Valice Raffi on thu 17 apr 03
A quick look at the NEA webpage tells me that:
cost was 40 CENTS per person per year
119,000 grants went to all 50 States, plus 6 U.S. jurisdictions (Virgin
Islands, Puerto Rico, etc.)
40% of the funding went to State & jurisdictional arts agencies and 6
regional arts organizations
funding included "Celebration of Spirit" - Oklahoma, and
Healing Power of Art" - Columbine
The California Arts Council, which receives some funding from the NEA,
funds Arts Education (among other things) throughout the State, both
directly, and through the local Arts Commissions. As most of the public
schools offer NO art, this is especially important.
I have received grants to teach from the CA Arts Council and the Sacramento
Metropolitan Arts Commission. I have taught in some of the poorest schools
in this city where the children have had no art experiences before. Most
of the programs have been geared to at-risk youth, to engage them in
learning so they remain in school. In one program, "Operation Graduation",
I worked with the same group of kids from 7th grade to the end of their
freshman year of high school. The dropout rate for these kids went down,
they stayed off drugs and out of gangs. Your tax dollars at work.
On a multi-residency grant from the Arts Council, I worked with kids at the
Youth Authority (jail for kids). I taught a variety of mediums, but the
one that touched their hearts the most was clay. My last program with them
(due to budget cuts) was an Empty Bowls project. I worked with over 150
boys over the course of the project. They came every week, maintained
their "points" for good behavior, counseling, etc., and made bowls. Bowls
that went to provide food for homeless teens in two different programs.
They made enough bowls that we were also able to donate some to several
other Empty Bowls Project events. They learned to give. Your tax dollars
at work.
Teaching these kids is far more than teaching art. They learned math, how
to use a ruler, geometry in loading the kiln, history, and of course, art
and art appreciation. The "Operation Graduation" class not only learned
those things, but learned how to negotiate space at school for an art show,
computer skills when they created the show announcements, posters, name
cards and a program for the art show. They learned how to research Show
ribbon businesses, compare prices, place an order, check the shipment, and
pay for it. Your tax dollars at work.
All of these kids learned social skills, new vocabulary, and skills to cope
with frustration when things didn't go right. Your tax dollars at work.
The NEA is NOT just piss and blood.
Valice
in Sacramento
and as to "willow weaving"... yes, the Ca Arts Council has also funded the
California Basket Weavers Association, dedicated to preserving the Native
American tradition of gathering, preparing and weaving willow branches into
baskets, a nearly lost art.
Elizabeth Priddy on thu 17 apr 03
The children don't have any concept of gettingsomething for free. They all know that their supplies were paid for to start and that through making and contributing pots to the program, they are creating their own opportunity for classes in the future. They will attend and serve at the function. They are learning that to get something, they have to work. Not that their parents pay for it and then prescious gets whatever they want. They also are learning community involvement and service work because their contribution is not only providing for themselves, but for the larger community of students as a whole. They arelearning to love one another through actions as well as speech. Children should not have to pay or beg for an education. We oweit to ourselves as a culture to let our children be children with only the responsibilities of children. I make adults pay. Children, no. I seriously doubt that you and I have that much in common.
Dean Walker wrote:Elizabeth Priddy and I have something in common. I teach Homeschoolers art
too.
My homeschoolers pay for their instuctions and supplies. Why should they
expect to get them free ? What do they learn from that ? Art and art
instruction should be free....not worth the effort ......easy .....not
valuable? My students earn the money they spend on their instruction. Some
homeschoolers don't think it is what they want.....so they don't have to pay
for it .ODD CONCEPT. They may pay for guitar lessons.....or go fishing. That
is what I love about homeschoolers. They are free to do develope what they
want to develope...they work hard and they don't have those bad conservatives
telling them what they can and can't do.
