The Oakland City Council was meeting last night to discuss Mayor Ron Dellums city budget (see comments) which included some drastic cuts in art funding due to a $42Mil mid-year deficit. Hundreds of artists showed up to express their opposition to cutting city arts funding. I think over 100 art folks spoke. As far as I could tell before leaving is that Oakland arts funding should be more secure. The turnout was inspirational.
I am glad so many artist showed up. I am afraid the lack of funding will be effecting many of us.
Terri
creativesouls.wordpress.com
Creativity Coach for Artists, Writers, and Creative People
Theo Auer emailed me….
“Actually Mayor Dellums and councilmember Nancy Nadel’s budget had no cuts to the cultural art programs effected. The budget put forward by council President Ignacio De La Fuente and councilmember Jean Quan was the one that had arty folks concerned, pissed and/or worried. Dellums helped put together a compromise which is laudable. He deserves much of the credit for this.”
So that’s the skinny.
I just hope they didn’t cut the fire department to save a couple art programs.
Luckily Police and Fire remain top priorities in Oakland which is fine by me. There were a number of arts speakers who had a “less cops, more art” view which is fine as part of a long term plan. But crime in Oakland is still a big problem and art education is not going to stop this generation of criminals. If they’d been robbed, or needed police services in Oakland at any point, they’d understand.
The article I did on the meeting is up now at The Oakbook Dot Com. It provides a solid overview of what transpired that evening as well as place for future dialogue.
http://www.theoakbook.com/MoreDetail.aspx?Aid=2630&CatId=8