On to the Senate -- Take Action!

Dear Theatre Bay Area Members and Friends:

Theatre Bay Area has just received this message from Americans for the Arts regarding the national Economic Recovery Package. Good news from the House. Now we must act to urge the Senate to approve additional monies for the NEA.

“Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed their version of the Economic Recovery Package by a vote of 244 to 188 which successfully included $50 million in supplemental grants funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)!
This provision was threatened throughout the House process by opponents of the NEA who questioned its effectiveness in providing economic stimulus. Today, the NEA offered the following statement, “the arts and culture industry is a sector of the economy just like any other with workers who pay taxes, mortgages, rent and contribute in other ways to the economy; and that the National Endowment for the Arts is uniquely positioned to assist in job stimulation for that industry.”
Thanks to the thousands of advocates who contacted their Members of Congress and let them know the importance of maintaining funding for the NEA!However, our work is not finished yet as the U.S. Senate starts their debate on the bill tomorrow and continues through next week. The Senate Appropriations Committee did not include an arts jobs funding provision in their version of the bill, but advocates still have an opportunity to change the final outcome.”

Theatre Bay Area urges you to fax a letter to Senators Boxer and Feinstein, or call their DC offices, encouraging them to join the House and include an additional $50 million in funds for the NEA. You must submit your letter or call by end of day tomorrow for your voice to be most effective.

Washington DC fax numbers for each Senator:
Senator Boxer: 202-224-0454
Senator Feinstein: 202-228-3954

You can also call the Senators offices. Simply say that you are a constituent and you are urging inclusion of $50 million in the Recovery Package for the NEA.
Senator Boxer: 202-224-3553
Senator Feinstein: 202-224-3841

Here is a letter sent earlier today from Brad Erickson, Executive Director. Please feel to free to use this language or craft your own:


January 29, 2009

Senator Barbara Boxer
U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC
Via fax: 202-224-0454

Re: Including $50 million additional funds for the National Endowment for the Arts in the Economic Stimulus Plan
Position: SUPPORT

Dear Senator Feinstein:

I am writing you as California’s State Captain for Americans for the Arts, the President of California Advocates, and as the Executive Director of Theatre Bay Area, a nonprofit service organization with 420 theatre and dance company member and nearly 3,000 individual artist members in the San Francisco area.

As the Senate considers legislation to address the unprecedented economic crisis confronting our nation, I urge you to include $50 million in additional funding for the National Endowment for the Arts—funds that will quickly save jobs and spur new economic activity in communities across the country.

With you, artists and arts organizations are looking for immediate steps that will lead to long-term solutions. With you, we aim to support key industries with policies that will undergird a prosperous future. We direct your attention to the arts, a major player in our nation’s and our state’s economy. The arts generate billions in total economic activity and fundamentally impacting California’s core creative industries.

Arts-related sector statewide supports:
· 86,000 arts-related businesses
· 485,000 jobs for people in California
Non-profit arts specifically generate:
· $5.4 billion in total economic impact
· 66,000 full-time and 95,000 part-time jobs
· $300 million in state and local taxes

According to the Americans for the Arts, a $50 million investment to the National Endowment for the Arts will provide critical funding to save 14,422 jobs from being lost in the U.S. economy. This is based on the ability of the NEA to leverage $7 in additional support through local, state and private donations, for every $1 in NEA support.

Arts organizations employ performers and curators, but also employ accountants, designers, plumbers, union workers and engineers. In fact, there are more full-time jobs supported by the nonprofit arts than are in accounting, public safety officers, even lawyers and just slightly fewer than elementary school teachers.

There are approximately 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations, which spend $63.1 billion annually. Without an economic stimulus for the nonprofit arts industry, experts expect about 10% of these organizations (ranging from large arts institutions like museums and orchestras to small community-based organizations in suburban, urban and rural areas) to shut their doors in 2009 – a loss of 260,000 jobs.

For those arts organizations that do not go out of business due to the poor economy, it is expected that, on average, the remaining arts organizations will experience up to 20% in budget cuts in 2009, resulting in losses of approximately 468,000 jobs.

In a report released in mid-January, the National Governor's Association stated, "Arts and culture are important to state economies. Arts and culture-related industries, also known as "creative industries," provide direct economic benefits to states and communities: They create jobs, attract investments, generate tax revenues, and stimulate local economies through tourism and consumer purchases."

Please vote YES to include the arts as a crucial too for stimulating our economy in the short term and as critical means of preparing this country to retain its place at the fore of the new global creative economy.

Sincerely,


Brad Erickson

State Captain for California
Americans for the Arts

President
California Arts Advocates

Executive Director
Theatre Bay Area