Dean
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Elizabeth Priddy
www.angelfire.com/nc/clayworkshop
Beaufort, NC
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Elizabeth Priddy on thu 17 apr 03
Proof that good stuff gets funding for regular people and paid to non-elite (that being me). I, Elizabeth Priddy, was funded through the NC Arts Council with NEA money last year to work as a "Touring Artist in Residence" in Morehead City, NC. The mission of the program. Use $1500 to set up and run a pottery program for school age children that would be self-sustaining in 1 year and available for expanded funding in three. The wheels (5 Roger York Kickwheels) were purchased with another $1500 grant from the local Carteret Community Foundation from Axner who gave us a deal. My intern and apprentice, Mandy Stroud, and I fire all the work. The clay and glazes were donated by the school special ed program, home-school parents, and local potters-Milton Bland, Dina Ramsing, Sally Willis, me. This is probably another $1500 dollars, if you count time and electricity, and I do. We served 300 kids this year and are having a "starving artist" bowl sale where we sell the bowls that were made by children and local artists and potters along with dinner donated by local restauranteurs. The 10 dollar ticket gets the bowl and the food. All of the money raised goes back to buy clay, glazes,
and teaching time for the program next year. No cost to the kids. Nea funded. Proof that good stuff gets funding for regular people and paid to non-elite (that being me and Mandy). Any potters that might like to join the NEA and the NC Arts Council in "funding" this project are welcome to with bowls, materials, or cash. Contact me offline. All I have to offer is PR and I can certainly send you some pictures of some very happy kids. One really nice fella in Texas is sending me 5 pots, and I have had 60 donated locally by grown-up potters for the silent auction part of the fundraiser. The other hundred pots were made by the children "so that other kids can come here and have fun too"...the group included mentally handicapped, behaviorally disturbed, academically gifted, home-schooled, and just regular kids. The only common denominator: their art classes were cut from the school budget by the group of commissioners here elected on the platform "Conservatives for a Better Schools", their slogan, not one I made up. The fundraiser is May 17. The pots are tax deductible. I am an unknown with little time to hit up and schmooze the elite. This is what I have been doing this yea
r, sweat and focus... Charity starts at home or maybe the NEA...but then its all up to you. So thank you all for your support. Your tax dollars at work...I will add a page to my website this weekend with pictures of the kids at work and some of their pots. I will post again when it is ready with a link. Lily Krakowski wrote:The "reality", and there never seems to be just one, appears to be that NEA
funds not "art" , not "artists" but the work of a certain elite that appeals
to their own elite. I am not being high and mighty, whatever that means, but
I read, and watch, and notice, and that is what I see and hear.It may not be
real. Ok. Prove it.
Elizabeth Priddy
www.angelfire.com/nc/clayworkshop
Beaufort, NC
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
Dean Walker on thu 17 apr 03
Elizabeth Priddy and I have something in common. I teach Homeschoolers art
too.
My homeschoolers pay for their instuctions and supplies. Why should they
expect to get them free ? What do they learn from that ? Art and art
instruction should be free....not worth the effort ......easy .....not
valuable? My students earn the money they spend on their instruction. Some
homeschoolers don't think it is what they want.....so they don't have to pay
for it .ODD CONCEPT. They may pay for guitar lessons.....or go fishing. That
is what I love about homeschoolers. They are free to do develope what they
want to develope...they work hard and they don't have those bad conservatives
telling them what they can and can't do.
Dean
Lois Ruben Aronow on fri 18 apr 03
This isn't art related, but it is life related.
10 years ago, my husband and I bought, along with 5 friends, some
wasteland in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Overgrazed and nasty,
we got this land pretty cheap. And yes, our deed to the land
describes it as "wasteland"
One of our group - a goldsmith and lapidary - sought out the Bureau of
Land Management and found a fellow who believed strongly, as we did,
about reclaiming land. We entered into an agreement which committed
160 or so of these acres into wetlands. We call it Pazona, as in
"Peace Zone", and it was created with certain environmental and
spiritual (although not secular) goal in mind. Anyone who is
interested in learning more about it can go to www.pazona.org
We have 4 artesian wells on this land. For our part, we had to agree
not to allow grazing and not to sell this land for at least 10 years.
In turn, the BLM corralled the wells, dug pond beds, seeded them,
provided new fencing (to keep out cattle) for the acreage and did a
little (very little) planting. =20
The land is now an oasis for the wildlife that has found our little
wetlands. Sandhill cranes nest there. All kinds of interesting
creatures, in fact. Our goldsmith friend planted lotus in the ponds,
and they thrive. I believe there are also water lilies. It's green
and lush now. It's proof that we can all change something just a
little at a time. And it's proof that occasionally tax dollars go to
something good.
