President Speaks to ArtPride

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. 

Thank you very much for joining us today for the annual meeting of ArtPride New Jersey, which includes two sessions this morning –

We are honored to have with us today our extraordinary Chair of the Arts Council, Carol Herbert, and Arts Council members Arthur Factor and Judy Leone.  We’re also very pleased to have with us the Executive Director of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Steve Runk.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, not since 2003 has the nonprofit arts community stood so perilously, so precariously, on the edge of a precipice that could lead to the eventual elimination of funding to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

 The Governor’s proposed budget reduces the Council’s budget by 25% from the current year’s allocation of $19.25 million to $14.44 million in 2010, and most disturbingly, below the $16 million poison pill provision of the 2003 legislation that created the hotel/motel occupancy fee – the vehicle by which the legislature intended to protect the arts, history and tourism, from the vagaries of economic decline. 

 Make no mistake about it, by reducing the Arts Council budget below $16 million, the gauntlet has been thrown down and the legislature must either restore funding to this threshold, or allow the occupancy fee to be rescinded following the signing of the new budget.

Clearly, only the first option is an acceptable one for us.  If the legislature takes no action, there will de facto be no money allocated to the Council in 2010 because there will be no fee collected to fund the council, the historical commission or tourism.

 Our efforts in the short term must be focused on the legislature, with a single message that every assemblyman and senator must hear:  “The arts, history and tourism are part of the economic solution.  We are our own economic stimulus package for the State of New Jersey!”

Many of you are battle tested and perhaps, battle weary, but we must harness all our strength and resources to make our collective voice heard.  This has always been our strength and our salvation in these times of doom and gloom.  It is our optimism, our passion, our sense of imagination and creativity that has made our grass root efforts successful each time we have been tested.

And so I ask you today to carry the message back to your boards, your staff, your volunteers, your patrons, your vendors, your unions, and all who benefit from the economic impact of your organization’s work, and urge them to use the ArtPride website to write to their legislators, and if they have a personal connection with a legislator, to personally ask for their support of restoration.

 We know that the leadership of the legislature asks each lawmaker to provide them with a list of their top 2 or 3 funding priorities.  In order for us to prevail, a preponderance of legislators must indicate that we are one of their priorities. 

 Each of you here today, and those who are not, bear the burden and the responsibility to ensure that our message is heard.  Whether you represent an organization with a budget of $10,000 or $10 million dollars, it will be the cumulative effect of many voices -  from all corners of our State  – that will carry the day. 

 John Adams remarked that “People and nations are forged in adversity.”  After 20 years of adversity, we are forged like steel.

 Thank you for your commitment, dedication and passion.  We will prevail.