[Dixielandjazz] National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award

[Jim and Darcy Rourk]

could someone ask the Koch Bros to pick up the slack here?

-----Original Message----- 
From: Stephen G Barbone
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 7:40 AM
To: Dr. Jim Rourk
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award

Hmmmm. By all means cut the funding for Jazz Recognition. After all it
is arguably THE only uniquely American (invented here) art form.
Note especially the last paragraph. I vote for increasing demand.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


>From the NPR music site, entitled  A BLOG SUPREME.

President Obama's 2012 budget proposal, delivered to Congress on
Monday, proposes to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts'
Jazz Masters award. The change is one part of a significant budget
reduction for the NEA at large.

The NEA Jazz Masters honor, given for lifetime achievement in jazz
artistry or advocacy, has been bestowed on 119 artists and groups
since 1982, all living at the time of their award. It currently comes
with a $25,000 grant, plus opportunities to participate in educational
programs across the country. Similar honors for opera and folk music
will also be eliminated.

NPR Music, with WBGO and XM Satellite Radio, recorded and webcast the
previous two NEA Jazz Masters ceremonies, in January of this year and
last.

Somewhat in its place, the NEA American Artists of the Year honor will
be introduced. Awards will be made available to participants in a wide
array of performing and visual arts. The NEA's appropriations request
(opens PDF) also specifies that both "individuals who have devoted a
lifetime" and "extraordinary" artists in "mid-career" will be eligible.

The appropriations request did not specify the number of American
Artists of the Year to be recognized, or the monetary award they will
receive. It did state the new honorific would be "a less expensive
effort" than the multiple celebrations it replaces.

The restructuring of the award comes alongside an over 12 percent
slash in the proposed budget for the National Endowment for the Arts,
compared to the 2011 fiscal year. The NEA's proposed budget for 2012
is $146,255,000, an amount $21,245,000 less than the 2010 and 2011
budgets. Budget cuts were also announced for the National Endowment
for the Humanities, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the
National Gallery of Art, among other federal arts and humanities
institutions.

The budgetary news comes on the heels of a heated discussion in the
arts administration community after NEA chairman Rocco Landesman
asserted, during a theater conference, that the U.S. had too many arts
organizations compared to the size of its audiences. "You can either
increase demand or decrease supply," he said. "Demand is not going to
increase, so it is time to think about decreasing supply." He later
expanded on his thoughts online.
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