Forum; The Arts and the Business Community: Remarks from Joan Mondale

This is Olive Graham, your host on Forum. This week, Forum features the cooperation between business and the arts. Most cities have some sort of public sculpture. Are they have a performing arts center that's been an old vavel theater that's been renovated? This advocate Joan Mondale, this week, on Forum. In the center for telecommunication services, the University of Texas at Austin, welcome to Forum, I'm Olive Graham. Listen to the American writer, Catherine Ann Porter's eloquent description of the arts when she said, the arts live continuously. They outlive governments and creeds and societies,

even the various civilizations that produce them. They cannot be destroyed altogether because they represent the substance of faith and the only reality. They are what we find again when the ruins are cleared away. Joan Mondale, nationally recognized advocate for the arts. Today, Forum features one aspect of a trend that is affecting the arts community and its relationship to society at large. The democratization of the arts is the result of the successful search of artists for audiences and markets, as well as the result of business and government's attempts to offer aesthetic and humanistic services to the greater community. In a conference designed for business and arts leadership held in Austin, Texas, the quality of life division of the Austin Chamber of Commerce drew together arts administrators,

municipal cultural arts programmers, and business representatives to share ideas and strategies for the implementation of corporate and business involvement in the presentation of art to the public. Keynote speaker Joan Mondale was well known for her support of the arts. Her reputation preceding her tenure in Washington when her husband Walter Mondale served on Capitol Hill and as vice president. Since departing national political life, Mrs. Mondale has been able to combine her innate love for cultural arts with the knowledge of our country drawn from her experiences during her political travels. Mrs. Mondale. As I travel from coast to coast, I have seen in the last eight years, I've seen with my own eyes the difference that the arts can make when the public accepts them and public commitment has increased. I first began traveling nationwide as the honorary chairman of the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities in 1977. And at that time, much of my time

was spent convincing, cajoling, explaining, lobbying, testifying, and reassuring. Art then was mostly found on the walls of museums and galleries and it was enjoyed by a small but committed audience. Since then, we have seen a lively and colorful revolution. As the arts have moved out of this small area, artists are our questioners, our critics, our catalysts, and our urban pioneers. And they have taken the art out of the museums and galleries and brought art to public parks for all to see, to interior spaces of public buildings, to abandoned warehouses, to decaying neighborhoods, to train stations, subways,

airports, into the communities and out on the streets. And the most unlikely spaces have become homes for artists, jails, abandoned schools, even archaic and antique mills and factories. The clever, innovative eyes and ears of the artists have been at work finding these new homes. Privately Mrs. Monday was assured that we all expect the arts to be a part of our civic and cultural lives. As I have traveled for the last eight years, I have talked to people who have made the difference in their communities, who have used the arts as a building block to bring revitalization to their center cities. Polls show that the American people want the arts. And I think

the general acceptance is very, very high. We can see that as we go to cities, most cities have some sort of public sculpture or they have a performing arts center that's been an old vaudeville theater that's been renovated. But it's not so simple to expect the arts to spring whole out of a united civic desires. Choices and sacrifices have to be made. The arts are labor intensive and program expensive and they have predictably suffered and felt the economic pinch to a greater degree than more affluent interests. But it's heartening to see that even though business faces really tough choices in allocating discretionary funds, that the arts continue to be recognized as important and essential. But how do you choose if dollars are limited?

