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Film Tax Credits
In a SAANBox update, the Louisiana state legislature placed a long-term spending cap of $180 million upon its statewide tax credit program for film and television productions. The program will retain its spending cap of $180 million, which was established back in June 2015, until 2025; its previous budget was $271 million annually. The state's film tax credits have long been debated—critics believe the program to be wasteful spending as the state budget continues to face deficits, while supporters say the film credits result in jobs and earned revenue. In addition, the state economic development department can now only issue $150 million of those credits annually, in order to begin paying off the program's backlog of $280 million in unpaid credits. Unless new legislation is introduced, the program will sunset on July 1, 2025.
Public Art
§ As well as recommending to increase the Massachusetts Cultural Council's (MCC) budget by $2.5 million for a total budget of $16.5 million, the Massachusetts Senate also adopted State Senator Eric Lesser's amendment to establish the Massachusetts Public Art Program, which will be a statewide program dedicated to the creation of public art on Commonwealth-owned properties. The Massachusetts House and Senate will now set up a Conference Committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate budgets and will also decide whether to include the Massachusetts Public Art Program in the final version of the budget that will be sent to Governor Charlie Baker's desk for his approval.
§ Local artists are suing the City of Atlanta; their claim is that Atlanta's local policy makes it unnecessarily challenging to paint murals on private property. The group of artists, along with property owners, they have filed a federal lawsuit to try and stop the city from regulating murals on private property. The lawsuit is a result of new city regulations that will require potential murals to be permitted through five different agencies, with no limitation as to how long such reviews can take. In addition, if existing murals are not brought into compliance with the new rules by June 9, city officials have reportedly threatened fines, jail time, or even removal of the murals. Stay tuned for future SAANBox updates.
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SAANBox Recommended Reads
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§ State Arts Action Network Council Past President and 2017 Michael Newton awardee Guillermina Gonzalez (Executive Director, Delaware Arts Alliance) published an op-ed in The DelawareOnline's "The national endowment for the arts is vital to our community". In the op-ed, she promotes the value of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), its impact on Delaware statewide, and why other sectors have a stake in the future of the NEA.
§ Americans for the Arts Sr. Director of State and Local Government Affairs Jay Dick reports on the National League of City's (NLC) 2017 State of the Cities report in his blog post "What Keeps Your Mayor Up at Night: Your Mayor's Priorities Explained". NLC's findings reveal the issues weighing most heavily on our nation's mayors. At the top slot of the mayoral issues list is economic development, with the arts and culture cited as a sub-topic under economic development. NLC has been a longtime public sector partner with Americans for the Arts since 2007. To read the full report, please click here.
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Bulletin Board
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§ The SAAN Summer 2017 meeting events will take place on June 15-16, 2017 in San Francisco, CA. If you will be in attendance and did not fill out the SAAN registration form, please contact Lizzie Dorman ([email protected]) as soon as possible.
- The SAAN Summer 2017 meeting will take place on Thursday, June 15 from 1:00 to 6:00 pm PST in San Francisco at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square (333 O'Farrell St, San Francisco, CA 94102)—prior to the start of Americans for the Arts' 2017 Annual Convention.
- Following the SAAN meeting on June 15, SAAN members are invited to attend the Preconference Party reception and to get together for a group SAAN dinner after the reception.
- In addition to the SAAN members-only meeting, there will be a joint meeting for both SAAN and State Arts Agencies on Friday, June 16 from 9:00-11:00 am PST, also at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square.
§ Americans for the Arts is pleased to announce the BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America honorees for 2017.
Presented every year by the Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), a division of Americans for the Arts, the BCA 10 awards honor 10 U.S. companies for their exceptional commitment to the arts through grants, local partnerships, volunteer programs, matching gifts, sponsorships, and board membership.
The BCA 10 Awards will be presented by Americans for the Arts on October 11, 2017, at a black-tie gala at the Central Park Boathouse in New York City. The 2017 honorees are:
Companies
1) 21c Museum Hotels (Louisville, KY)
2) Cardinal Health (Dublin, OH)
3) Guitar Center (Westlake Village, CA)
4) Halekulani (Honolulu, HI)
5) Houston Methodist (Houston, TX)
6) Humana Inc. (Louisville, KY)
7) Kaiser Permanente Colorado (Denver, CO)
8) Lincoln Financial Group (Radnor, PA)
9) Magic Hat Brewing Company (South Burlington, VT)
10) The Betsy Hotel (Miami Beach, FL)
BCA BCA Leadership Award
Raymond J. McGuire
Global Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
Citi
(New York, NY)
BCA pARTnership AWARD
UNIQLO and The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY)
"We are grateful to honor these businesses and individuals for their exceptional involvement in ensuring that the arts thrive in their communities," said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. "They provide the arts with significant financial and in-kind support, and they incorporate meaningful arts-related programs into their employee, customer, and community relations activities–truly setting a standard for other businesses to follow."
