Two Florida lawmakers push to end public funding of art

BY DAVID DECAMP St. Petersburg Times
Monday, April 13, 2009


As budgets are wrenched by shortfalls, publicly funded art is paying the price.

And if two lawmakers from Hillsborough County have their way, state-funded public art could be outlawed until the economy recovers.

Lawmakers said supporting art envisioned to spruce up staid government buildings is no longer an option, despite pleas by some in the arts community.

"Do I pay for art instead of paying for care for an abused kid?" asked Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, author of the repeal, who said artists have ripped her as a "Philistine" and worse. "This is an example of fat. This is a luxury."

Florida law requires that a fraction of the cost of every new state-funded building go toward art, a half-percent up to $100,000.

Since 1979, the state has spent more than $11.5 million for 1,448 pieces of art. Over the next two years, $665,000 worth of art was planned.

But the Legislature has to mend a $3 billion shortage, and cuts for health care, seniors and schools are being debated this spring.

So art is losing its luster.

A year ago, Storms proposed the repeal only to watch the bill die in committee. With three weeks of session left this year, however, her bill needs only one more committee's approval before a full vote by lawmakers. House panels also have moved ahead a similar bill by Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City.

Storms' bill was recently amended to allow art funding to return in 2011, but with another stickler: no state money for art without lawmakers' approval. The change allowed the bill to pass a committee, but Storms said she would like to remove the sunset clause, too.

"While this particular bill deals with a subject that's near and dear to many of us' hearts, it's a just a realization of the cold, hard reality of what must be done," Rep. Alan Hayes, R-Umatilla, said before his appropriations panel unanimously passed the bill in fewer than five minutes.

However, Bill Iverson, public art program manager for Hillsborough, said the state program provides an economic benefit by providing work for artists.

Judith Powers, Pinellas County director of cultural affairs, called the state program "fabulous."

"I certainly hope the state program remains," Iverson said.

Cities and counties have until recently steadily increased art funding, though not universally. Pinellas County has frozen its program and may eliminate it altogether, a $550,000 savings. Hillsborough County is proposing slashing its program in half, requiring big projects to devote only a half-percent of their costs to art. Pasco County has no program, for example. Projects have often sparked debate over their seemliness.

"I think the people who work in the arts are sort of used to cycles. Certainly, this is like no cycle we've seen," Powers said. "We would hope the work could cycle back."

And if two lawmakers from Hillsborough County have their way,

Of course, what kind of art do they have in Hillsborough County, connect the dots and Etch-a-sketch drawings?

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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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While I am quite fond of the arts -- well, most of them -- I do feel that it's time to pinch the penny -- or, in this case, the arts. There is just too much human need in our country now to continue to support something that is only beneficial in the cultural sense.

Blast away!!

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I didn't like Bush, but that doesn't mean I
have to love Obama.

if they are GOOD artists...people will buy their work (without the help of the government)


if not.....why should we be forced to buy their crap?

"Of course, what kind of art do they have in Hillsborough County, connect the dots and Etch-a-sketch drawings?"

Someone once asked me a question very similar to that about the place where I live. If only they knew the extremely talented artists, writers, photographers and scientists that live in these gorgeous mountains. Of course they are mainly here for a very good reason -- or so many of them have said -- and this is to get out of New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. We have the co-discoverer of the Hale-Bopp comet living just up the highway a bit from us. We have far above the normal ratio of cultural and intellectual people here -- many whose names you would recognize immediately. I'm sure we're not the only peaceful little village that these folks take refuge in.

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I didn't like Bush, but that doesn't mean I
have to love Obama.

We have the co-discoverer of the Hale-Bopp comet living just up the highway



wow ! we have the hale bopp cult leader copycat right here on this board....although his cult is global worming

I have no idea who or what the Hale-Bopp cult leader is, and it doesn't sound like something I really want to know.

**********
I didn't like Bush, but that doesn't mean I
have to love Obama.

Someone once asked me a question very similar to that about the place where I live.

I realize that, barb, I was being flip.  And, it is a valid point that we need to pinch some pennies right now.  Especially seeing that it costs $20 to get into a museum these days.  And the free wine parties they have for their members are a bit mush and have NOTHING to do with the art.  So these should not be supported with my taxes.

