3 cents? 3 CENTS?!

Posted November 30th, 2006 by Michelle

I’m having this weird sensation lately, like I can’t figure out if I *actually* care what is going on, or if I’m just *acting* like I care what is going on. I don’t know how much it would change my work, between the two, and maybe it’s a combination of both at most times. Right now there is a political battle in my county, and I’m in the middle of it- both me as a figure as well as my organization- and this county is so back-assward when it comes to arts that I almost have to NOT care if I’m going to get through it. Every time I have to speak to politicos, or funders, or anyone else who has an axe to grind or a claim to stake, I have to sort of distance myself or I’ll feel as though I’m the grinder or the ground.

I can’t believe, I honestly can’t believe, that there is no public funding for the arts in my county. I can’t believe, sometimes, that I eek out a living in a sector that is wholly unsupported by any governmental infrastructure. And I’m trying to do it in a state that is an embarrassment of riches and a stupefying posity of support for that which makes life richer, stronger, better. California, the fifth largest economy in the world, spends 3 cents per person on the arts. France, the sixth largest economy spends $56 per person. California is LAST IN THE NATION when it comes to arts spending. How can this not be, at the very least, terribly embarassing?

And here’s the thing: I’m about ready to give up the fight. Not tomorrow, not next month, but of all the battles in the world that I want to fight, do I want to sweat bullets because I have to go alone to a governmental meeting next Tuesday where I’ll be surrounded by haters, to lobby for a measley portion of public funds for the arts? I certainly have plenty of conviction when it comes to this particular battle, and I’m ready to rally the troops and raise the defenses but if this one fails… well. I don’t really believe it will, but I’m staring up a long, slick mountain- hardly any crags to hold onto when I’m trying to climb- and I once again am questioning the worth of the trip.

Enough metaphor. It’s just that I wonder how many people actually care if the arts sector is strong in this county. If only I knew that I was fighting for this because many, many people care deeply about it, I’d have more juice left. I just don’t know. In a way, I fight it for the kids who don’t know what they are missing when they don’t have arts in their schools. I’m fighting for the 47% of the population that have something like 1% representation at the governmental level and no real representation of their own cultural heritage in this town. And I’m fighting because if I didn’t put pencil to paper and bow to string and tap shoes to wood when I was a kid, I don’t know what the hell I’d be doing with my life.

Still, though, christ, people, get with the program. This stuff MATTERS. It’s not fluff, it’s not excess, it is priority.

*yeesh*