For information regarding BCA 10, please contact Jessica Gaines, Business Committee for the Arts Coordinator, at 202-371-2830 or [email protected].
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Tech Talk
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Arts U Learning Opportunities
§ Virtual Conversations: #ArtsEdChat - Museum Education
Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 8:00 pm Eastern
Museums are spaces of learning for children during and after school. What are the best ways to enhance their learning in the arts and beyond? How do we enact policies of equity to reach every student and those most in need? How do the arts enhance education in an increasingly diverse educational community? As an arts education supporter, connect with experts in this field, learn the language of the work, and identify new ideas to inform your path forward.
The #ArtsEdChat on Museum Education provides a forum for introductory learning about this long-standing trend.
Use #MuseumEd and #ArtsEdchat to follow the conversation.Participants will be connected to experts in the field of arts, education and public policy to inform their practice or exploration of the field or work in their community.
§ Member Briefing: Arts, Immigration, and Sanctuary Cities
Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 3:00 pm Eastern
Americans for the Arts stands in opposition to policies that limit the free exchange of art, artists, and ideas based on nationality, faith, race, age or ability—and deplores the discriminatory nature of [President Trump's] travel ban.
Arguing for the impact, value, and relevance of the arts is a constant effort. We are here to support you as you make your case.
Join us for this members only 30 minute call to discuss our Statement on Immigration directly with Americans for the Arts staff. They will discuss the latest updates, implications for arts, and what you can do.
Sign up, call-in, and join the discussion!
Please note, to join the call you must first access the platform on the right-hand column.
If you will be viewing the live event on your ipad or iphone you will need to download the MobileMeetings APP By E-STREAM.COM, Inc. and enter the meeting number: 185960 .
Upcoming Free Webinars from Congressional Management Foundation
Mark your calendar for "The Complete Citizen-Advocate's Toolkit", the first of a four-part series presented by Brad Fitch, President of the Congressional Management Foundation in partnership with VoterVoice's 2017 Advocacy Success webinar series. Space is limited so please register ASAP!
§ The Complete Citizen-Advocate's Toolkit
Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 2:00 pm Eastern
Many citizens (and some professionals) think the only way to influence public policy is through a grassroots email campaign. However, there are more than a dozen ways to connect with elected officials – both online and offline. This straight-forward presentation will walk participants through the Complete Citizen-Advocate's Toolkit: 15 tools available to every advocate.
§ How to Remedy "Advocacy Apathy"
Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 2:00 pm Eastern
Motivating advocates can be extremely challenging. Through the media, Internet, even Hollywood, citizens are bombarded with the message that their voices don't make a difference in our democracy. Moreover, some grassroots networks are just worn out – either because previous efforts have been unsuccessful or the legislative process grinds too slowly. This presentation will provide advocacy professionals tools and strategies for working with their grassroots advocates. It will offer CMF research to help organizations convince their supporters that their voices make a difference, and provide tools to turn citizen-slouches into citizen-SUPER-advocates!
§ The Influence Checklist: Assessing and Improving Your Advocacy Strategies
Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 2:00 pm Eastern
As online advocacy tools have grown, the diversity and sheer volume of options has created a challenge for grassroots organizers. Identifying which strategies fit an organization's needs, abilities, and culture becomes an annual puzzle. In this program, CMF will walk participants through an exercise to identify 23 tactics to build relationships between your supporters and lawmakers. The program includes a worksheet allowing participants to assess the individual organization's value and success level for each tactic in order to create a complete advocacy strategic plan.
§ How do your advocate messages move from back office to Member's office?
Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 2:00 pm Eastern
Be one of the first to hear CMF survey results from Legislative Correspondents about how their office handles your advocacy messages. Learn what it takes to get on the mail report and how advocacy organizations can make their communication campaigns more effective
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Call for Spotlight Submissions
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The SAANBox invites its readers to submit recommendations for future SAANBox Spotlight profiles!
We invite you to recommend an individual or program that does noteworthy work in arts and/or arts education advocacy at the state or local level to be highlighted in the SAANBox.
Please send all submissions to Lizzie Dorman at [email protected]. With your recommendations, please include a contact name and email address of the nominated individual and/or program for follow-up.
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