And what goes at the top of the list? Health, human services, education, the arts? Happily, as so many polls and statistics show, we have just about put to rest the old argument about whether or not the arts matter to our cities. The challenge then, when faced with competition for every discretionary dollar, is how to make those dollars stretch as far as they possibly can. To that end, the Ford Foundation has organized a National Arts Stabilization Fund, financed by the Ford, Mellon, and Rockefeller foundations. And this stabilization fund is designed to give grants to arts organizations seeking better fiscal management. The beauty of business support at the community level is the opportunity to encourage the new, the emerging, whether it's a theater renovation project as a home for the arts,

encouraging the foundation of a theater company, of a civic orchestra, or exhibiting the works of a local artist. And one of the very important needs that you can help fill is a home, a physical place for the arts. Artists must have audiences, but first, the audiences have to have a place to go. And who pays? Perhaps one of the greatest questions that all of us who care about the arts in this nation coming of age, culturally, this is what we must face is who pays for the arts in a democracy. We don't have the royalty, we don't have the patronage of kings and queens and dictators who fuel the arts and other times and in other lands. We don't have any mediches or Louis XIVs here in our country. But the potential that we do have is so much greater as we have forged and worked together

to strengthen the tri-part partnership between government and business and individuals. Henry Gell-Zalder, the former commissioner of Cultural Affairs in New York City, says he compares the pluralistic system of arts funding to an accordion, which plays best when all of its compartments work in unison. Artists support the arts through a ticket, a subscription, answering fundraising appeals, concentrating time and talent and effort on a particular organization. Our government's role as patron of the arts actually began in the Great Depression as part of President Roosevelt's efforts to put people back to work. Artists needed jobs too, and even today, the art created with government support during those depression years lives on.

It lives in the performances and creations of Ben Sean, of Jackson Pollock, of Mark Rothko, Saul Bello, John Chiever, Walker Evans, Orson Wells, and John Houseman. It lives on in the writings of James A.G., the paintings of Thomas Hart Benton, the music of Virgil Thompson, and Aaron Copeland, and in the words of Archibald McLeish. Then in 1965, the national endowments were created to continue significant support of the arts by our nation. The National Endowment for the Arts has been an exceedingly successful federal program in spending dollars wisely, and they have a challenge grant program. And arts groups can apply for federal money, but whatever federal money they get has to be matched by city and local funds, by corporations, and so on within their community.

It's worked very well so that the federal dollar has a ripple effect, and it also draws in people in local communities. The decisions have been made by a peer panel, so they don't have to check into the books and figures and so on, because the receiving of a national endowment grant is really a stamp of approval. In her address, she further credited the endowment. The ripple effect of the endowment is very important. Federal support is now joined, in many cases, by very substantial contributions and support and local levels. Corporate and business support is the newest major component of our pluralistic system of funding the arts. Though some corporations have been supporting the arts for decades, the real growth in business funding started around 1978. During the 70s, the arts became more accessible and accepted by an increasing number of Americans,

and corporations began to recognize this, and they increased their support. Business leaders, with commitment to their hometowns, feel a responsibility to return something to the communities that are supporting them so well. They actually feel and accurately feel that support for the arts helps their businesses, helps their communities, and helps their employees. Thus began business contributions of funds, company products, equipment, and the expertise of personnel, the purchase of artworks for business spaces, and even the exhibitions of works of art made by their employees. The dollar figures of business contributions are astounding. However, those millions of dollars came from about 970 corporations, which make up about 1% of the companies across our land.

So in order to diversify support and spread it across the map of our entire country, we must encourage more small and medium-sized businesses to join the corporate giants in support of the arts. The result will be felt in the impact of dollars, the stamp of approval of business leaders in the community who are respected. The question arises, who determines what is or isn't art? Oh, I think it's exceedingly important to have a panel. You can't leave aesthetic decisions to one person, and that has been the strength of the way that we, as a nation, have commissioned works of art and chosen them. Based through a panel process, people in the field who are trained and knowledgeable with good judgment, who are recognized leaders, such as museum directors and curators and so on, people in the performing arts as well, agree on the commission, agree on the way that it's going, and hearings are very important for the people to give their opinions.

