Mayoral Forum on Arts and Culture

[Gayle DeM]

I just found about this and thought I'd share.


PLEASE JOIN US!
Show Your Support for the Arts in Louisville!
MAYORAL FORUM ON ARTS AND CULTURE
February 8, 6 - 8 p.m. at The Kentucky Center

co-sponsored by the Kentucky School of Art, the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, Arts Kentucky, the Fund for the Arts and the University of Louisville
Organized by the region's arts and culture community, the debate will be moderated by David Cupps, Executive Director of Arts Kentucky. All Metro Mayor candidates have been invited to participate. The event is free and open to the public. Open seating and no tickets are required. For more information call 502-584-7777.


Meet the Candidates
Following the forum, a meet and greet with a cash bar will take place in the Kentucky Center's East Room

About the Forum
Louisville is defined in large part by its vital and thriving arts and cultural communities. Collectively, these organizations are one of the region's largest employers, one of its most consistent producers of tourist revenue, and a significant factor in Louisville's economic health. Anyone looking to lead Louisville into the next decade must demonstrate a vision for Metro Government's role in supporting and preserving groups dedicated to arts and culture, and to their unique places in our heritage and our future. The purpose of the Mayoral Forum on Arts and Culture is to focus attention on this critical aspect of our city in all of its facets - social, economic and cultural - as well as its importance to the growth and diversity of the region.

[Nimbus Couzin]

I'll be participating in this forum. I have a strong arts background in my upbringing (my mom taught film-making at the Art Institute of Chicago for almost my whole life), so I was around cameras and paintings and such always.

I'm curious what forum members think a mayor of Louisville should do to help the local art community thrive. It is easy to say "support the arts," "support arts organizations," etc....but what should really be done? In your opinion...

Any feedback appreciated (I do have some ideas already, but looking for more)...

Cheers,

Nimbus

[JustinHammond]

I'll be participating in this forum. I have a strong arts background in my upbringing (my mom taught film-making at the Art Institute of Chicago for almost my whole life), so I was around cameras and paintings and such always.

I'm curious what forum members think a mayor of Louisville should do to help the local art community thrive. It is easy to say "support the arts," "support arts organizations," etc....but what should really be done? In your opinion...

Any feedback appreciated (I do have some ideas already, but looking for more)...

Cheers,

Nimbus

Music and art programs in the school systems, that is it.

[Carla G]

I remember as a child going to Making Music Concerts. Encourage more cooperation between art venues and schools. Mandatory classes for students in the fields of various art programs. Not electives, mandatory.

[TP Lowe]

I'm curious what forum members think a mayor of Louisville should do to help the local art community thrive. It is easy to say "support the arts," "support arts organizations," etc....but what should really be done? In your opinion...

At some point, Louisville is going to have to decide if it wants to truly support the more than 100 cultural organizations in our metro area. The private sector is amazingly generous - and it is a small group of the sector that really steps up in significant dollar amounts over and over.

Through the Cultural Blueprint that was finalized approximately four years ago, it was made quite clear that for cultural institutions to survive and thrive, a consistent source of public funding must be created. This could come in a variety of forms, and there are a plethora of good examples from cities and counties around the country that have implemented revenues sources for arts and cultural institutions (including libraries and zoos).

A mayor who would like to leave a cultural legacy to this community could do so with a commitment of political capital to this idea. I stand ready to work on this again when the right political environment emerges.