A few days ago there was a story in the NY Times about new National Endowment of the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman’s budget presentation to Congress. It’s a good read but there was one part that stood out to me.
The NEA received $50 million in stimulus money. This is really a piddling sum but it’s a sum Representative Jack Kingston (R-District 1-GA) felt a need to comment on. Congressman Kingston in not my representative but is the congressman for the district adjacent to mine. In fact his district covers part of Savannah.
His quote was: “If it created jobs, you’d have 435 members of Congress saying, ‘Let’s put in more money to the N.E.A.”…. “The only shovel-ready aspect of it is that they need a shovel to clean up some of the bull they believe in over there.”
As a resident of Savannah, which I understand Congressman Kingston is, he should be well aware of the importance of jobs created through the arts. Savannah is of course home to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). SCAD is the largest art school in the world incorporating campuses in Savannah, Atlanta, Lacoste, France and Hong Kong. It is directly responsible for thousands of jobs in the Savannah area alone and had 1600 employees in June, 2007. SCAD obviously employs hundreds of art professors in many fields, the fine arts, movie production, industrial design, art history and architecture to name a few. These are only the art related fields. SCAD also employs many educators in other fields, political science, English, athletics, languages. The jobs associated with SCAD must also be considered, security, janitorial, administration. SCAD Savannah had 7,473 students in 2007. How many of these students live in off campus housing? How many eat in restaurants and shop in Savannah’s stores? In 2007 the economic impact of SCAD in Savannah was $369.7 million. The NEAs entire budget last year was $161.3 million.
If Congressman Kingston needs examples of how the arts can affect and stimulate the economy he need only look in his own backyard.
Art Jobs are real jobs.
Well my grades are in so I have a few weeks off to work. I have a show coming up at Walnut Gallery and I have much to do to prep for that show. I have four new pieces started and I’m looking forward to finishing them. I’m teaching in Italy again this summer so I’m “losing” six weeks of work. I’ll be painting in Rome of course but I’m taking the family this year so this time around I may not get as much as painting time as last year.
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