[Jennifer Reeser]

Not at all a lazy wretch! I myself have given this much more attention than I should have.

Be very well, Andrew.

Jenn

[Nigel Mace]

From the outside, it simply seems bizarre that, in any civilised society, there should be any visceral objection to a national funding for the arts. It is never going to please everyone but its existence is a fairly normal public evidencing of a socially based concern for supporting the arts, by whose cultured practices any civilisation is - at least in part - known and nourished. When one looks at the proposer of this evisceration, puzzlement turns to alarm, swiftly followed by disgust. It would seem that Trump, and those of his kidney, desire to be known as uncultured vandals and it is pretty hard to see anything else.

[john savoie]

Government funding can be (not always is, but can be) as bad for the artist as for the government as for the people. It can also help accomplish great things. But it is not an essential part of government or art. I'd cut the NEA. Is it worth borrowing money from China to fund a poet who cannot make a profit from their work? Very seldom, I think. Let Bill Gates and Warren Buffet make up the lost funds, and they would have the power too of shaping the art.

[Julie Steiner]

Here's a list of projects that received NEA funding in San Diego last year, which may give people a more accurate idea of the types of things that the NEA is actually interested in funding.

Center for World Music ($20,000): The Encinitas-based group’s grant will support world music and dance in the schools.

Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation ($25,000): To support the Spoken Word and Graffiti Art Festival.

Mainly Mozart Festival ($10,000): To support the symposium “Mozart and the Mind: an Exploration of Prodigy.”

Museum of Photographic Arts ($30,000): To support “SEPIA: Seniors Exploring Photography, Identity, and Appreciation.”

New Children's Museum ($20,000): To support Innovator Lab, a maker-space installation based on creative practices.

Old Globe Theatre ($38,000): To support the Student Access to the Arts program.

Playwrights Project ($10,000): To support “SEEDS (Stimulating Educational Excellence with Drama Standards),” a playwriting residency program.

San Diego Opera ($35,000): To support “Words and Music Program,” a year-long opera education project for students in Title I schools in San Diego.

San Diego State University Foundation ($10,000): To support Heartpower Performances, a community engagement project.

San Diego Symphony ($20,000): To support a performance and community engagement festival, titled SOL Music: A Celebration of the Border Region.

San Diego Youth Symphony ($40,000): To support an effort to expand access to music education for public school students.

Note that none of the money went to fund "a poet who can't make a profit from their work". The NEA isn't designed to do that. [Correction: NEA Creative Writing Fellowships and Translation Projects do exist, and might be characterized that way, I suppose. But most NEA funding goes to organizations.]

I've had dealings with two organizations on the above list.

The San Diego Opera received a $35,000 grant for outreach to Title I schools (schools with high percentages of kids from low-income households). Last year's budget for the San Diego Opera was $11.5 million, with with $5.57 million in contributed income (donations, grants, bequests) and $4.1 million in earned income (ticket sales and scenery rentals and design). So $35,000 may not seem like a significant chunk of the San Diego Opera's budget. However, I think the experiences that it funded were significant to thousands of low-income school kids.

Mainly Mozart, which runs San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival each June and various workshops and symposia throughout the year, is also on the list. The $10,000 NEA grant that this organization received represented a very small portion of its $2 million annual budget, so losing future NEA funding will certainly not be a death knell for this group. But extra money for such projects helps the organization to be relevant to more people in the community than just the usual suspects.

Then again, some people like to keep the riffraff out of concert halls.

(If we're just interested in belt-tightening, the security expenses alone for the President's three trips to Mar-a-Lago since the inauguration have reportedly cost the American public $10 million. Perhaps we should encourage Mr. Trump to spend more weekends at the White House.)

[Charlie Southerland]

The Obama family vacations cost a total of at least 85 million tax-payer smackers in eight years, Julie. Let that sink in for a minute. I wonder what his golf game and green fees cost? I wonder how much Reggie Love cost as his "personal" trainer?

Perhaps Trump should consider renting out the Lincoln bedroom as Bubba did back in the nineties to help defray the costs of being president.

I suspect Trump will need a personal food taster before he leaves office.

Your total in San Diego is a smidgen over 238,000 dollars from the NEA.

