Friday, November 10, 2006
Arts and the Political Environment Redux
Sometime back I posted my thoughts on pushing an arts agenda in our current political environment. Things have changed somewhat in the last few days. In some ways for the better, and some ways for the worse.
First off many of the Republicans who have been ousted were moderates. Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island is more liberal than many Democrats and I have mixed feelings seeing him go. He is pro-choice and pro gay rights. In fact, Chafee has indicated that he may not stay with the Grand Old Party. This means, in many cases, that the Republican side of the equation is even more conservative than ever. However, many highly moderate Dems have been elected--ones that show quite conservative bents.
I think, in balance, we will probably see a shift towards the centre but there will be an extremely determined GOP force starting the effort to keep the White House and gain control of the two chambers.
This probably means that very little will get done in the next two years. While Bush has pledged to work in a bi-partisan way, his actions today to push unpopular agendas forward with the lame duck houses prior to the Dems taking control in January belie his true colours.
I predict a modest increase in funding to the NEA and NEH. Nothing so great as to cause ripples. I also predict that we will see modest tax increases as an attempt is made to balance a horribly out of balance budget.
The Arts community has to find ways to increase its perceived numbers. The only way to effectively do this is gain relevance with young citizens. So, again I stress how important it is for the industry to get with the program and make use of Web 2.0 tools that make sense to this segment of participants. They DO participate, just not in traditional "going to the opera, theatre, museum" activities. The industry won't convert them to being traditional participants so the industry will have to adapt to include Web based videography, photography, and literature.
Actually, the concept of literature is interesting in itself. Everythingcasting has made a huge number of writers accessable. In the past, the closest folks might get would be publishing via a vanity press with no hope for distribution. Everythingcasting has changed this. With a bit of smarts almost anyone can have a dedicated and not insignificant group of readers.
Web 2.0 has also had a significant effect on affecting voter turn out utilizing systems such as MoveOn, Facebook, My Space, and so forth.
Keep your socks on, we're only scratching the surface so far. I am personally very excited and feeling optimistic about what will continue to come in our direction.
First off many of the Republicans who have been ousted were moderates. Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island is more liberal than many Democrats and I have mixed feelings seeing him go. He is pro-choice and pro gay rights. In fact, Chafee has indicated that he may not stay with the Grand Old Party. This means, in many cases, that the Republican side of the equation is even more conservative than ever. However, many highly moderate Dems have been elected--ones that show quite conservative bents.
I think, in balance, we will probably see a shift towards the centre but there will be an extremely determined GOP force starting the effort to keep the White House and gain control of the two chambers.
This probably means that very little will get done in the next two years. While Bush has pledged to work in a bi-partisan way, his actions today to push unpopular agendas forward with the lame duck houses prior to the Dems taking control in January belie his true colours.
I predict a modest increase in funding to the NEA and NEH. Nothing so great as to cause ripples. I also predict that we will see modest tax increases as an attempt is made to balance a horribly out of balance budget.
The Arts community has to find ways to increase its perceived numbers. The only way to effectively do this is gain relevance with young citizens. So, again I stress how important it is for the industry to get with the program and make use of Web 2.0 tools that make sense to this segment of participants. They DO participate, just not in traditional "going to the opera, theatre, museum" activities. The industry won't convert them to being traditional participants so the industry will have to adapt to include Web based videography, photography, and literature.
Actually, the concept of literature is interesting in itself. Everythingcasting has made a huge number of writers accessable. In the past, the closest folks might get would be publishing via a vanity press with no hope for distribution. Everythingcasting has changed this. With a bit of smarts almost anyone can have a dedicated and not insignificant group of readers.
Web 2.0 has also had a significant effect on affecting voter turn out utilizing systems such as MoveOn, Facebook, My Space, and so forth.
Keep your socks on, we're only scratching the surface so far. I am personally very excited and feeling optimistic about what will continue to come in our direction.
