save indy arts, a blog/petition

the star has a story about the mayor's plan to eradicate arts funding, but it doesn't have much new info, mainly because the mayor isn't sharing many details of his new budget, other than his plans to do away with all of the city's arts funding and slash $2.3 million from our parks.

but the arts community isn't going to sit there quietly while the mayor eliminates what little funding it gets—funding which doesn't go to individual artists, but to arts programs for the commuity and particularly for much-needed children's programs. i just heard about a new blog-slash-petition dedicated to saving the city's arts funding: saveindyarts.wordpress.com. from the initial post:

City funding for the arts is largely symbolic; $1.5 million out of a $1.2 BILLION-dollar budget in 2008 (yep, that equals 1% for the arts). But it still is an important symbol of all that is important, or should be, to Indianapolis. The arts represent diversity. Education. Thoughfulness. Creativity. Enrichment. Dialogue and debate. The arts make us think. The arts make us laugh, cry and shout out in protest. Some, like the Arts Council of Indianapolis, can point to studies that link the arts with increased graduation rates and decreased crime.

Whatever your relationship is with the arts, now is the time to support it. Do you agree that the city should maintain arts funding at its current level as a demonstration to corporate and other civic leaders that the arts are not only an important part of Indianapolis' public personality but also contribute to educating and enriching the lives of our citizens, even the most vunerable ones?

This Web site is dedicated to collecting 1,000 supporting votes for maintaining public arts funding. Yep, that's roughly 1% of the Greater Indianapolis population - the same percentage as what the city provides to the arts. If 1% of Indy residents can speak up for the arts, perhaps the city leaders can allocate 1% of its funding for a different kind of public safety - the proactively safe, alternative to hanging out, educational arts and culture.

If you vote, I promise to send the responses to our City County Councilors and to Mayor Ballard. This site will be up until the August 11 budget hearings. Let's see how far we get.

to sign the petition, go here and leave a blog comment, using your full name. ¶