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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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If people just knew how wonderful it is to stroll through our beautiful parks and view the gorgeous art by our local artists, I'd have to move from here.  It would be waaaayyyyy too crowded for me.  Shhhhh.  We're supposedly the "best kept secret in New Mexico."

BTW:  Roby, you were not the one that made the comment to me.  It was another poster that said a few years back.

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I didn't like Bush, but that doesn't mean I
have to love Obama.

Gillis: And if two lawmakers from Hillsborough County have their way, state-funded public art could be outlawed until the economy recovers.

Subject title: horray...lawmakers push to end public funding of art 

 Gillis, I think you misread the article.  There is a different between pushing to end public funding of art and the statement outlawing it until the economy recovers.

And while I am on the subject, I need to mention that the arts were always supported by something other than the general public.  Any course on the history of any of the arts would inform one that the arts had either patrons--like the Catholic church or members of royalty or weathly patrons or government.  The very great artists--music, sculpture, paintings, did not make it from the support of every day people.  

 

 

 

"The very great artists--music, sculpture, paintings, did not make it from the support of every day people."

Much of the time the very great artists, etc. do not make "it" until they're dead. I heartily support the arts but I can see the need to direct the monies elsewhere until this crisis passes.

**********
I didn't like Bush, but that doesn't mean I
have to love Obama.

I take all my out of town friends on a tour of our sculpture, I call it the "bad sculpture tour" They all assert that they have worse sculpture in their home towns.

I wonder if some public art isn't justified as a "tourist attraction" and thus a public benefit? Other than that, the "art" on a college campus is part of the educational process, it can be publicly funded (although I admit that the first piece on my alma mater's grounds was a very bad neo-realistic piece that our theater group made great fun of. The latest piece looked like parts for the wind farm up on the range before it was assembled, now it looks like it could be a carney ride. The one thing it does not closely resemble is "wild ricing moon" but perhaps they got casino money to install it so they gave it an indigenous name.

So put me down 50% public money for public art and 50% no public money to support various local artists and art institutes, let them sell their work or find a patron. NB I wrote a long scalding poem accusing a local big name poet of publishing his volume Belize Poems, solely to make his vacation tax deductable. So I am not a member in good standing of any "arts community"

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. - Carl Sagan

I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation; every possession, a duty. - John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

If people just knew how wonderful it is to stroll through our beautiful parks and view the gorgeous art by our local artists, I'd have to move from here.  It would be waaaayyyyy too crowded for me.  Shhhhh.  We're supposedly the "best kept secret in New Mexico."

   Art was my college major.  I didn't have to carry so many books.  I can no more tolerate the stuffed shirts, pompous asses, and ignorant posuers that infest that culture than I can those that infest any other.  The more educated one is in any field, the easier they are to spot.  BTW:  The "collectible" firearms field is rife with them.  pffttt...

gus.

 

 

"I can no more tolerate the stuffed shirts, pompous asses, and ignorant posuers that infest that culture"

How about the ones wearing cut-offs, scraggly beards and sandals and haven't had a haircut in three or four months? Usually have a dog by their side and the good sense to sit down and shut up until someone asks a question? That pretty much describes our "artists".

**********
I didn't like Bush, but that doesn't mean I
have to love Obama.

"I can no more tolerate the stuffed shirts, pompous asses, and ignorant posuers that infest that culture"

How about the ones wearing cut-offs, scraggly beards and sandals and haven't had a haircut in three or four months? Usually have a dog by their side and the good sense to sit down and shut up until someone asks a question? That pretty much describes our "artists".

   A great number of what I describe above were my college professors.  As in anything else, the proof is in the evidence.  So many "artists" in any field adopt all the trappings to the nth degree, learn the jargon like a second language,  attend all the right events, and do everything *but* actually produce quality work.  Because *that* is where the blood, sweat, and tears are found, *that* is where the Muse torments the soul.  Few are willing to endure it all, and fewer still find that they have no choice.

  IMO, the visual arts leave much more to chance, and the attendant BS than the musical arts do.  Yes, there are "fundamentals", who's mastery, or lack thereof, can seperate wheat from chaffe, but not so much as a sour note sent out to the collective ears of a few thousand people.  Ultimately, however, the purpose of all art is to inspire, and to move.  That can often reveal more about the viewer/listener, that the art itself.

gus.