And we've managed in a very democratic way to put the finest in our cities and towns through this peer panel process. Mrs. Mondale's experience on the local and national levels of arts organizations provides her audience with a sorted example of what strategies work in individual communities. The business volunteers for the arts is an organization that began in New York and now has chapters in many cities. The organization was founded out of a recognition of the interdependence that artists and businesses could be put to good use. Artists and art organizations need the skills and expertise of business in addition to crucial dollars. And businesses need the healthy communities with the amenities that artists provide, elevating the livability of our cities. Artists are not accountants or marketing directors.

And accountants and marketing directors aren't artists. But each can give his talent and his skill and his expertise to the other. And that is the principle on which the business volunteers are for the arts are made. Arts organizations, vital to a city, can never afford the range and caliber of professional expertise which is truly needed, accounting, computer skills, media and public relations assistance, insurance, architectural and structural advice. The list goes on endlessly. And there's simply no way with shoestring budgets that any arts organization can acquire these services. And that's why support from the business community through funding and expertise is so important. The National Endowment for the Arts is the federal agency that's charged with giving support to all aspects of the arts in America.

It not only supports artists through grants, but also through technical assistance, helping arts groups become better organized and to get on their feet financially. The National Endowment has also been involved in advocacy efforts to encourage members of the private sector to become involved and support the arts. When asked about the practicality of small cities and businesses, participating in the kind of cooperative ventures she described to the conference, Joan Monday was very encouraged by the efforts of cities such as Austin, Texas. There are all kinds of programs, the wonderful percentage for art that your city council has just approved, certainly can be enacted in smaller towns and cities. And there are small businesses that contribute in different ways. You don't have to be a giant corporation. We need the partnership of business and the private sector, individuals, the arts groups and government.

City and state and local government can contribute money and so forth to promote the arts. The role call of sites that Mrs. Monday has visited shows that the spirit of cooperation and collaboration is alive in the land. I've toured old silk mills that have been given new lives as artists, homes and artists studios in Patterson, New Jersey. The city's director of economic development credits this project with the responsibility for a major economic turnaround in that city, a major infusion of community spirit and pride. In Philadelphia, I've watched during the last eight years as artists have refurbished block after block of tumbled down houses and decaying neighborhoods. They have truly been Philadelphia's urban pioneers. In Billings, Montana, I toured the Yellowstone Arts Center and it's a wonderful centrally located building that had in its former life the city jail.

I'm especially proud of the spirit of cooperation in my hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. Mayor George Latimer has recognized how important and valuable as thoughtful citizens in the community artists are and there's a whole area of the city that was old, empty warehouses that now it's called lower town lofts. A developer has worked with the city of St. Paul to provide safe, affordable housing for artists and for their studios. As we work together to strengthen the financial base for the arts, that will reflect our confidence and our investment. Often in the past, Americans have thought of the arts as not part of the essential stuff which makes life worth living, but a frill, an ornament, a decoration like a gilded bathtub faucet.

This is not just a mistaken notion, it's dangerous. For we live by our beliefs and if we believe as a nation that art is not important, it's not to be taken as seriously as science or technology or commerce. Then we are likely to be a nation that history will remember as large, but not great. New Harris's surveys show that despite economic hardships and even in the face of trouble times, the arts are becoming more and more important in the mainstream of American life. Art is a building block for our future. Just as it is the foundation for rebuilding and strengthening our cities, the arts make the difference between colorless, average communities and lively distinctive ones. I have been impressed with the spirit of cities all throughout the country who have faced the loss of downtown businesses with creative solutions.

Although it's hard to plot on a graph, the charm that comes from changing it down at the heels warehouse district into galleries and art studios, shops and boutiques, the community can see the results in increased business and more dollars in city revenues. Another more recent Lou Harris poll on Americans in the arts released last year found that Americans have one third less leisure time than they did 10 years ago. But despite reduced leisure time, we've been spending more time attending arts events, even topping attendance at sports events. More than 70 percent of those polled said that they would vote for an increase in taxes if the money went for the arts. And that is powerful commitment on the part of American people to the arts. So the verdict is in, citizens have decided that when art prospers, their cities prosper, Joan Mondale.

