CAA News Today
Digital Database for Europe’s Cultural Heritage
posted Sep 15, 2006
Drawing on a system developed by France’s Ministry of Culture and Communications, the MICHAEL project, which stands for Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe, has developed an electronic system to access, manage, and update digital records of Europe’s collections, including museum objects, archaeological and tourist sites, music and audiovisual archives, biographical materials, documents, and manuscripts. MICHAEL will provide a multilingual online service allowing users to search and examine cultural collections throughout Europe by linking to existing collections. Eleven countries are participating in MICHAEL. A launch is planned in Italy, the UK, and France in May 2007, and in other participating countries in November 2007. For more information, please visit www.michael-culture.org.
NEA and NEH Turn Forty
posted Jul 16, 2006
On September 29, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act into law. The act called for the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts as separate, independent agencies.
NEA Awards Over $63 Million in Grants
posted Jul 16, 2006
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will award more than $63 million in grants to arts organizations nationwide in its second major round of funding for fiscal year 2006. The NEA will provide a total of $21,509,500 to 970 nonprofit arts organizations through its categories of Access to Artistic Excellence, Learning in the Arts, Arts on Radio and Television, and Folk Arts Infrastructure. In addition, the endowment will distribute $42,230,200 to state and jurisdictional arts agencies and regional arts agencies in keeping with its mandate to allocate 40 percent of its grant-making budget to these partners.
NEA Awards $700,000 in Hurricane Relief Grants
posted Jul 16, 2006
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has given $700,000 in grants to support arts organizations in the Gulf Coast region that were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year. These grants include $500,000 in support of individual organizations and state and local arts agencies in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Additionally, the NEA is funding $200,000 for regional participation in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and Your Town, two of the country’s most established city planning and design programs.
NEA Awards $700,000 in Hurricane Relief Grants
posted Jul 16, 2006
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has given $700,000 in grants to support arts organizations in the Gulf Coast region that were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year. These grants include $500,000 in support of individual organizations and state and local arts agencies in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Additionally, the NEA is funding $200,000 for regional participation in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and Your Town, two of the country’s most established city planning and design programs.
NEH Dear Colleague Letter
posted Jul 16, 2006
On April 6, 2006, Congressmen David Price (D-NC) and Jim Leach (R-IA) submitted a “Dear Colleague” letter in support of increased funding for National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with the signatures of 117 representatives to Chairman Charles Taylor and Ranking Member Norman Dicks of the House Appropriations Subcommittee. The letter requests an additional $15 million for the NEH in fiscal year 2007. This would bring total funding for the agency to $156 million. Price and Leach expressed concern about the erosion of funding for core programs and commended the state humanities councils and the agency’s We the People initiative. Humanities advocates were integral in gaining the impressive amount of signatures (an increase of nine signatories from the previous year) through phone calls and letters to representatives via the Humanities Advocacy Network.
Action Alert
posted May 16, 2006
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to consider an Interior Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2007 on Thursday, May 18. The Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which marked up the bill on May 4, recommends level funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) at $142 million and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at $124 million. These amounts remained in the bill through the full committee mark-up.
When the bill comes to the House floor, CAA expects the bipartisan leadership of the Congressional Humanities Caucus and the Congressional Arts Caucus to introduce an amendment to increase funding for the NEH and NEA by $10 to $15 million, evenly divided between the two endowments. The Congressional Arts Caucus has successfully offered a similar amendment for the past six years.
Action Needed
We ask that you call, e-mail, or fax your representative, urging him or her to vote in favor of this amendment when the bill comes to the floor. Let your elected official know that the NEA and NEH make a difference in your state!
Sample Letter
[DATE]
The Honorable [FULL NAME]
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative [LAST NAME]:
Public encouragement and financial assistance for arts and humanities programs are very much in the hearts and minds of the citizens of this country. I am writing you today to ask you to support an expected amendment asking for an increase for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) when the House votes on the fiscal year 2007 Interior Appropriations bill, scheduled for consideration on May 18.
As you know, with a relatively small investment from Congress, the NEH and NEA provide access to high-quality educational programs and resources that reach millions of Americans each year. To this end, it is critical that we continue to strengthen funding for the arts and for scholarly research through increased appropriations for the NEH and NEA.
Thank you for your consideration of my request, and for your support of arts funding.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR ORGANIZATION OR MEMBER OF CAA]
Open Letter to Brooklyn Borough Commissioner
posted May 15, 2006
CAA has sent a letter protesting the closing of the Brooklyn College MFA exhibition at the Brooklyn War Memorial in New York.
Julius Spiegel
Brooklyn Borough Commissioner
NYC Department of Parks & Recreation
Litchfield Villa
Prospect Park
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Dear Borough Commissioner Spiegel:
On behalf of the College Art Association (CAA), the largest and most comprehensive professional organization for art historians and visual artists in the United States, I am writing to express concern about the closing of the Brooklyn College students’ annual Master of Fine Arts (MFA) thesis show at the Brooklyn War Memorial on May 4, 2006. I understand that the exhibition was closed after city official found some works of art to be objectionable and not suitable for families.
As an organization that supports artists’ and scholars’ right to free expression and opposes limits on intellectual inquiry, we follow censorship-related complaints from around the country and can attest to the fact that almost any work of art can be construed as being religious, political, or sexual in nature. We have recorded numerous complaints against highly regarded, often classical, works of art that have been couched in just such language. Under this standard, New York City would be deprived of a large number of the public artworks that have contributed to the vibrant culture of the city. Although many of the works included in the MFA show may be seen as challenging or controversial, the public must be given an opportunity to choose whether or not to attend, to view the exhibition unimpeded, and to form its own opinion.
With more than 13,000 members, and with 20 percent of our membership living and working in New York State, the College Art Association promotes the highest levels of creativity, intellectual inquiry, and technical skill in the practice and teaching of the visual arts, as well as the highest standards of scholarship, connoisseurship, and teaching in the history and criticism of art.
Sincerely,
Michael Fahlund
Acting Executive Director
College Art Association
One Percent Rescissions for NEA and NEH
posted Apr 16, 2006
As part of hurricane relief efforts, Congress has approved a 1 percent across-the-board rescission (or reduction) to all fiscal year 2006 appropriations, except for emergency spending and veterans programs. Thus, programs with approved budgets, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, will see a retroactive budget cut of 1 percent.
Hurricane Katrina Federal Funding Update
posted Mar 16, 2006
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Congress approved legislation that redirects funds not used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to other agencies. About $11.5 billion of the unused funds were devoted to Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) for affected states. CDBG can be a source of funding for arts institutions and programming, at the discretion of local mayors and planning authorities.
So far, Mississippi announced that they will use its portion to give financial assistance to citizens whose homes were destroyed or damaged. Louisiana, with far more people affected, has not yet decided how it will spend its CDBG funding. Due to the size and scale of the destruction, it is unlikely that any big portion of CDBG money will be used as a source of funding for the arts.