“Some 700 cultural leaders gathered in Washington this week to visit lawmakers and make the case for federal funding of the arts,” reports Peggy McGlone in Wednesday’s (3/21) Washington Post. The League of American Orchestras is a national co-sponsor of Arts Advocacy Day and part of the team training advocates that gathered from across the country. “It was a record showing for Arts Advocacy Day and the direct result of President Trump’s call to kill funding for four federal agencies. For two hours Tuesday morning, representatives of arts groups, businesses, school districts and universities listened to dozens of speakers pump them up with slogans, cheers and data points demonstrating the power of arts to change lives, educated children and revitalize communities.… Any hint of ‘this again?’ fatigue was wiped out by campaign-style speeches from Congressional backers, Republicans and Democrats, many members of the Arts, Humanities, Cultural, STEAM and Public Broadcasting caucuses.… Ford Foundation President Darren Walker gave a lecture Monday night at the Kennedy Center, where he urged the audience to fight for the $970 million budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.”
Posted March 22, 2017
Pictured: Congressional Arts Leadership Awardee Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) speaks to arts advocates before a day spent urging Congress to support the arts during national Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C.
