District Arts Advocacy Events

Meetings with Key State Leaders

Illinois Regional Budget Hearings

District Arts Advocacy Events

In May and June 2008, IAA will partner with arts advocates and arts organizations to facilitate arts advocacy events in key legislative districts. Through the events, IAA hopes to educate elected officials about the importance of state support for the arts; encourage legislators to support an increase in the Illinois Arts Council's budget to $24 million; and give advocates an opportunity to interact with their legislators in their own districts. If you are interested in working with IAA to host a meeting, please contact IAA Communications Coordinator Scarlett Swerdlow at 312.855.3105 x13 or swerdlow@artsalliance.org.

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Meetings with Key State Leaders

IAA has facilitated a number of meetings with members of the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor's office to discuss the importance of arts and arts education funding.

On Monday, April 7, 2008, IAA convened a legislative breakfast that brought together several key legislative leaders including Representative Monique Davis, chair of the Appropriations General Services Committee; Senator Don Harmon, chair of the Revenue Committee; and Senator Jeff Schoenberg, chair of the Appropriations II Committee. These distinguished speakers were generous with their time and candid in their assessment of the dynamics that have contributed to current political and fiscal challenges in Illinois state government.

Photos of the breakfast are available here.

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Illinois Regional Budget Hearings

The Illinois House of Representatives held 19 hearings throughout the month of March to offer residents an opportunity to share their views about the budget and the state's funding priorities. We are pleased to report that arts leaders and advocates were present and testified at 18 of the 19 hearings. Here's what they had to say:

"The unprecedented 23% reduction in funding for the Illinois Arts Council in last year's budget is jeopardizing Illinois' opportunity to grow the arts and consequently grow our Illinois economy. In an economic report just published by our organization, "The Arts as Big Business: Arts Spending in the Peoria Area and its Economic Impact," Peoria area arts bring nearly $40 million a year to the greater Peoria area. To cut arts programming in our service area and to our colleagues all around the state is to drastically limit and in some cases eliminate the opportunity for our arts organizations to help grow their communities.

That's why I'm here to urge the members of the Illinois General Assembly to restore funding for the arts, humanities, and public broadcasting by investing $24 million in the Illinois Arts Council in the FY09 budget."

- Suzette Boulais
Executive Director
ArtsPartners of Central Illinois

"This year I was awarded my fifth Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship-a terrific affirmation of my skills and a welcome source of funds. These fellowships have assisted me in shipping work to exhibitions, in funding publications, in attending conferences and symposia, in purchasing studio supplies, and, most importantly, in hiring studio assistants-some of whom were students here at Morton College.

Though I received a fellowship, I worry about my fellow artists whose artistic goals will be curtailed because $4.5 million was cut from the Illinois Arts Council budget this year. I understand that there are a variety of needs that the Illinois General Assembly must address. But, I would like to propose that creativity is a necessary part of the life of our state. It is not a luxury that only merits the always elusive 'excess funds.'

As a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I am in the wonderful position of seeing young people thrive because their artistic skills are encouraged and challenged. I want that opportunity for all citizens of Illinois, the young and the not so young - not just for those who can afford special school or special training."

- Jerry Bleem
Visual Artist & Faculty Member
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"Please consider that the impact of reduced state funding was not and will not be felt equally among schools. The poorest schools, those most in need of arts funding assistance, those serving the most troubled neighborhoods, or serving the state's most remote rural communities were the least able to rebound from the funding reductions."

- David Stocker
Artist

"As a teaching artist, facilitating two writing workshops for the Neighborhood Writing Alliance, I ask the General Assembly to invest $24 million in the Illinois Arts Council's budget for 2009 because most importantly, from personal experience, I see the real impact this organization and others like it have on the communities they serve.

One of my workshops is held at St. Leonard's House, which is a re-entry program for ex-offenders. Some who have spent 10+ years behind bars, some since 14 or 16 years of age, with little if any advocacy for the arts. I had one young man who had planned to go to "some kind" of trade school. After a few times in our workshop and seeing his writing in print, he decided to go to college, the first in his family, for a bachelors in English. Last week he met with publishers interested in his work.

What I saw in [his] eyes was something that I think many of the residents of St. Leonard's house, as well as a lot of folks in neighborhoods like Englewood and Uptown, haven't experienced much of in their lives, and that is hope. Hope of possibilities. Hope of a dream recognized. Hope that their voices matter, that there's an audience to their voices and their voices can have power."

- Donna Kiser
Workshop Leader & Intern
Neighborhood Writing Alliance

"When Chicago-based arts groups suffer a cut in state funding, it's a double hit because groups like CAN TV that serve those small arts organizations are getting cut as well."

- Barbara Popovic
Executive Director
CAN TV

"I am the parent of three students enrolled at Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School in Chicago. Bell School is a public school, grades pre-k through 8, that serves three distinct student populations: about 75 deaf children from the city's north side, roughly 250 children from all over the city who test into the regional gifted center at Bell, and another 600 children who reside within the school's attendance boundaries.

Several years ago, Bell School received a three-year Illinois Arts Council grant for a drama residency for all of our 3rd grade students. Our partner is Lookingglass Theatre Company. The residency transformed our school.

I saw one year's demonstration of the students' Lookingglass residency, a depiction of student responses to a story about two girls separated by a fence. I had just been a few days earlier to the Chicago Humanities Festival keynote address by August Wilson, author of the acclaimed play Fences, who spoke eloquently about the impact of racial prejudices.

Watching these Bell 3rd graders on stage, arms draped over shoulders, one kid after the next, creating a fence that connected the deaf child to the hearing child, the Asian child to the African-American child, the Christian child to the Muslim child, I knew that this residency had taught our children a valuable lesson: that random circumstances divide us, that listening carefully to the stories of others teaches us to empathize and informs our decision-making, and that it feels good to belong when everybody belongs. This collection of 33 eight-year olds spoke as eloquently about the need to connect as the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright had."

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Phone: 312.855.3105 Fax: 312.855.1565
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