Advocacy

Any serious reckoning of how Americans participate in arts and cultural activities must account for demographic and geographic diversity. Prior National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) publications, including the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, already have examined the age, race and ethnicity, gender, and education and income status of arts-goers.

Another way to understand arts participation is by asking where it takes place. Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is the NEA’s first research publication in several years to examine the “informal arts”—such as playing a musical instrument, attending an art event at a place of worship, or visiting a craft fair. This finding is part of new research from the NEA, announced earlier this during a visit by NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman to Chelsea, Michigan, as part of the NEA’s Art Works Tour. The publication provides an analysis of arts participation in rural and urban areas.

Come as You Are: Informal Arts Participation in Urban and Rural Communities is available in print and pdf on the NEA website.

The following letter comes from Brooke Wooldridge of the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). A cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean, dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical, and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.

There has been significant confusion as to the state of the four main patrimonial libraries in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake on January 12, 2010. Based on information that I have received from the Digital Library of the Caribbean partner libraries in Haiti, all four of the following library buildings are standing:

• Archives nationales d’Haïti
• Bibliothèque haïtienne des Pères du Saint-Esprit / San Martial [though the collection will need to be evacuated, as the building cannot be salvaged]
• Bibliothèque haïtienne des Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne / Saint Louis de Gonzague
• Bibliothèque nationale d’Haïti

Importantly, the library at Saint Louis de Gonzague (FIC) was NOT destroyed. The reporter that stated the library had fallen was incorrect.

According to the director of the National Library, Mme. Francoise Thybulle, the structures must be inspected before the local staff can assess the situation and prepare detailed plans that will certainly ask for international assistance. While the buildings are standing, this does not diminish what will be the very real need for assistance once the local leadership is able to assess the situation. All of the library directors have asked that interested parties work together to help preserve the collections [and] bring these libraries/archives back into service.

Many institutions and individuals have expressed an interest in supporting the Haitian libraries/archives as they begin to rebuild. The outpouring of support and interest for the preservation of Haitian patrimony is unprecedented. Many of you are already in contact with colleagues regarding ways to help. I am trying to serve as a clearinghouse for the Haitian libraries of the different people, institutions or groups that would like to offer support to the libraries. Once I have feedback from the partner libraries in Haiti, I will share a working document of the projects I am aware of and an online survey for interested individuals to complete via www.dloc.com. Feel free to contact me personally at dloc@fiu.edu or preferably via the dLOC Facebook Group if you are already planning a project locally.

The Digital Library of the Caribbean has been working with partners in Haiti since it began in 2004. The National Archives in Haiti was a founding member of dLOC, and in the last few years we have developed strong relationships with both the National Library and the Fathers of the Holy Spirit (San Martial) Library. As more information becomes available from the local leadership, I will share it as widely as possible. I have been hesitant to send a large response until now because of the many conflicting reports. This information is confirmed, and comes from the directors of each library/archive.

As the many researchers that have worked in these four libraries know, their directors are completely dedicated to the preservation of their national patrimonial collections. All four have been fighting to preserve these collections for decades, and I am confident with support from the international community these collections will be preserved and accessible for many years to come.

While most news updates in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12 are rightly focused on rescue efforts, information about losses of the country’s artistic, architectural, and cultural life have begun surfacing.

A report from the Rutland Herald, published a few days after the quake, told us about the death of Flo McGarrell, a thirty-five-year-old artist who had been the director of FOSAJ, a nonprofit art center in Jacmel, a French colonial town in southern Haiti.

The Biblical murals at the Cathedrale of Sainte Trinite (also known as the Episcopal Holy Trinity Cathedral) by some of Haiti’s best-known artists “are now largely dust,” according to Lesley Clark of the Miami Herald. The Centre d’Art, founded in the 1940s by a group of Haitian artists and writers in collaboration with an American educator, is badly damaged as well, and the Culture Creation Foundation has lost its offices and eighteen years of work.

Clark details other significant losses, including the private collections of Carmel Delatour, who herself perished in the quake, and Georges Nader. Nader and his wife survived, but hundreds of paintings by Philomé Obin and Hector Hyppolite, among many other artists, did not. About 100 of his 15,000 works were salvaged from the Musée d’Art Nader, which was part of the collector’s home. (Other sources number 50 surviving works from a 12,000 piece collection.) There is some good news: his son’s Nader Gallery in nearby Pétionville was barely touched.

Clark also reports that a Quebec-based Haitian critic and curator, Gerald Alexis, is working to mobilize arts groups to help preserve surviving works, and the Waterloo Center for the Arts in Iowa, which has a large collection of Haitian art, has established a relief fund. In addition, the Haitian government has deputized Daniel Elie, a former minister of culture, to conduct a nationwide inventory.

