NEA census numbers are in - and something does not make sense…
The NEA census is out and according to The New York Times:
“If all the professional dancers in the United States stood shoulder to shoulder to form a single chorus line, it would stretch from 42nd Street for nearly the entire length of Manhattan. If every artist in America’s work force banded together, their ranks would be double the size of the United States Army. More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, police officer or farm worker.”
So if this is true - why haven’t the arts played a bigger role in the presidential election? And why has President Bush requested a $16.7 million cut in the NEA budget?
Christopher Pelham (June 16th, 2008 at 7:14 pm)
I’ll venture a (safe) guess. Artists don’t give nearly as much money to their advocacy organizations as doctors and lawyers give to theirs. Of course, the majority of artists make very little or no money from their art, or the money they make is outweighed by the money the spend to create it. But still, there must be a lot of artists who are independently wealthy, who have income from other endeavors, and a fair number of artists who do make a LOT of money. Hello, Hollywood! Who knew we shared one of the largest professions in America with you celebs?!
Artists tend to be independent. Hmm. Is there anyway we can create an all-inclusive pan-arts nationwide artists union? If we did could we scrape together enough money betwixt us all to generate some advocacy clout?
Dance Theater Workshop » Blog Archive » What can the arts learn from Obama’s campaign? (June 30th, 2008 at 9:03 am)
[...] struggled to energize and engage the general public. According to a recent New York Times article, census statistics culled by the National Endowment for the Arts reveal that, “More Americans identify their primary occupation as artist than as lawyer, doctor, [...]