Jason Allen // Democrat // Utah House District 11

  • How have the arts, culture, and/or humanities impacted your life?
    • I have been playing music since I began taking piano lessons in 1st Grade. In high school, I was obsessed with music, so I taught myself to play guitar, bass, and drums so that I could play in a band. In 2009, I opened an all-ages music venue in Ogden to provide a safe, clean place for high school and college aged youth to experience live music. My hope was that I could provide an opportunity to spread my love of music to the youth of Utah, and perhaps inspire them to pursue their own path in the arts. In addition to music, I have also been inspired and encouraged by the words of literary greats like Whitman, Thoreau, Salinger, and Hemingway. Those that know me will tell you that own of my greatest joys is in telling stories, and I learned by reading the words of the greatest storytellers in the world--the authors and poets that have shared their craft with us mere mortals.
  • Utah's humanities and arts employ 123,000 Utahns, provide $4.4 billion in earnings, and $13.2 billion in sales. This is a larger economic impact than agriculture, mining, and real estate. Do you consider the arts and cultural sector an economic driver in Utah?
    • Yes
  • Fiscally responsible government investment in the arts and humanities (including humanities and arts education) means to me:
    • Hope to help us through the hard times, and inspiration for future generations to realize the impact that they can have on the world.
  • I support the following legislative items:
    • Grants to be used for operations (jobs) as soon as possible
    • Keeping emergency loans open to nonprofits
    • Protecting the RAP taxes so that money granted to cultural organizations doesn't get repurposed
    • Increasing availability of loans to cultural businesses (non-profit and for-profit)
    • Fiscally responsible government investment in arts and humanities organizations.
    • Development of cultural districts
    • Facilitating partnerships between tourism and culture.
    • Reducing regulations of creative businesses.
    • Capital investment (in museums, performance/concert halls, studios, galleries, nonprofit office space, etc.).
    • Percent for public art programs, which optionally designate 1% of government capital costs for public art
    • Allowing municipalities to set design standards
    • K-6 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
    • 7-12 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
    • I support the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program which puts one arts specialist in most elementary schools
    • I support the POPS (Professional Outreach Program in the Schools) which sends 13 professional arts organizations to all UT school districts
    • I support the iSEE (Informal Science Educational Enhancement) which sends 10 professional science, zoological, and natural history organizations to all UT school districts
  • Anything else we should know about you?
    • No answer given