[Dixielandjazz] Grants for Arts>>Putting People To Work

[budtuba at aol.com]

Subject: Grants for Arts>>Putting People To Work











 Just a comment and a private beef.? I just got a news letter from our local Arts Council of Rochester and they were talking about reversing Gov. Patterson's (NY) plans to cut back on arts grants.? They talked at length about how these grants are providing what patrons want (performances, art shows, educational programs, etc), how many people are employed by the effects of grants, and the ancillary businesses that benefit (restaurants, hotels, etc.) they seem to neglect that the recipients of grants thereby get paid for their efforts and that THEY spend this money on the stuff of their lives, too.? If Obama, or Patterson, or any government official wants to stimulate the economy and put people to work, there probably is no better and fasterway than to provide an ARTS GRANT.



All of us should remind our local representatives of this reality and push for restoring and adding more Arts Grants to the government budgets.? People love the results...it gives them things to do and does not directly hit their own pockets.? Many forms of arts will not survive on instant popularity alone.? Much as a modernist painting takes time to appreciate, OKOM needs new exposure to young ears to regain the popularity it once had.? We often have young people enthusiastically ask about the music we play...as if we invented it.? We tell them where to go and find more.? They do come back..many of them..once they realize that they like it.





 





Roy (Bud) Taylor

Smugtown Stompers Jazz Band

Trad Jazz since 1958...we ain't just whistling dixie!