Bill Gates is set to become the world's first Trillionaire. Might I suggest...


We're gonna get lost in all of the math very quickly— I have but five toes and ten fingers. What to do, what to do?

[Julie Steiner]

Exactly, Charlie. When one's predecessor spent $85 million in eight years on something, spending $10 million on it in three weeks doesn't exactly look like belt-tightening posture to me.

Since the dawn of civilization, wealthy donors have always been the bread and butter of performing arts organizations, and always will be. Ticket sales rarely come close to donations as a source of income. But if we're speaking of what's unhealthy for the arts, consider the implications of having just about every performing arts organization in town trying to cater to the tastes of same handful of mega-donors. Government grants help to reduce that dependency somewhat by encouraging activities that might expand audiences and increase ticket sales (although, since grants are awarded competitively, organizations still can't count on that money year after year).

[Andrew Frisardi]

Charlie, I've learned from my conversation with you on the "Trump Watch" thread that you react to truths that conflict with your worldview by ranting, spouting free-association gibberish, and taking on the tough-guy tone. That's pretty clear, so no surprise here.

However, it might be good to actually read Julie's fabulous post and take in what it says. Amazing and important facts (remember what those are?) about matters that should concern all fair-minded people of good will. Especially folks who love the arts.

Also, btw, if you take the time to read the article she linked to (she beat me to it), you will see that Trump's bill to taxpayers dwarfs anything Obama did. What do you think you're paying for security at Trump Tower? Or for his sons' business trips? Or for him starting his 2020 campaign a few weeks after inauguration? Take a look.

But I know that all that will be an uncomfortable truth for you, and that you will therefore pull a Charlie instead of responding with the reason God no doubt endowed you with. Sort of like the guy you voted for and still support. Such a waste.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

Here's a list of projects that received NEA funding in San Diego last year, which may give people a more accurate idea of the types of things that the NEA is actually interested in funding.



Note that none of the money went to fund "a poet who can't make a profit from their work". The NEA isn't designed to do that. [Correction: NEA Creative Writing Fellowships and Translation Projects do exist, and might be characterized that way, I suppose. But most NEA funding goes to organizations.]

I've had dealings with two organizations on the above list.

The San Diego Opera received a $35,000 grant for outreach to Title I schools (schools with high percentages of kids from low-income households). Last year's budget for the San Diego Opera was $11.5 million, with with $5.57 million in contributed income (donations, grants, bequests) and $4.1 million in earned income (ticket sales and scenery rentals and design). So $35,000 may not seem like a significant chunk of the San Diego Opera's budget. However, I think the experiences that it funded were significant to thousands of low-income school kids.

Mainly Mozart, which runs San Diego's Mainly Mozart Festival each June and various workshops and symposia throughout the year, is also on the list. The $10,000 NEA grant that this organization received represented a very small portion of its $2 million annual budget, so losing future NEA funding will certainly not be a death knell for this group. But extra money for such projects helps the organization to be relevant to more people in the community than just the usual suspects.

Then again, some people like to keep the riffraff out of concert halls.

(If we're just interested in belt-tightening, the security expenses alone for the President's three trips to Mar-a-Lago since the inauguration have reportedly cost the American public $10 million. Perhaps we should encourage Mr. Trump to spend more weekends at the White House.)

Thanks,Julie. That was super helpful.Good stuff.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

Inspired by Julie, I looked into the projects funded in Maine by the NEA. They all looked pretty cool. The whole states budget was less than the cost of a quarter of a cruise missile. It was hard to imagine a political ideology slighted by the stuff I saw listed that anyone would find attractive. It wouldn't make the top ten thousand list of things "money borrowed from China" goes to that don't serve the interests of life. Strange place to start trimming.

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

the security expenses alone for the President's three trips to Mar-a-Lago [in the three weeks] since the inauguration have reportedly cost the American public $10 million.

Originally Posted by Charlie Southerland

The Obama family vacations cost a total of at least 85 million tax-payer smackers in eight years, Julie. Let that sink in for a minute.

And Trump got the biggest electoral win since Reagan, 306 votes. Obama got only 332 and George H.W. Bush did even worse: 426.

Do the math, Julie, before you criticize our President.