Arts backers make a play for capital at the Capitol

"Features"

02/23/2005

Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
February 23, 2005

“Can I challenge you?” House Speaker Steve Sviggum asked arts supporters who crowded his office Tuesday morning. “Tell me why—when we have to fund health care, early childhood education—tell me why it’s the responsibility of government to support the arts? They’re not a matter of life and death, are they?”

Sviggum was playing devil’s advocate, but the group of more than 20 artists, administrators, students and volunteers eagerly took the bait. Given a state budget of nearly $30 billion, the $9 million appropriated for the State Arts Board seemed small, they said. But to artists who often can’t find two dimes to rub together, that funding is vital. They told Sviggum that public money leverages private support, it multiplies in the economy, makes communities attractive and provides an outlet for students who have difficulty with traditional academics.

“People who value the arts are more engaged, more successful,” said David Flannery, executive director of the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley. “They help make the kind of Minnesota that we value.”

The citizen lobbyists Sviggum hosted Tuesday were part of more than 700 supporters descending on the State Office Building and Capitol as part of Arts Advocacy Day, an annual drive by Minnesota Citizens for the Arts to argue for the State Arts Board. Two years ago, approximately 1,000 enthusiasts showed up in the depths of Minnesota’s severe budget crisis. They lobbied legislators to keep any cuts in the board funding to 14 percent. When the smoke cleared at session’s end, the Arts Board had been trimmed by 32 percent—including a cut of 60 percent in administration. Larry Redmond, MCA’s chief lobbyist, disagreed Tuesday that the large turnout two years ago apparently didn’t make a difference.

“It could have been worse,” he said, suggesting that arts funding was a casualty of larger budget politics in 2003.

This year’s message to legislators was less distasteful: Please support Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s recommendation of flat funding. The advocates were a diverse group: blue hairs, red hairs, long beards, no beards; from the giant Guthrie in Minneapolis to tiny Theatre B, a startup company in Moorhead; from the Minnesota Orchestra to the Minnesota Valley Academy for Music; regional arts councils from every corner and college students.

Michael Robins, co-producing director at the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis, led a group through the maze of hallways in the Republican House Caucus to Rep. Paul Kohls, R-Victoria. Kohls, who has co-sponsored House inclusion of $1 million in bonding support for the Minnesota Shubert Center for the Arts, said he appreciated the importance of this visit. He did not, however, make any promises.

“In terms of funding, it’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “I believe in arts and arts education. I’m not a proponent of using state dollars to fund entertainment, though.”

Sviggum demonstrated his political skills Tuesday, artfully sidestepping any commitment.

“I tend to be the sports guy in our family,” he said. “My wife is the arts advocate. You will have her support for sure.”

Said one unidentified advocate on his way out the door: “Good; we’ll vote for her next time.”