Shop for NJ ARTS!!!

Ok all you shoppers out there! Here's your chance to discount shop at Macy*s on September 16, enter a great raffle and support the ArtPRIDE NJ Foundation all at the same time!

We've constructed a store to make it easy for you at www.artpridenjstore.com/store/store.php

For $5.00 you can participate in this ArtPRIDE fundraiser which will happen in Macy*s stores throughout New Jersey. If you can't shop on September 16, a pre-sale is possible 10 days prior to the sale day. Use your credit card to shop and your merchandise will be charged the sale price on the day of sale and will be ready for you to pick up any day after 9/16.

So treat your family and friends and support ArtPRIDE and its efforts to increase awareness of how important the arts are to New Jersey's quality of life! If you don't want to use PayPal, call ArtPRIDE at 609-443-3582 or email us at www.artpridenj.com and we'll reserve your tickets!

It's Deja Vu All Over Again!

We worked hard. We played by the rules. We got burned again.

Three years ago we had everyone from John Amos to leading Assemblymen and Senators standing on the steps of the NJ State House to "Save NJ Arts." We came out of the battle with a dedicated revenue source from a newly legislated hotel/motel occupancy fee. We became the poster child for how to effectively activate a grassroots advocacy campaign. Here we are three years later and the NJ State Council on the Arts budget is cut by $3.568 million and the dedicated revenue source doesn't look so dedicated anymore. Let's not even talk about the NJ Cultural Trust (more on that in another blog).

What happened? There are as many explanations or excuses as one can find or imagine. Some bottom lines have to do with a state in a fiscal crisis that failed to deal with it in a legitimate way three years ago--now having to "pay the piper" while other states are claiming record budget surpluses. The typical case of "smoke and mirrors" catching up to you. How New Jersey??

So we all have to suffer, some more than others--look at Rutgers! Outsiders look at the arts and say, hey you're still better off than you were three years ago, so quityer complainin'! But those on the inside, running the non-profit arts groups know they are just getting by and any major upset to the funding ecology wreaks havoc, particularly from one of the sole sources of operating support in the state.

We'll be at it again next year, starting now, and the rally cry feels like "We're not gonna take it anymore!" At least for now...stay tuned!

GPCA Advocate Insider Interview with Ben Cameron

Wise Words from a Wise Man--Ben Cameron is former Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group and will soon join the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation as Program Director for the Arts (thank the Lord!).

Reprinted with permission from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance newsletter, The Arts & Culture Advocate. For more information on the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, visit www.philaculture.org.

Q: You often hear several lines of thoughts in arts advocacy efforts. People talk about the economic impact of the arts, the importance of arts education, and the intrinsic value of what we do. What is the most compelling argument?

A: At root, advocacy is the ability to speak to where your audience is listening from. Rather than entering a funding meeting with a pre-established agenda, we have found great benefit in listening, in tailoring any request to the listener's interests. In the political arena, for example, certain congresspeople will respond to theatre's role in education. Other congresspeople will be interested in our role in economic development. For yet others, it will be our role in promoting social tolerance that will be most compelling. But the idea that there is a magic bullet or a single argument that will carry the day is, I'm afraid, a thing of the past. Advocacy arguments need to be conceived individually and more specifically.

Additionally, I think we need to be better storytellers. I am always struck at the prominence of story in the great political conventions. In presenting an issue, a speaker will often lead with specific, concrete data, e.g., X percentage of the population on welfare transition into full time jobs wehn they spend Y percent of their time in job training programs. But after making these statistical arguments, they'll put a human face on it. "Betty Smith was a mother on welfare and is now a successful businesswoman" and up she stands in the gallery! Politicians are experts at combining the quantifiable with the anecdotal. In the arts, we have often separated these arguments, rather than combining them. Learning for politicians and their successes can benefit us.

We also need to enlist our boards as advocates. Especially in a time of real controversy, it is too easy for the artists' voice to be dismissed as too self interested to be heard. It is in moments of controversy that bank presidents, real estate agents, and stay-at-home mothers will be heard by their own legislators and representatives with a power that the artists can't have. We must enlist larger public participation, and our own boards are a logical and easy place to start.