Welcome to Arts and Humanities Month. President Obama's proclamation
(click) is not likely to make headlines, competing as it must with Putin's Syrian
escalation, the Roseburg tragedy, resurgent Taliban, slumping Trump, Malaprop Kevin McCarthy,
Europe's migrant mess, Francis' admonitions
and all the rest of the turmoil that dominates our attention. But Arts and Humanities Month should ... for it
is the arts and humanities that make us, at root, civilized in spite of the
inhumanities we deliver on each other.
By coincidence, Ann and I started off the month with a
burst: Thursday at ACT to see the premiere of Steven Dietz' new play, Bloomsday, inspired by and an ingenious
twist on Joyce's Ulysses; Friday at SAM to view the Mellon collection, Intimate Impressionism, from the
National; Saturday morning at the opener of the Met HD season, La Traviata, and Saturday evening at
SRJO's performance of Count Basie's 1960s collaborations with Sinatra -- It might As Well Be Swing and Sinatra at the Sands. And in between, our house is filled with
music.
The arts matter to us.
For a UW course on the history of the '60s Ann is reading Making of
the President, 1960 and, next up, On The Road. I will
be at a Pratt Fine Arts Center marketing committee meeting Tuesday, at an Exec
Committee session on Thursday, and later in the month, at a dinner for our Pratt
instructors and artists at the Chihuly Garden and Glass. This month, Ann will have her annual Seattle
Chamber Society board retreat (she serves as Treasurer.) And coming in the next four weeks: Seattle
Rep theatre, Seattle Opera, and more Met HD.
Meanwhile, Vladimir, my in-process limestone challenge, patiently awaits
my hammer and chisels at the Pratt stone studio. We came home from Africa with only a found-driftwood
sculpture, more decorative perhaps than fine art, by Botswanian Boniface
Chickwenhere (we don't have room for any more major art in the house unless we have
a remove-and-replace haggle, which neither of us has the guts to undertake.) So, yes; arts matter to us -- and we believe,
to our civilization.
The arts get short shrift in these times, what with funding
needed for education, transportation infrastructure, homelessness and mental
health -- not to mention the $51 billion authorized this year for overseas military contingency operations -- read ISIS,
Iraq and Afghanistan. Think what that
money could do -- a Marshall plan for Syria suggests Alexey, my new Russian-American
friend; schools and hospitals in Iraq; support for an independent Kurdistan and
one percent of it for the arts. That
would be $510 million by the way, over
three times the current budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. But that's a mere hypothetical -- more Federal
arts funding ain't gonna happen in this Congress nor with a Democratic one.
So that leaves contributions -- from state and local
governments, foundations, and individuals.
Contributions keep art accessible and music orgs alive. Program revenues, i.e., ticket sales,
contracted performances and ancillary sales, generates only 44% of what it takes to keep
the symphony lights on; 42% at the opera; 32% at Seattle Chamber; 52% at Pratt;
44% at SRJO's jazz orchestra, 58% at ACT; 47% at the Seattle Rep. [1] Neither Ann nor I like to ask folks for money;
we don't like giving money very much, either.
But we do it -- for arts orgs matter to us and, we believe, to our
society, to our sense of being civilized.
Yes, we know you care about social needs, education needs,
poverty and mental health needs. But if
you haven't tacked an arts org onto your donation list, consider adding one --
theatre, children's theater, dance, pop music, literature orgs, whatever. Small donations add up. Arts matter -- to us and to you.
[1] These
are from the latest IRS 990s. To check
an org about which you might be curious, go to GuideStar (http://www.guidestar.org/
