Utah Cultural Advocacy Alliance Grade: A+ (100%)

  • Candidate Name: Robert Eberhard
  • Your Municipality: Clinton City
  • Elected office for which you are running: City Council at-large

Question 1: Should government be involved in funding the arts and humanities?
Yes

Question 2: Have you had a personal experience with arts, culture, or humanities that have had an impact on your life?
Yes

3b // Optional, explain your experience.
Like most kids, I was involved in band in high school. While I didn't pursue music beyond that, my eight years of playing an instrument provided me with an appreciation for arts, especially those that are publicly funded. It made me a better student to be involved with music, which has helped me in many aspects of my life.

Question 3: Do you support public funding for city and county arts councils who then re-grant that money to local arts and humanities organizations?
Yes

3b // Optional, explain why or why not.
Some artists simply don't have the resources to "do art" without assistance. Public funding of art and culture is a public good that increases all aspects of living in a city. People have more things to do that are generally positive for the citizens that care, and it also allows people to be involved beyond simply paying taxes.

Question 4: Do you support Percent for Art programs, which designate 1% of public building costs for public art that are included within that building? Currently, only 8 Utah municipalities have such a program.

Yes

4b // Optional, explain why or why not.
Any art project of scale works better if it is supported by the community, even if it is a temporary mural that is repainted yearly as a summer activity for the youth in a community. It's money that isn't really missed from a municipal budget and has a far more public impact than some other similar budget items of that size.

Question 5: Do you support having a Percent-for-Art program in your own municipality?
Yes

5b // Optional, explain why or why not.

Question 6: Do you consider the arts and cultural sector an economic driver in Utah?
Yes

6b // Optional, explain why or why not.

Question 7: 32 municipalities have a RAP (recreation, arts, and parks) type tax to help support cultural organizations in their communities. Would you support a RAP type tax such as this in your own municipality? If your municipality already has such a local option sales RAP-type sales tax and you support it, answer yes.
Yes

7b // Optional, explain your experience.

Question 8: Municipalities can facilitate partnerships between cultural organizations and the local tourism sector to boost the local economy. Do you support this? Optional, explain why or why not. 
Yes

8b // Optional, explain why or why not. 

Question 9: Municipal governments can create Cultural Districts - with or without tax incentives. Governments sometimes fund these via bed or tourism taxes within the Cultural District boundaries, but it can be done within municipal budgets fairly cheaply. Is this something you would support?
Yes

9b // Optional, explain why or why not.