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in the news
07/23/2009
For New Leader of NEA, Lessons From Past
Although it may be hard to remember now, there was a time when the National Endowment for the Arts seemed to be on solid footing, both financially and politically, and could spend its days quietly financing artists and arts groups at its discretion.
The New York Times
07/08/2009
Artists want Cabinet-level 'arts czar'
Politico
06/08/2009
Culture Crunch: The Recession and the Arts
TIME
05/13/2009
Broadway Producer Tapped For NEA
Broadway producer Rocco Landesman has been nominated to head the National Endowment for the Arts. Landesman's Jujamcyn company owns five Broadway theaters and his production credits include Angels in America and The Producers.
NPR - All Things Considered
05/08/2009
National Gallery Receive Emergency Funds
"The administration's fiscal 2010 budget proposal to increase support for the National Endowment for the Arts provides another encouraging nod of confidence in the role the arts play in America's future," said Robert L. Lynch, the president of Americans for the Arts, a prominent lobbying group. "We hope that Congress will build on these initial budget requests to secure even higher funding levels to address the needs of the arts and arts education community."
The Washington Post
05/07/2009
Recession and the Arts: Act II
Large institutions join the ranks of those making cuts, but creative strategies emerge
Chronicle of Philanthropy
04/30/2009
Why Businesses Are Still Giving To the Art
TIME
04/25/2009
Happy Days Are Here Again
When it comes to popular entertainment, cheap and cheerful is the new manifesto. The art house will have to wait.
Newsweek
04/04/2009
America in Harmony
The impeccably cool artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center had come here to deliver the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. His speech, which he titled "The Ballad of the American Arts," was a bravura 50-minute survey of how our country has used "homegrown arts to make us into one people, to teach us who we are." He made surprising connections, praising Ben Franklin and Charlie Parker in turn for being "the living embodiment of down-home sophistication." And, because he'd brought a quintet and his trumpet along, he added musical illustrations, tracing the progress of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" through Sousa's marches to the Mickey Mouse Club theme. "I'm trying to tell you all this stuff was connected before the DNA told you," he said.
Newsweek
04/01/2009
Musicians plead for increased funding
Linda Ronstadt, Josh Groban and Wynton Marsalis recall their experiences with music in front of a House subcommittee in hopes of raising the budget to $200 million.
The Los Angeles Times
03/31/2009
Advocates for the Arts (video)
Josh Groban and Wynton Marsalis seek more funding for the arts on Arts Advocacy Day
FOX News
03/31/2009
Arts Advocacy Day
Some famous names — Josh Groban, Linda Ronstandt, Wynton Marsalis — are trooping up to Capitol Hill this morning to testify before a House appropriations subcommittee on the usefulness of the arts and arts education. Lest anyone miss the utilitarian point, the hearing is being headlined as "The Arts = Jobs".
TIME
03/31/2009
Ronstadt, Marsalis Play the Capitol
A star-studded cast appeared before the Interior and Environment appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday to discuss government financing of the arts, including the singer Linda Ronstadt and jazzman Wynton Marsalis. And it inspired a bit of creativity on the part of appropriators usually more comfortable with budget spreadsheets than a musical score.
The New York Times
03/31/2009
Groban, Marsalis, press Congress for funds
Associated Press
03/27/2009
Conversation: Robert Lynch
Amid the economic downturn, many arts organizations around the country are feeling the hurt right now, along with everyone else. What exactly will it do? Is it enough? What next? We asked those and other questions to Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, an arts advocacy organization. He's been on Capitol Hill to testify about the economic vulnerability of the arts world.
PBS NewsHour
03/03/2009
Arts are in survival mode as funds dry up
"Those jobs are every bit as important as an auto industry worker," Lynch says. He says 10,000 arts groups employing 260,000 artists and support workers could close this year.
USA Today
02/27/2009
The Obama Effect On The Arts
When esteemed cellist Yo Yo Ma and violinist Izhak Perlman took the stage at President Obama's inauguration, some people saw this as more than just the prelude to a new administration. They saw it as a new beginning for arts in America.
Continuing our series on the Obama effect on America, we examine the President's policy on the arts.
NPR - News & Notes
02/16/2009
Selling Culture as an Economic Force
“It’s a huge victory for the arts in America,” said Robert L. Lynch, the president of Americans for the Arts, a lobbying group. “It’s a signal that maybe there is after all more understanding of the value of creativity in the 21st-century economy.”
The New York Times
02/14/2009
A (Half-Price) Night at the Opera
Ticket sales have also slipped and the stock market has ravaged endowments, forcing a wide range of groups to take emergency action, including slashing budgets (the Metropolitan Opera), canceling productions (the Sacramento Ballet) or filing for bankruptcy (the Baltimore Opera Company). The advocacy group Americans for the Arts says some 10,000 arts organizations -- about 10% of the nation's total -- face collapse or have already shut down.