For the Wall Street Journal, Pooja Bhatia describes the loss of the Sacre Coeur church, including its stained-glass windows, as well as the National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. She also provides a biography of Nader and an account of the Haitian art scene before and after the disaster. Bhatia notes that none of his works was insured.

Marc Lacey of the New York Times mentions the destruction of the Supreme Court building and the National Palace, a French Renaissance–style building that was home the Haiti’s president. Although no permanent collection of art and artifacts were housed there, the status of works in the ceremonial rooms is unknown. Some believe the collections in the nearby National Museum, which was built underground, survived, and the contents of the National Archives appear to have fared well.

Because of continuously unstable government situations, Lacy writes, “private groups and individuals had become some of the most important protectors of the country’s treasures. Many of the country’s most valuable historical texts, for instance, were owned by individuals, and preserved at their homes—rather than under glass or in wood-walled libraries as they might have been in Washington or other moneyed capitals.” The reporter encountered a sculptor, Patrick Vilaire, who was strategizing on how to protect art and books in private collection from looting. Vilaire said, “The dead are dead, we know that. But if you don’t have the memory of the past, the rest of us can’t continue living.”

UNESCO reports that the National History Park, an early-nineteenth-century complex in northern Haiti made up of the Palace of Sans Souci, buildings at Ramiers, and the Citadel, was probably spared. However, the colonial town of Jacmel in the south has witnessed the collapse of many buildings.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has assembled a Haiti Steering Committee to help formulate and guide the assistance and rescue effort of cultural heritage in the country, to begin after humanitarian rescue operations conclude. Gustavo A. Araoz, ICOMOS president, writes:

ICOMOS has assessed the situation and considers it impractical, perhaps even insensitive, to send team that will further tax the scarce local ability to provide food, shelter, medical attention and other basic services, especially while our Haitian colleagues and all the Haitian nation are still struggling for sheer survival while dealing with personal tragedies, loss of family and the wholesale destruction of their homes…. At this time, our efforts are focused on planning and preparing the mobilization process and all its logistics, on the field work methodology, and on the composition and training of the international and multidisciplinary volunteer teams in order that they be ready to be deployed as soon as the go-ahead to do so is given. It is important that this work be centralized in ICOMOS to ensure uniformity in the field evaluations and avoid redundancy.

Katherine Slick, executive director of US/ICOMOS, has announced that her organization has set up a fund to receive tax-deductible donations to support these efforts. Checks may be made out to US/ICOMOS-Haiti Recovery and mailed to: US/ICOMOS, Ste. 331, 401 F St. NW, Washington, DC 20001. An easy method to make your donation online will be set up soon on the US/ICOMOS website.

Greetings:

It has been a difficult night. Many of us are in a state of shock or more fittingly in disbelief. As a business that prides itself in keeping the rich culture of Haiti alive in Philadelphia, I and the Haitian Professionals of Philadelphia (HPP) send our deepest and most sincere condolences to our Haitian family in our area and around the world.

We have secured a private jumbo jet to transport supplies to Haiti, which is leaving in the next 24–48 hours. We are in need of doctors, nurses, and donations to go to Haiti in order to provide medical care. Vivant Art Collection and HPP is currently coordinating with the Haitian Coalition of Philadelphia, the Haitian Clergy of Philadelphia, Beyond Borders, the Mayor’s Office, the Temple Haitian Student Association, the University of Pennsylvania Haitian Student Association, Congressman Brady’s office, the Philadelphia Young Democrats, political officials, and other Haitian organizations in the surrounding area to devise a plan to provide assistance to Haiti. Frequent updates will be made to www.hphilly.org and www.vivantartcollection.com/events, so please check back often. In the meantime, if you wish to provide assistance we urge you to do the following:

• Make a monetary donation to Haitian Professionals of Philadelphia to the Haitian Relief Fund via Paypal. All funds will go toward purchasing items that must be bought in Haiti to defray shipping cost, as well as medical supplies
• Purchase or bring cots and tents that will be instrumental in providing temporary shelter to those who have been displaced
• Medical supplies such as band aids, alcohol, peroxide, etc.
• Water and nonperishable food items
• Generators and industrial supplies for building will be needed for rebuilding
• Supplies for children such as diapers, baby clothes, wipes, and bottles are greatly need as well
• Call elected officials in your area and ask them to partner with HPP

Current Drop Off Sites

The Office of State Senator Leanna M. Washington
1555-A Wadsworth Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19150

The Office of State Representative Vanessa Brown
4706 Westminster Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19131

Vivant Art Collections (monetary donations and medical supplies only)
60 North 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

For further information on how to help, please call Yve-Car Momperousse, board chair, at 973-280-2307 or Florcy Morisset, community development chair, at 310-612-4636. You can also send an email to vivantartcollection@gmail.com or yvecar@hpphilly.org.

