Suburbs Have Needs Too

To me Landesman's comments were quite clear - the NEA will not dole out money on the basis of demographics, but by using high quality as the standard. I am in a community of 13,000, far smaller than even Peoria, which is over 100,000 and I have no doubt that this focus on merit rather than geographic apportioning is far better for the arts.

Indeed, in the Berkshires of Massachusetts where I live, most towns are very small, but we can easily compete on the basis of artistic standards.

I think Rocco has a great message.

www.BerkshireFineArts.com

Kathy - thanks for this update. I'd be happy to publish your 1st person account of Mr. Landesman's visit. Based on his quick response to your invitation, I assume that NEA 10.1 is on the fast-track for release. I look forward to hearing all about "The Lemonade Stand!" - D

In response to Mr. Landesman’s NY Times interview, Suzette Boulais, executive director of ArtsPartners, and I extended invitations to the new NEA chairman to visit Peoria to experience our theatre’s offerings. He immediately responded by email his gratitude for the invitation and that he will come to Peoria. Tuesday afternoon on his first day in office, I received a call from Mr. Landesman confirming that he is excited about visiting our community. Our goal is for Peoria to represent all of the smaller communities in the nation that are doing worthy and worthwhile work in the arts. In homage to the ‘The Beer Summit’, we are lovingly calling this visit, ‘The Lemonade Stand’…not because that is what we drink, but because that is what we do in Peoria – we take lemons and turn them into lemonade.

I look forward to seeing the actual programs that result from Mr. Landesman's ideas. His comment about Peoria explicitly demonstrate that he feels its arts organizations, of which he knows none, and those of other small communities are of lesser quality than those in large cities. In fact, I read into his comments a belief that small towns and small cities, as you rightly point out, would benefit by importing artists from large cities. I found no hint that Mr. Landesman knows or understands how the arts ecology works outside our largest cities' largest institutions. He wants to do good for towns and cities, and hasn't even thought of suburbs. Peoria may be his first lesson in what needs to be a quick education.

Peoria is not a suburb. It is a small city.

While I agree with you that his plan needs to be amended to include areas with no city centers such as suburban communities, it appears his focus with this plan is on small cities and towns. Most of these cities have never seen NEA money - ever. While his is not an original idea, its refreshing to finally have someone put money to this and to encourage support of the arts in a different capacity.