What Are the Candidates Saying About the Arts?
10/18/06
What do the candidates in your district say about the arts? Be an informed voter and check out their answers to our legislative questionnaire at www.mtn.org/mca.
Put election day, November 7, on your calendar now! Our issues and many others that you care about depend upon smart voters showing up on election day. Get out there and vote!
-Sheila Smith, Executive Director
1. Candidates Speak Out About the Arts in MCA’s Legislative Questionnaire
2. Deadline extended: ARTISTS COUNT!
1. Candidates Speak Out About the Arts in MCA’s Legislative Questionnaire
The results are in! Just over 50% of legislative candidates responded to our legislative questionnaire and now we can share the results with you. On MCA’s website you can find out what art forms your legislators participate in, and whether they would support restoring arts funding cuts and arts in education. Just go to MCA’s website www.mtn.org/mca to find the results in your area. Members of MCA will also recieve a hard copy of their results in the mail in the next week or so, with additional information. Check it out and be an informed arts voter.
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2. DEADLINE EXTENDED: ARTISTS COUNT!
Participate in the Economic Impact Study of Minnesota’s Artists
We’ve had a great response, and we know there are more artists who want to be a part of ARTISTS COUNT! so we’ve extended the deadline to:
ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2006.
Artists are an important part of a healthy community. Artists contribute to the economy, as well as the vitality, of Minnesota. Artists have significant economic clout.
Let’s prove it.
In order to prove the economic power of Minnesota artists AND because individual artists have been excluded from previous impact studies, the McKnight Foundation has funded an Economic Impact Study of individual artists in Minnesota, called Artists Count! Just like the report released in March called The Arts: A Driving Force in Minnesota’s Economy that studied arts organizations in Minnesota, the result will be more attention and respect for artists and their efforts to make their art and their living in Minnesota. This study will also give Springboard for the Arts information it needs to advocate for services for artists like health care and retirement programs.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?
Artists from ALL DISCIPLINES: Music, Dance, Theater, Literary Arts, Visual Art, Multimedia, and Crafts artists in Pottery, Metalwork, Wood, etc.
Make sure that YOU are COUNTED. It’s quick and easy to participate:
1. Complete the secure online survey about your income and expenses as an artist at: http://www.survey.artsusa.org/MNArtistSurvey
2. Tell all the artists you know to participate!
We know that Minnesota’s artists COUNT. This is our chance to prove it. Your information and privacy will be completely protected - the survey is housed on a secure site, with farewell protection, and the information gathered by the survey will only be reported in aggregate.
This study is a project of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, Springboard for the Arts and the Minnesota Craft Council, with funding from The McKnight Foundation.
Our growing list of Partner Organizations includes: Actors Forum, American Composers Forum, American Association of Woodturners, Art Educators of Minnesota, Bloomington Art Center, Center for Hmong Arts and Talent, Central Minnesota Arts Board, COMPAS, Cornucopia, Dance USA, Fired Up!, IFP-MSP, Illusion Theater, Intermedia Arts, The Loft, Lake Elmo Arts Center, Lake Region Arts Council, MacPhail Center for Music, The McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minnesota Center for Photography, Minnesota Fringe Festival, Minnesota Art Fairs Directory, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, Minnesota Craft Council, Minnesota Music Educators Association, Minnesota State Arts Board, Minnesota String and Orchestra Association, Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Metris/Uptown Association/Uptown Art Fair, mnartist,org, NAAO - National Association of Artist Organizations, National Writer’s Union, Northern Clay Center, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Playwrights Center, Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, The Southern Theater, St. Paul Art Collective, Springboard for the Arts, Textile Center, Thirst, Theatre in the Round, Twin Cities Theatre and Film Alliance, Twin Cities Musicians Union, VSA arts Minnesota, Young Audiences, and the Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota.
Join Our Arts Advocacy Family
MCA is funded entirely by the dues of its members. Do you appreciate receiving up to the minute news on the fate of the arts in the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress? We could not provide Arts Alerts if it weren’t for the wonderful and committed arts advocates who show their commitment by joining MCA. You can join by printing out the membership form on our website at http://www.mtn.org/mca. Individual dues are just $30, and a household membership is just $40. Thank you!
MCA values your privacy, and will not sell or distribute your personal information to anyone.
MCA is a non-partisan statewide arts advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure opportunity for all people to have access to and involvement in the arts. MCA organizes the arts community and lobbies the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress on issues pertaining to the nonprofit arts. If you are interested in learning more about how to advocate for the arts, or how to activate people in your arts organization or community to lobby for the arts, please call us at 651-251-0868 or e-mail mca@mtn.org.
State arts funding supports access to the arts for all Minnesotans. The state-funded Minnesota State Arts Board and eleven Regional Arts Councils provide grants and services in every Minnesota county for artists, arts organizations, arts projects and school artist residencies. For more information on regional or state grants, go to http://www.arts.state.mn.us/racs/index.htm