Til it's Gone

The Star Tribune reports that, citing the great depression, Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis is making big cuts in staff and programming.

Joni - Big Yellow Taxi

Ethics

Over at the blog Ethics & Arts Education; serious explorations of the role of ethics in arts education today. This one is about the ethical implications of arts cuts in San Diego's public schools.

Hypertext: Over at Powell's we find an excerpt from the book Home by Marilynne Robinson.

The Music

The Times reports that Orchestras in the New York region are cutting back on everything, including rehearsal time and arts-in-education activities.

Also: American Pie - D. Mclean

The Beggars' Opera

President Barack Obama called a press conference yesterday to address concerns about his economic recovery plan, which has won little Republican support.

The New York Times headline reads "Obama Says Failing to Act Could Lead to a ‘Catastrophe'"

Mr. Obama’s tone was for the most part serious and businesslike, and he was pointed in rebutting Republican criticisms of his economic plan, saying he was not willing to take advice from “the folks who presided over a doubling of the national debt.”

NYS ARTS has an online Arts Advocacy Center that enables you to directly contact both your state and congressional representatives.

As we discussed yesterday, some of your favorite things are on the chopping block. There's no time like the present for you to take action. Let's face it, in this crisis, there's really no time at all.

Metamusical: Weill/Brecht (Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht - The Threepenny Opera @ youtube.)

Everything's Alright, Yes

The New York Times says layoffs.

Try not to get worried. (Youtube)

Superstar:

Good Times or Bum Times?

Do you ever read Crains NY? For some reason, I do. In good times, it's like a who's who of fun and power. In not so good times, it's like a horror movie featuring wolves at the door and harbingers of doom.

But then there's this. A silver lining or a bright shining lie?

Someone says that cultural institutions are still building things and that construction projects by groups like El Museo del Barrio and the Museum of the City of New York will have an estimated economic impact of $2.2 billion dollars and create 2,500 jobs per year from 2006 to 2010.

Do they mean construction jobs? They must mean construction jobs and I will never know because all of the details are contained in a report released by the Alliance for the Arts that I will never understand or even read properly. I skimmed it. It made no sense to me.

Non sequitur: Have you noticed that organic apples are down to $1.99/pound at Whole Paycheck? Is that deflation? Are things good or bad? Are we sinking or swimming? OMG. I forgot to take math, history and political science.

The report I mentioned, Culture Builds New York: The Economic Impact of Capital Construction at New York City's Cultural Institutions, is available here as a PDF.

Also: The Magic Theater is saved!

Also: The Zipper Theater is closed!

I can't go on, I must go on.

My sister, my daughter.

Finally: Eartha.

A Victory for One is a Victory for All

Ms. Ruth Taub is our Teaching Artist Hero of the Month.

Why?

In December, Ruth Taube’s supervisor at the Henry Street Settlement took her aside and broke the bad news. Budget cuts meant Ruth was out of a job. Henry Street was being forced to eliminate the Home Planning Workshop, the program that Ms. Taube had been running since 1966.

By the way, Ms. Taube is 85 years old.

Her supervisor told her she could continue to run the program as a volunteer. She said "no thank you." thinking “I can always find another job.”

Her students complained vociferously to the right people and the New York City Housing Authority found the money to pay her, somehow.

Ms. Taube is back at work!

Full article and audio at the New York Times.

Meta: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire happened in 1911 near Washington Square.

Money Changes Everything

If I had any interest at all in fundraising, I would probably find $150 to take this upcoming webinar with Kim Klein. But since I don't have any interest in fundraising at all, I hope someone around here does.

Follow the yellow brick road:

Upcoming Webinars:

Creating a Fundraising Philosophy with Kim Klein

January 12, 2009 at 10 am PST

Presenter: Kim Klein, Klein & Roth Consulting and Founder of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal

Most organizations know that they should have a gift acceptance policy or investment criteria. But few have an overall written fundraising philosophy—we raise money where we can to do the work that needs to be done. In other words, in order to be the most mission-fulfilling organization that you can be, where should you get your money from? And how can your fundraising promote your mission? What is the role of foundations, corporations, individuals, government, and earned income in helping meet that mission?

Our lack of a coherent fundraising philosophy is leading us down a destructive path as programs that should be funded by taxes suffer cuts and replace their funding with foundation grants, or organizations that should be funded by individuals turn to earned income instead. Many of these organizations wind up going out of business altogether, decreasing the services available to the community. In this webinar, we will discuss how organizations can develop a fundraising philosophy, and how such a philosophy can lead an organization to raise more money.