When I heard the Fingerhut name come up the immediate question in my mind was why Fingerhut for the arts? Sort of like "Carmody for Education?" So I guess my question at the forum would be how has he been for the arts since he entered public service and politics in Ohio in the 1980s... there is no focus on arts and the economy, or arts in general on his "Fingerhut for Governor" website - where does he show he considered the arts important when he is selling himself to Ohio and the world... why now? The other question I have for every arts leader in town is how much a year of their personal wealth and income do they spend on local art and arts - show us your art... memberships, ticket stubs and the walls of your homes... Fungerhut has been in local service for 20 years so he should be able to show $50,000 worth of personal (not political) spending on local arts, at least. Not job related - not fundraising - but taking the wife and kids to the orchestra, and going to the CIA and buying a student work of art... real, personal commitment. I'm not saying they don't do it... I'm just saying, let's see their May Shows. I May Show mine every day, and I'm poor.

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HeightsArts invites your questions and encourgaes your participation. The opportunity is being provided so that these questions and concerns can be aired. It was the idea of a small community arts organization, not CPAC's. We invited them -- they did not ask us to hold the forum. Come ask your questions, or stay home and be satisfied with making up your own answers and believing them.

Here's another thought for developing the arts in NEO in non-traditional ways, and I think we need to get out of the box... See this posting from late 2004 saying "Let's make NEO the world's aerosol art capital"

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Thomas Mulready posted and interview movie with Eric Fingerhut at CoolCleveland that hypes the campaign - nothing wrong with that - message is the money will fund everything from church programs to University Circle - feel the effort has a strong chance of passing  - organization is very much based on the Cuyahoga County Commissioners ACES Grant program and most of the money will go to small programs and organizations. They as people to call in to talk shows, write editors, and talk up the vote - say polling puts the issue close the passage but tobacco industry will fund opposition. I can't say they mention anything new or inspiring, but they don't cause alarm - at the end of the interview Fingerhut suggests people call the Arts and Culture Action Committee at 1-216-479-8555 or email acac2006 [at] gmail [dot] com for more info, material, or have "talented artists" come talk about the issues, whatever that means... worth watching the video posted below, and following up... but another question comes to mind, which is how is this campaign being funded?... From CoolCleveland:

As leader of the arts levy campaign, Eric Fingerhut spoke with Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready outside the Cleveland Play House and the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, discussing why arts funding is critically needed, where the polling stands, and what Cool Cleveland readers can do to help.
MOVIE ACAC Campaign Director, State Senator Eric Fingerhut (PC) (Mac)

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See my posting on "Proposal for NEO community to develop REALNEO, May Show and Cleveland School" as a serious next step to moving the arts and culture and economic development communitiies together in collaboration. I look forward to your thoughts posted as comments there and new ideas elsewhere here.

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I have struggled for many years to bring this community together. I have worked to bring the dance community together once with good result and later to experience the frustrating lack of willingness to collaborate.

I have seen the local foundations struggle to make decisions about what to fund as far as all the issues our region faces. It must be arduous to decide that the energy crisis, urban poverty issues and other areas such as aging are more important than the arts – that in order to move more funds to the areas that rise on the horizon of need, they must shift their focus to supporting the legacy institutions that are home to our arts and find other avenues for funding the smaller organizations that make up the rich cultural fabric that clothes the region.
 I am not sure how I feel about sin taxes regardless of what they are intended to support. I look forward to hearing discussion because I am on the fence. Perhaps we should tax lawn care remedies that pollute our streams and watersheds instead of or in addition to cigarettes. What happened to alcohol as part and parcel of what we call “sin”? Maybe we should tax gasoline and driving, maybe it is coal use we should tax. I'm not sure. But I would like to hear a discussion that allows us to better understand why we choose to lay the burden of affording something that is for everyone on some.

Fingerhut says we begin with a sizable margin of support in the polls for this support. There were 40 something % of the voters who would have increased their property taxes to support the arts after a 5 week campaign the last time around. This time, though we have some traction, we have the County who has spent many dollars over the years for arts and culture quietly with the large institutions, in the last few years expanding and making public that support – instituting a process for application and decision. That they gave to the orchestra and art museum for many years was told to me by a long time lobbyist for the arts, the late Ben Shouse back in the 1980s. I asked him if there was simply no way that local government would support the arts and he said, “Oh, the county gives money to the big guys, you just don’t know about it. If small orgs knew they would want to change that policy.” It was don’t ask, don’t tell. The history of organizations that have been born and have passed to help bring together and support that the arts here in my time here is interesting, too. First, there was the Cleveland Area Arts Council (http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CAAC) which was gone before I arrived in Cleveland. Then The Cleveland Arts Consortium, which originally was open only to the big institutions and only later to smaller orgs, was launched. (http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CCC3 ). I was here to see the end of the Arts Consortium. It appeared that the Arts Consortium (later the Cleveland Cultural Coalition), which later operated simultaneously with the newly funded and launched Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. In  replaced by CPAC. Initially, the newly hired Tom Schorgl seemed to be saying that he had been hired to help garner public (government) support for the arts; that his role here would be short lived. That CPAC would convene the arts and culture community, gather some data and then find a way to leverage that gathered data into public support for the arts. See “Plan would call on the public” here in this copyrighted article from Crain’s Cleveland Business.

I have seen CPAC take on a number of roles over that time period most of them quiet initiatives. Initiatives such as be a better business person or organization – sell your last minute discounted tickets through us (C-tix) have been launched. It was not until the last minute emergence of issue 31 that a ballot issue was raised. How funds would be spent was made about as clear as mud at that time. I am just curious about the history and the overall plan that has brought us to this “easy” tax – one that is easily perpetrated on many poor people who smoke rather than on wealthy people who cavalierly spread cancer causing chemicals on their lawns.

I am already a supporter of the arts. How they are funded, however, I hope will be a transparent process, all closets opened and aired, the big plan revealed and an appropriate solution found.

Despite these many consortiums and coalitions and partnerships, we still have no comprehensive calendar for the arts in Northeast Ohio. Could realneo serve in that way? I suppose it could if the arts community knew it was here. Could realneo serve as a bottom up/grassroots forum for the arts? Maybe, if arts organizations actually decided to use the technology made available to them for said purpose. It happens here already among a few. It could be a wonderful gathering space for all, if we can close or cross the digital divide.

I think we could split up (when we are ready to launch) and gather the email contacts and phone numbers for follow-up of the orgs. Also an email can be sent to service orgs, who can promote it virally. This will require some research and a considerable amount of follow up, but I believe that realneo can do it better than any other content providers I have seen.

I do want to add my two cents about having it within or as a separate site from realneo. I like having it all in one place -- realneo can help to educate artists who don't think of their work as political - fact is, when the bread you're feeding your kid comes from the coffin nail of someone else's cigarette, baby, anything you do is political, NASA or no NASA.

Artists need a place to learn about the world, too. In the studio, cloistered away from institutional memory, history and today's pressing issues, it's no wonder some choreographers, for example, are still making cute, sexy, showy, meaningless dances; that hyper political hip hop gets commercialized by the MSM and forgets its roots. That is not targeted anywhere locally just a reflection of what presenters think audiences want to see and hear. I want artists who come to the site to post to see the posts about local and global issues. This may encourage them to think more broadly about content; it may help to sharpen their blades so they can cut into more relevant territory than some approach currently. Just a thought...