--------------------------------------------Updated with Spring Juried =
Show and Sale news!
http://www.loisaronow.com=20
Janet Kaiser on fri 18 apr 03
Thank you, Valice, for that research into the exact cost per person of NEA
to the American public and some excellent examples of how The Arts are not
the "elitist" area some would have us believe or want to believe
themselves. Sadly it just proves my guess of 50c p.p. p.a. was far too
generous... How depressing! It also puts this "waste of individual tax
payer's money" into perspective... Just ONE year of their "investment" in
the military, is the equivalent of their personal funding of NEA for more
than 2000 years! I personally find that quite obscene.
Now we are all artists, so I think there is a creative away to keep
everyone happy on this funding issue. Here's my solution:
First everyone needs to write their representatives (state, senate, etc.)
to introduce a mechanism to repay the government funding for areas you and
your family do not personally use or approve. That would naturally exclude
schools, hospitals, roads, county hall, law enforcement, etc. and all other
social/health facilities at local/state level. Once that becomes law, those
people who object to funding The Arts could ask for their 40 cents per
annum back. This would repay the cost of the postage stamp needed to submit
their request.
This new law would then - more importantly - set a precedent. For example,
the folk who object to $1000 per year being spent on the military could ask
for their money back too.
Maybe to make sure that this money stays in the economy, a further law
could be passed to say that any refunded money has to be allocated to an
*alternative area* of funding for the good of the community/state/nation.
For example a soldier could get their 40c back from supporting NEA and
reallocate to the military and the artist next door could get their $1000
military budget back to reallocate to the Arts.Tax payers with family in
jails, schools and other public institutions, could withdraw funding from
all other areas for the good of individual projects and because the poorest
neighbourhoods tend to have the highest populations, they would get far
higher funding exponentially. This would negate the influence of the big
guys and those with political clout when it comes to funding right across
the board...
I can see communities all over the country regaining control of their own
destinies, as well as some miserable faces in the arms & munitions
industry. But, hey, some of those guys must be closet potters or artists
too!? They may be freed at last!
As Mel would say... "What a concept"!
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser - perfectly sober, just dreaming of the perfect world...
Still gagging on the garlic!
*** IN REPLY TO THE FOLLOWING MAIL:
*** From: Valice Raffi
*** E-address: valice1@EARTHLINK.NET
*** Sent: 17/04/03 Time: 19:39
>A quick look at the NEA webpage tells me that:
>
>cost was 40 CENTS per person per year
>
>119,000 grants went to all 50 States, plus 6 U.S. jurisdictions (Virgin
>Islands, Puerto Rico, etc.)
>
>40% of the funding went to State & jurisdictional arts agencies and 6
>regional arts organizations
>
>funding included "Celebration of Spirit" - Oklahoma, and
> Healing Power of Art" - Columbine
>
>The California Arts Council, which receives some funding from the NEA,
>funds Arts Education (among other things) throughout the State, both
>directly, and through the local Arts Commissions. As most of the public
>schools offer NO art, this is especially important.
>
>I have received grants to teach from the CA Arts Council and the
Sacramento
>Metropolitan Arts Commission. I have taught in some of the poorest
schools
>in this city where the children have had no art experiences before. Most
>of the programs have been geared to at-risk youth, to engage them in
>learning so they remain in school. In one program, "Operation
Graduation",
>I worked with the same group of kids from 7th grade to the end of their
>freshman year of high school. The dropout rate for these kids went down,
>they stayed off drugs and out of gangs. Your tax dollars at work.
>
>On a multi-residency grant from the Arts Council, I worked with kids at
the
>Youth Authority (jail for kids). I taught a variety of mediums, but the
>one that touched their hearts the most was clay. My last program with
them
>(due to budget cuts) was an Empty Bowls project. I worked with over 150
>boys over the course of the project. They came every week, maintained
>their "points" for good behavior, counseling, etc., and made bowls. Bowls
>that went to provide food for homeless teens in two different programs.
