Sample Testimony for Governmental Hearings

Sample Testimony for Governmental Hearings Source: Urban Affairs Committee Hearing on the Economic Impact of the Arts on PA Cities (May 15, 2008). Compiled: July 29, 2010 810 Penn Avenue, Suite 200 Pittsburgh PA 15222 Ph: 412.391.2060 PittsburghArtsCouncil.org [email protected] Public Hearing: Economic Benefits of the Arts on Pennsylvania Cities Pennsylvania House of Representatives Urban Affairs Committee Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:00am – 12:30pm Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Mitch Swain, CEO Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Written Testimony The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (Arts Council) is pleased to testify before the House Urban Affairs Committee at today’s Public Hearing: Economic Benefits of the Arts on Pennsylvania Cities. Chairman Petrone, thank you for the invitation to share our thoughts and experiences with you and the committee. As CEO of the Arts Council, I stand before you on behalf of our 170 member organizations and individual artists. I hope to paint you a picture of the arts and cultural community’s crucial role in the economic development and sustainability of our region. Background Information – Arts Council The Arts Council is the result of the successful merger of ProArts and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Alliance in May of 2005, which integrated a service/support organization with an advocacy organization allowing the new Arts Council to more fully contribute to the growth and health of Pittsburgh’s dynamic arts community. Our mission is to make the arts central to the lives of individuals by expanding the reach, influence and effectiveness of the region’s diverse cultural community. We will accomplish our mission through programs, services, advocacy, facilitating connections and promoting self-sufficiency and artistic endeavors. The Arts Council promotes the growth and quality of a diverse group of arts organizations, small to large, as well as independent artists, by providing services and programs that help them: • Strengthen management and professional development capacity through an array of educational offerings; • Gain access to technical assistance and legal services that they would otherwise be unable to afford; • Increase organizational capacity to successfully fulfill artistic missions and reach growing and engaged audiences; • Devote more energy and financial resources to their creative work through participation in low-cost, aggregated services like ProArtsTickets; and • Receive funding through re-granting partnerships with foundations and government agencies. The Arts Council is the single organization in the region positioned to contribute to efforts that advance the arts sector as a whole. It develops new resources, data and expertise, which are shared with the arts community. Specific areas include: • Program Services: o Professional Development for Arts Managers and Independent Artists: Best Practices in Arts Management workshops, BusinessSkills For Artists (BFA) workshops, Arts & Business Forums, Small Group Clinics, Brown-bag Lunch Discussions o Pro Bono Management and Legal Consulting: Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Business Volunteers for the Arts®, staff technical assistance o Grant Programs: Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts grants, Artist Opportunity Grants, Alcoa Foundation Leadership Development Grants for Arts Managers o Web Sites / Information Resources: Ticket sales (www.proartstickets.org), the Arts Council website (www.pittsburghartscouncil.org), arts-related job bank (www.artsworks.org), the Office of Public Art (www.publicartpittsburgh.org), the Pittsburgh Artist Registry (www.pittsburghartistregistry.org), Update newsletter, and Arts Pittsburgh Events weekly e-mail • Ticketing and Marketing Services: ProArtsTickets is a centralized “box office” that provides subscription and ticket sales, data management, cross-promotion marketing capabilities and other services to more than forty small and mid-sized organizations. • Cultural Policy and Research: As a clearinghouse for information, the Arts Council is dedicated to participating in research initiatives that benefit the region’s arts and cultural community, and providing access to the most up-to-date, relevant information to help members of this community make the “case for the arts” for funding and development. Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Grant Program I would like to highlight one our grant programs, the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PA Partners). PA Partners is a re-granting program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), which is administered locally by the Arts Council to arts groups in Allegheny County. Its goal is to make arts programs available to every Commonwealth resident, with a focus on previously underserved communities and regions in Pennsylvania. In 2007, the Arts Council awarded $283,931 in support of 81 grants. The PCA's goals for PA Partners are to: • Expand access to the arts by (a) making programs available to communities that may have been underserved in the past by state arts funding, and (b) supporting a wide variety of arts activities in the community that have been developed in a variety of local settings. • Encourage local decision-making in re-granting of state arts dollars • Increase awareness of and advocacy for government support and funding of the arts at the local and state levels. • Enable the PCA to provide increased assistance to its broad constituency throughout the state. In addition, the Arts Council's priorities for re-granting PA Partners funds are to: • Provide new opportunities for the work of emerging arts organizations and individual artists to be seen and appreciated by county residents. • Foster quality arts projects that take place in community settings. • Provide increased opportunities for underserved populations in the county - especially senior citizens and persons of color - to participate in and benefit from the arts both as artists and as audience members. Robert Gorczyca, a local artist and 2007 grantee, received a PA Partners grant to stage his project, And the Tree Grows Strong, on October 28, 2007, at Pittsburgh's High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. In this cross-generational, cross-cultural project, Mr. Gorczyca, a tall white man in his 70s, produced a play that began as an oral history for the University of Pittsburgh’s Labor Archives. The stories in the play were based on and inspired by members of a support group that met regularly at the downtown Pittsburgh Salvation Army for African American grandmothers—of widely different ages—who were raising their grandchildren. The play received excellent pre-production coverage in print media and radio, and attracted a near-capacity audience of 350. The audience was roughly two-thirds African-American, socio- economically diverse, and mixed in age. The show was an undisputed artistic success. PCA funding contributes to the success of many projects like Mr. Gorczyca’s, and provides a reliable source of support for the operation of arts organizations. In the past five years, the PCA has seen an increase of 205 organizations applying for ongoing support. FY 2002- FY 2007- % 1 2003 2008 Change Change Combined Fiscal Size of Organizations $366,240,152 $581,030,401 $214,790,249 58.6% PCA Budget $13,734,000 $15,225,000 $1,491,000 10.9% Number of Organizations 405 610 205 51% The PCA should be commended for its highly successful efforts to make state support more readily available. However, their success has led to the diminishment of support to organizations already supported by the PCA to make room for the new grantees. The Arts Council was pleased to see that Governor Rendell proposed an increase of $500,000 to the PCA FY09 budget. We would like to see that number increase to $2 million. Over the past few months, we sent letters to local and state representatives encouraging them to write to the governor in support of this increase. Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll, Senator Jay Costa, City Council President Douglas Shields and City Councilman William Peduto were among the many elected officials who wrote letters on the arts community’s behalf. Local arts organizations who contributed to this effort included: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Support like this is crucial to the long-term success of our arts and cultural industry. We urge the members of this committee to use their influence to help the PCA continue to support the efforts of all organizations, new and long-standing, to serve the people of Pennsylvania, and to support active and robust communities. The governor’s investment in the PCA will help ensure Pennsylvania’s prosperous economic future. 1 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Portrait of a Thriving City Next, I would like to turn your attention to the array of cultural entities that contribute to our region’s economic vitality. Pittsburgh’s Cultural District The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (Trust), an arts agency and a real estate/economic development energy source, was created in 1984. Its formation put Pittsburgh one step closer to the late Jack Heinz’ vision of a cultural district. The Trust’s mission is “to stimulate the economic and cultural development of Pittsburgh through the development and promotion of a downtown arts and entertainment district. The Trust encourages and presents diverse performing and visual arts programs in the Cultural District.”2 To achieve its mission, the Trust: • Brings

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