By this time I would expect anyone who doesn’t live in what is the Last Bastion of Civilized Man in America – AKA the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul – to be utterly tired of my relentless promotion of this area. Those who are indeed tired might want to skip over this post.
I’m a conductor. Because I’m a conductor I’m supposed to live in The Big City, wherever that is, but I much prefer living in the Twinks. When asked to describe life here one of my standard lines is “you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting another small Liberal Arts college.” There is a very strong Arts community here which encompasses 2 major orchestras, opera, dance, more theater companies per capita than any city besides Seattle, etc., etc. I don’t claim that it’s easy to make a living as an artist anywhere in the USofA these days, but there are opportunities here that simply aren’t available anywhere else.
None-the-less, there’s that little problem of money. The Twinks have more Fortune 500 companies per capita than any other area in the country, and if you couple that with the Scandahovian ethic that dominates the social structure then you have a place well suited for Arts funding. Unfortunately, you are also living in George W. Bush’s America (not for long, thank all the Gods), and if the problems at the Pasadena Symphony are indicative of what is happening to the funding stream then even the Arts groups here must be very nervous.
But there is good news. The voters of Minnesota approved a constitutional amendment that will raise the sales tax and provide money for the Arts. Instead of putting this idea out on its lonesome it was rather cleverly bundled up with money for the environment. If there’s anything the Scandahovians like more than their Lutefisk (if you don’t know then don’t ask) it’s shlepping up to the lake cabin on da weekends fer some fishin’ dontcha know. Ya you betcha gotta get me some Walleye!!! Said fishing can either be on open water or, even better, on ice! The amendment was sold to the electorate with the whole outdoors element in the forefront, with some funding for the Arts that spills over.
Smart move and great timing. With Obama on the top of the ticket all the leftists were out in force, and what true liberal can resist raising taxes to fund the environment and the arts? What I am most curious about is how the funding will trickle down (ugh…. hopefully that’s the last we will hear about that ridiculous economic model) to the various Arts groups. If the State of Minnesota is smart then the vast majority of the money raised by this new tax will go to Arts groups that have budgets of, say, less that $250,000 a year. Nothing against my friends at the Minnesota Orchestra, but they’ve got a whole wing of people dedicated to drumming up cash. It’s the smaller organizations, the Arts “middle class” if you would, that needs the support. Just as the “trickle down” economic theory has now finally been completely discredited, the “trickle down” arts theory should go by the wayside as well. We should nurture smaller organizations that will provide a lot of art bang for the art buck. If you nurture this foundation then money and attendance will trickle up to organizations like the Minnesota Orchestra.
If we follow this economic model in the Arts then it will be for the benefit of all artists here in Minnesota. That is the goal, isn’t it?