicate.
Thank you all so very much for the tremendous outpouring that has risen up to meet this challenge to the Commission and to the small-but-essential amount of "seed money" that state funding for arts grants represents. It has been astounding to see what could be organized in only a few days' time. Now it is time to seize this moment, when attention is focused on arts and cultural institutions in a way that has not been the case for years, and send a message regarding the good we do in communities, schools and economic development.
-Alan D. Albert
VFTA Legislative Counsel
Senate conferees: Senators Colgan, Wampler, Stosch, Houck, Janet Howell and Saslaw.
House conferees: Delegates Putney, Kirk Cox, Sherwood, Joannou, Landes and Chris Jones.
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