Arts groups could receive $50 million in recovery funds through the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the economic stimulus bill passed in the House of Representatives on Friday afternoon.
The Wall Street Journal
02/13/2009
House passes stimulus bill with $50 millio
Americans for the Arts, which mounted a lobbying and public-pressure campaign to get the arts what amounts to a one-sixteen-thousandth share of the spending and tax breaks in the bill, is hailing it as "an important victory."
The Los Angeles Times
02/04/2009
Brian Lehrer Show (mp3)
WNYC radio
02/03/2009
As Obama Seeks GOP Votes Worry on Left
With GOP leaders citing $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts as an example of wasteful spending in the stimulus, local arts groups are contacting Obama administration aides and congressional offices to demonstrate what that money means for museums, orchestras, theater companies and dance troupes scattered around the nation.
"This industry is under the same kind of pressures that many others in America are today," said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. "I'm very concerned because the arts are a convenient whipping boy for this kind of non-fact-based attack. It makes a great sound bite for a conservative."
ABC News
01/30/2009
Artists, arts advocates go on the offensiv
Meanwhile, advocates such as Americans for the Arts and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies are pushing the president to create a high-ranking White House position with the responsibility of ensuring that arts policy is carried out coherently by the assorted federal departments that affect the arts, including Education, Labor, Commerce and, in cultural exchange programs, State. Another priority, says Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, is getting artists included under a proposed economic recovery provision that would provide health and unemployment benefits for part-time, low-wage workers.
The Los Angeles Times
01/27/2009
Recession is bitter music for the arts
The report by the national nonprofit Americans for the Arts found those institutions get half their money from ticket sales, 40 percent from donations and 10 percent from government — all of which have taken big hits during the economic downturn.
Bob Lynch, the group's president and CEO, says about 10,000 arts organizations nationwide — about 10 percent of the total — have shut down or stand on the verge of collapse.
Associated Press
01/26/2009
Arts Leaders Urge Role for Culture in Econ
As the Obama administration tackles the challenge of shoring up the economy through infusions of capital and job creation, cultural leaders are urging the president not to forget arts institutions, which are also reeling from the market downturn.
“We wanted to make sure arts were not left out of the recovery,” said Robert L. Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, a national lobbying group. “The artist’s paycheck is every bit as important as the steelworker’s paycheck or the autoworker’s paycheck.”
The New York Times
01/22/2009
An Appeal for the Arts
As the Obama Administration gets to work, an arts advocacy group wants to make sure that funding the arts is on the new President's agenda.
WAMU radio
01/20/2009
"Q" - INAUGURATION DAY SPECIAL (mp3)
CBC radio
01/16/2009
Does U.S. Need A Culture Czar?
The idea of a Cabinet-level official for the arts has gotten some buzz lately. After all, many other countries have ministers of culture. High-profile artists such as Quincy Jones think it's necessary in the U.S., but not everyone agrees.
NPR - Morning Edition
01/16/2009
Obama's call to arts
Arts advocates are quick to point out that support for the arts is sound fiscal policy. Federal tax revenues generated by the activities of the not-for-profit arts sector alone total nearly $12 billion annually, says Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. That figure is in addition to the for-profit multibillion dollar entertainment industries which are some of the nation's most important exports, he adds. Mr. Lynch was part of the advisory board that helped draft the initial arts platform during the primaries. Candidate Obama was the only contender who expanded upon the basic outline his working group provided, he says.
"Obama took the idea and built on it, coming up with the idea of the Artists Corps," adds Lynch.
The Christian Science Monitor
01/14/2009
Quincy Jones Leads Chorus Urging a Cabinet
"We need a voice that looks broadly," said Robert Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts, a national lobbying group. He is advocating a senior position, not necessarily a Cabinet post. "We are calling for a person at the executive office level who understands there is a National Endowment for the Arts, but also understands the arts portfolio in the Education Department, the State Department -- and in addition to the nonprofits arts, is looking at cultural tourism, broadband access and trade through records, movies and videos."
The Washington Post
01/14/2009
Behind the curtain of Obama's arts policy
So far, we’ve seen only glimmers of how arts policy might look in the Obama administration. But Robert L. Lynch, head of Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit group that worked through the campaign season to give the arts a new political visibility, says he’s met with members of the Obama transition team and that nine proposals the group released Tuesday reflect where things are heading.
As with so much else, it comes down to the economy.
The Los Angeles Times
01/14/2009
Arts Groups Ask for Economic Stimulus Help
Americans for the Arts urged lawmakers to consider the needs of arts organizations — which it says employ 5.7 million people and generate $166.2-billion in economic activity — in crafting the stimulus package.
“This marks an unprecedented opportunity for our nation’s arts community to play a role in revitalizing America’s economy,” Robert L. Lynch, the group’s president, said in a statement.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
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