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

  • Candidate Name: Mattathias Greewood
  • Your Municipality: Orem
  • 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.
My parents emphasized the importance of arts and humanities by making regular family outings to art museums, concerts, plays, and other cultural events a key part of family time, and by filling the house with books on all sorts of subjects. I feel deeply blessed by my participation in arts and humanities and feel that they are the core of what draws communities together.

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.
Arts are a cornerstone of the community. They bring people together, help us think, help us find happiness and express who we are.

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.

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.
The economic impact of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival clearly demonstrates the economic value of the arts in Utah County, not to mention the benefit to quality of life and community well being.

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.
Orem has the CARE tax, which is for recreation and cultural arts in the City of Orem, and which has done a great deal of good for the community.

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. 
Again, the TSF is a powerful example of what can happen when a city and arts organization work together promoting tourism. Losing the Festival is a loss for the community economically and culturally, and I hope to work to find other ways to promote the city through the arts.

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.