Press contact: Please call Alain Joinville, public-relations chair, at 215-287-7373 to coordinate interviews.

Moving forward,

Florcy Morisset
Vivant Art Collection
vivantartcollection@gmail.com
310-612-4636

The horrifying news about the earthquake in from Haiti give all indications of major devastation and loss. Once the immediate human relief effort is over, I call on all International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to come together in solidarity to help in whatever way we can with the heritage recovery process. It is the right time now to identify individual ICOMOS members and groups of members who would be willing to form part of volunteer teams to be deployed to Haiti as needed when the time comes and the heritage needs are manifested by our Haitian colleagues. For that reason, I ask all National and International Committees to circulate this letter to their full membership. Anyone interested in considering to be a volunteer should drop me a line at gustavo.araoz@icomos.org and let me know who you are so that we may keep you informed about the opportunities that arise as we learn more about the situation.

For those national Committees from countries with disaster recovery experience, we also ask that you urge your government and other national institutions to be generous with their assistance.

For me personally, Haiti is a special place where I began my professional conservation life. It was at the Citadelle and later at the Palais de Sans-Souci in Cap Haitien that I had my very first projects as head of the OAS heritage assistance mission after graduation. I know the Haitians to be a good people, possessing great dignity and generosity while living amid extreme poverty.

For this reason, I put my own name down as the first volunteer to assist in whatever way I can.

Thanks to all,

Gustavo Araoz
ICOMOS Presiden

On January 14, 2009, CAA President Paul Jaskot and CAA Executive Director Linda Downs sent a letter to Bill Ivey of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, discussing the needs of artists and scholars in the coming years.

CAA has signed onto letters with many other nonprofit organizations urging full funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute for Library and Museum Services (IMLS). However, CAA felt that it was necessary to have a separate voice on issues of importance to its members.

CAA will have a presence in Washington, DC, in March 2009 at the Humanities Advocacy Day and Arts Advocacy Day. Jaskot and Downs will be making separate appointments to visit the new chairs of the NEA, NEH and IMLS once they have been appointed.

CAA Letter to President-elect Barack Obama

January 14, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama
President-elect Transition Team

Dear President-elect Barack Obama:

College Art Association, representing over 16,000 artists, art historians, scholars, curators, collectors, art publishers, universities, and libraries, looks forward to working with you and your administration to ensure the revitalization of support for professional artists and art historians in America.

College Art Association:

• Promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art;
• Facilitates the exchange of ideas and information among all people interested in art and the history of art;
• Advocates comprehensive and inclusive education in the visual arts;
• Speaks for its membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities;
• Publishes scholarly journals, art criticism, and artists’ writings;
• Fosters career development and professional advancement;
• Identifies and develops sources of funding for the practice of art and for scholarship in the arts and humanities;
• Supports and honors the accomplishments of artists, art historians, and critics; and
• Articulates and affirms the highest ethical standards in the conduct of the profession.

As the leading association in the world that represents professional visual-arts practitioners, CAA endorses your campaign platform’s support of the arts. We strongly agree that in order to remain competitive in the global economy America must reinvigorate the creativity and innovation that has made this country great.

CAA would like your Administration to include not only community arts organizations in its arts program of support but, also, to give greater focus to professional artists and art historians in academia, art museums, and independent professional visual-arts practitioners. Visual art must be reinstated as a respected and esteemed profession in America.

CAA advocates that professionally educated artists and art historians teach K–16 students. To meet this end we must offer all students, K–16, equal access to visual-arts education taught by professionally trained instructors in studio art and art history.

We also believe that public/private partnerships should expand not only between schools and communities but also among the academic community within colleges, universities, and art schools.

We endorse the creation of an art corps comprised of professionally educated artists and art historians who will work with students in urban schools on community-based projects that raise the awareness of the importance of creativity and professional artists. CAA would also like to see an emphasis on visual arts in government-sponsored projects such as AmeriCorps, in both urban and rural areas that address job preparation as well as environmental issues. Professional artists are eager to work on environmental programs that involve community-organized design projects.

CAA would like to emphasize that, in order to publicly champion the importance of arts education, America needs to support the proper preparation and training of artists and art historians who teach at the primary, secondary, and college/university levels. Visual arts need to become part of the core curriculum in each grade and at every stage of education.