 

 

....this would be a very DULL society.....like most neoCONs already are.

 

Without art....
April 15 2009, 10:16 PM

....this would be a very DULL society.....like most neoCONs already are.


im not against art...i am against robbing people to pay for it.....let it be voluntary patronage

Of course, the Medicis were the "government of the day"...  gillis knows fuck all about anything important.

Jim.

So, was Michelangelo "worthy" of government support?  The Sistine Chapel? 

You are one dumb fuckhead.. 

 

http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/renaissance/michelangelo.html

is michaelangelo's art worth?


how many died in the collection of the money that paid for his beautiful work?



read history

.

it is immoral to force others to buy art with money that you forcibly took from them

Without art....

April 15 2009, 10:16 PM

....this would be a very DULL society.....like most neoCONs already are.

Well, we are talking about Coors swilling, pork rind chomping trailer trash repiglicans, right?  What can we expect?  Their idea of art is playing the spoons, mud wrestling and spitting contests.  LOL!

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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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You like art?....buy it with your money
April 18 2009, 7:49 AM

it is immoral to force others to buy art with money that you forcibly took from them

it is immoral to force others to buy art with money that you forcibly took from them

It is also immoral to torture unarmed and shackled men women and children suspected of terrorism and/or those known to be terrorists, yet you support that.

Torture is not a family value.

It is also immoral to torture unarmed and shackled men women and children



unarmed


or disarmed
there is a difference


and when have i ever advocated torturing children?

It is also immoral to torture unarmed and shackled men women and children



since you used the word also in your response.....that indicates that you agree that it is immoral to force people to buy art through taxation as the original post stated.

thank you
that part of your response is correct

gillis: And if two lawmakers from Hillsborough County have their way, state-funded public art could be outlawed until the economy recovers.

The two quoted in the article you posted don't believe that.  They just don't want support until the economy is in better. Did you miss that? 

You like art?....buy it with your money

Fuck you, art is much better on your dime, sweetie.  BTW, I do pay my own way for theatre, museums and artwork.  What the hell are you talking about?  You know nothing about how I spend my money, money I rightfully get and deserve.  So go eat shit and die.

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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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spoken like a true liberal.....no one does it better....

You still know nothing about me or what I spend my considerable disposable income on.  Remember, we are a DINKNM family, Double Income, No Kids, No Morgage.  Spoken like a jealous repiglican with too many kids and too big a mortgage and credit card debt.  Poor dear.  I just love being me. 

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"We are all equal, but we definitely are not the same"
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it is immoral to force others to buy art with money that you forcibly took from them

Who is FORCING you to "buy" art, gilligan?   YOU don't get to enumerate where each of your tax dollars goes, y'know, since NO ONE does.  If that were possible, ALL of my dollars would go to education and ART....and NONE to war.

 

Who is FORCING you to "buy" art, gilligan?   YOU don't get to enumerate where each of your tax dollars goes, y'know, since NO ONE does.  If that were possible, ALL of my dollars would go to education and ART....and NONE to war.

  LOL!  By way of being incredibly dense, your screwed around there and almost sounded conservative!  Did you attend the local tea party? *chortle*

gus.

 

Seems to me we need to support artists now more than ever.

"Artist" does not include people who put images of Christ in urine bottles.

*****
You can borrow from the Devil
You can borrow from a friend
But the Devil will give you twenty
When your friend only got ten
- Ramblin Jack Elliot

...that gus is STILL obsessed with me.   *chortle* 

 

 

"...that gus is STILL obsessed with me..."

Puh-leeze. You give yourself way too much credit, old girl.

It's more like keeping an eye on a rabid racoon.

*****
You can borrow from the Devil
You can borrow from a friend
But the Devil will give you twenty
When your friend only got ten
- Ramblin Jack Elliot

Pay her no mind; she thinks almost everybody is obsessed with her.

Reminds me of my husband's ex-wife, only she thought every man she came in contact with was in love with her. I wonder if she's still thinks that as approaches 80 LOL.

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If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?