>They made enough bowls that we were also able to donate some to several
>other Empty Bowls Project events. They learned to give. Your tax dollars
>at work.
>
>Teaching these kids is far more than teaching art. They learned math, how
>to use a ruler, geometry in loading the kiln, history, and of course, art
>and art appreciation. The "Operation Graduation" class not only learned
>those things, but learned how to negotiate space at school for an art
show,
>computer skills when they created the show announcements, posters, name
>cards and a program for the art show. They learned how to research Show
>ribbon businesses, compare prices, place an order, check the shipment, and
>pay for it. Your tax dollars at work.
>
>All of these kids learned social skills, new vocabulary, and skills to
cope
>with frustration when things didn't go right. Your tax dollars at work.
>
>The NEA is NOT just piss and blood.
>
>Valice
>in Sacramento
>
>and as to "willow weaving"... yes, the Ca Arts Council has also funded the
>California Basket Weavers Association, dedicated to preserving the Native
>American tradition of gathering, preparing and weaving willow branches
into
>baskets, a nearly lost art.
*** THE MAIL FROM Valice Raffi ENDS HERE ***
**********************************************************************
TRUTH is too precious to tell every fool who asks for it...
****** This post was sent to you today by Janet Kaiser *******
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
**********************************************************************
Richard G. Ramirez on sat 19 apr 03
Valice,
Well said! Keep the work going! We need art educators and artist like
yourself. Glad your in Sacramento! Richard G. Ramirez"The Clay Stalker"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Valice Raffi"
To:
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 7:39 PM
Subject: Re: prove it...your tax dollars at work...
> A quick look at the NEA webpage tells me that:
>
> cost was 40 CENTS per person per year
>
> 119,000 grants went to all 50 States, plus 6 U.S. jurisdictions (Virgin
> Islands, Puerto Rico, etc.)
>
> 40% of the funding went to State & jurisdictional arts agencies and 6
> regional arts organizations
>
> funding included "Celebration of Spirit" - Oklahoma, and
> Healing Power of Art" - Columbine
>
> The California Arts Council, which receives some funding from the NEA,
> funds Arts Education (among other things) throughout the State, both
> directly, and through the local Arts Commissions. As most of the public
> schools offer NO art, this is especially important.
>
> I have received grants to teach from the CA Arts Council and the
Sacramento
> Metropolitan Arts Commission. I have taught in some of the poorest
schools
> in this city where the children have had no art experiences before. Most
> of the programs have been geared to at-risk youth, to engage them in
> learning so they remain in school. In one program, "Operation
Graduation",
> I worked with the same group of kids from 7th grade to the end of their
> freshman year of high school. The dropout rate for these kids went down,
> they stayed off drugs and out of gangs. Your tax dollars at work.
>
> On a multi-residency grant from the Arts Council, I worked with kids at
the
> Youth Authority (jail for kids). I taught a variety of mediums, but the
> one that touched their hearts the most was clay. My last program with
them
> (due to budget cuts) was an Empty Bowls project. I worked with over 150
> boys over the course of the project. They came every week, maintained
> their "points" for good behavior, counseling, etc., and made bowls. Bowls
> that went to provide food for homeless teens in two different programs.
> They made enough bowls that we were also able to donate some to several
> other Empty Bowls Project events. They learned to give. Your tax dollars
> at work.
>
> Teaching these kids is far more than teaching art. They learned math, how
> to use a ruler, geometry in loading the kiln, history, and of course, art
> and art appreciation. The "Operation Graduation" class not only learned
> those things, but learned how to negotiate space at school for an art
show,
> computer skills when they created the show announcements, posters, name
> cards and a program for the art show. They learned how to research Show
> ribbon businesses, compare prices, place an order, check the shipment, and
> pay for it. Your tax dollars at work.
>
> All of these kids learned social skills, new vocabulary, and skills to
cope
> with frustration when things didn't go right. Your tax dollars at work.
>
> The NEA is NOT just piss and blood.
>
> Valice
> in Sacramento
>
> and as to "willow weaving"... yes, the Ca Arts Council has also funded the
> California Basket Weavers Association, dedicated to preserving the Native
> American tradition of gathering, preparing and weaving willow branches
into
> baskets, a nearly lost art.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
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