CAA fully supports increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Library and Museum Services. Specifically, professional artists need to be supported on an individual basis, and we strongly recommend reinstatement of the Individual Artist Fellowship program to enable our best artists to pursue and develop their work. We have found that grants to other areas of the arts and humanities far exceed federal and private foundation grants to professional visual artists. It would be an outstanding legacy of this administration to again make federal support of the arts a priority in defending the promotion of our nation’s cultural heritage.

CAA supports legislation that will allow scholars to publish so-called orphan works, which are copyrighted works—such as books, pictures, music, recordings, or films—whose copyright owners cannot be identified or located. This legislation has been introduced in prior Congresses, and we hope it will be passed during the new Congress. Due to the risks of publishing copyrighted material without obtaining permission, many art historians and scholars are unable to publish orphan works, thereby causing great detriment to scholarly publishing, research and public access to these works. At the same time, orphan works legislation must be carefully crafted in respect to the legitimate interests and concerns of visual artists, including photographers.

CAA supports your platform for cultural diplomacy by enhancing international opportunities offered through agencies, such as the United States Information Agency, for exhibitions, teaching, research, and lecture tours by professional visual artists and art historians. CAA’s international membership testifies to the promotion of cultural understanding that occurs through international cultural exchange. Every year CAA seeks funding to support travel of international artists and art historians to its Annual Conference. Current Homeland Security laws and a lack of government funding make it difficult for foreign artists and scholars to present their work and research at conferences of their peers. CAA endorses streamlining the visa process and providing government support for international exchanges of graduate students and professional artists and art historians.

CAA supports providing health care to professional artists and art historians. This is a major concern for professional artists and art historians who are not associated with a college, university, or art museum and attempt to work independently to support themselves. As you are aware, each state has its own laws on insurance. Professional organizations such as CAA would like to offer national healthcare coverage for artists but are prohibited from offering insurance to its members due to differences in state laws. CAA endorses the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange as one step in the direction of coverage for artists. In the meantime, we encourage you to press for government reforms of insurance laws so that professional organizations such as CAA will be in a position to assist its members to obtain universal coverage.

CAA endorses tax fairness for artists. We have worked hard—and will continue to work hard—to support the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, which was introduced in the prior Congress by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work, rather than just the costs of the materials, when they make charitable contributions of that work. Not only has the current tax law been harmful to artists, the creative legacy of a whole generation of professional visual artists has not been donated to our great public institutions because of disincentives to donate created by the current tax laws.

CAA realizes that change takes the support and involvement of every member of society. CAA is committed to promoting the support of professional visual artists and art historians in all areas of American society. We stand ready to help provide information on visual arts professionals, suggestions for specific programs, or any other aid that you may find helpful in promoting a better world for artists and art historians in America.

With your leadership and the groundswell of support for activism, we can reestablish the professional visual-arts practitioner as a contributor to positive cultural change in America.

Sincerely yours,

Paul Jaskot, President, CAA, and Professor of Art and Art History, DePaul University; and Linda Downs, Executive Director, CAA

Two nonprofit arts-advocacy groups, Americans for the Arts and Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), announced yesterday that they will merge their operations, creating the largest-ever advocacy group for the arts in the private sector. The partnership will further enable the organization to generate increased private-sector support for the arts and arts education by engaging and educating business leaders nationwide on the economic impact and value of the arts in business and community settings.

Americans for the Arts has issued a press release on the merger and also published two lists of frequently asked questions for its members and the general public.

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC issued today its Congressional Arts Report Card, covering the 110th Congress (2007-2009). The entire Report Card contains letter grades and numerical scores of every member of Congress based on his or her voting record on arts issues.

“As the arts and arts education increasingly established a foothold during this year’s presidential campaign trail, the Report Card will serve as a compelling guide for the public to make overall arts-informed decisions at the ballot box on Election Day,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund. “Although the Report Card shows that Congress is progressively acknowledging the importance of the arts and arts education, further support is needed in arts funding.”

The 2008 Congressional Arts Report Card reveals that 181 members (43 percent) of Congress received a grade of A or higher. When the grades of the members of each state delegation are averaged on a state-by-state basis, the highest scoring state delegation is Maine, with a perfect score of 100. Alaska and Wyoming are the lowest scoring state delegations with a score of 20 points each. Additionally, the Arts Report Card shows that support for the arts is bipartisan and growing, as evidenced in the nearly 24 percent increase in membership of the Congressional Arts Caucus since 2000. Also, 21 representatives improved their Report Card scores by one letter grade or more from their 2006 Report Card grade.