The American people want the arts and it simply is not possible without strong public private partnership for the support. And it's easy to see that when the arts are healthy and strong and vital, so is the city. Mayors have seen what the arts can do and they no longer need to be convinced. One of the first mayors I talked to about arts in his city was Mayor Donald Schaefer of Baltimore and he made the arts central to his revitalization program. And when I asked him, he told me quite frankly that he hadn't started out with an interest in the arts, that he was a member of the city council, but he looked at the numbers. How many people came to the city? What did they do when they came? They parked their cars, they ate in restaurants, and if they were from out of town, they reserved rooms in downtown hotels.

George for Donald Schaefer was good for business and good for Baltimore. He was convinced. I received a letter recently from Mayor Schaefer who brought me up to date. He has said that they've started a new program of shopsteading and that in a district in Baltimore called Washington Hill, this whole district has been renovated through the shopsteading program and artists literally camped intense on the sidewalk waiting in line to be the first among the 300 who were lucky enough to buy an abandoned shop for $100 provided that they would renovate it and live in it for five years. And of course, the craft artists were first in line because they really needed a place to sell. But the arts bring to a city is very special indeed and it's not just dollars and cents. It's something that can't be bought with a price tag, pride and uniqueness. The city of Seattle recently turned its unsightly gas works into a truly remarkable park with

brightly paid in pipes and tanks forming a giant walk through sculpture. A large stay bill by Alexander Calder was placed in the center of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And at first there was a huge cry, the sculpture with its arched plains of metal, painted brilliant red, seemed strange and alien and a few even called it ugly. But very shortly the people of Grand Rapids developed a special fondness for what they began to call our Calder. And Grand Rapids native Gerald Ford told me when we shared a chairlift ride up Vale Mountain One Christmas that his suspicion of the peace had turned to affection. Today the Calder sculpture is the symbol of the city. It appears on all the street signs, it's on the mayor's stationery, it's on the mast head of the town newspaper and it's even the logo on the city's trash trucks.

In Winston-Salem, North Carolina the arts have been used as a central focus. The Roger L. Stevens theater is a beautiful old vaudeville theater that's been renovated. An old business was turned into the Sawtooth Arts Center and their artists living downtown. And the arts have attracted people from all over the country to come to Winston-Salem. The city is even more livable than before. We see that tourist dollars count and tourism is a very important industry today. And the arts are a prime factor in attracting tourists to the Spiletto Festival in Charleston, Carolina, to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, to the arts festivals in Santa Faye, New Mexico, just to name a few.

On the 10th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts Formation, a study was conducted on the economic impact of the arts in the state of Rhode Island. They found that with endowment assistance, 200 new arts organizations have been created with 2,000 employees earning an annual total of $20 million in salaries. Senator Powell, one of the chief sponsors of the creation of the legislation creating the endowment, after seeing the results realized that the arts had become big business in his state. And we are seeing the same results all across the nation. The arts are a business and a business that greatly impacts on other business. Small objects like a photographer's light bulb, a printer's fee for concert tickets, bricks, mortar, and steel beams for a large theater renovation.

And most thoughtful people agree that the arts keep our souls nourished, but they also keep dancers, painters, carpenters, and electricians nourished as well. Economists have tracked dollars spent on the arts and found that each of these dollars generates billions of dollars a year. Arts dollars by cleaning, maintenance, security, rental, advertising, public relations, legal and accounting services, mailing, postage, paper, fabric for costumes, lumber, and nails. And it's interesting, when the NEA budget becomes a source of major disagreement between executive and legislative branches every year, that businessmen and women quickly realize the impact of the arts in their communities.

A study of the New England state showed that federal income tax returns from arts organizations surveyed total to $10 million a year. And that figure was only $2 million less than the NEA's total investment in those states. In other words, investing in arts makes good dollar sense, as well as providing the community the beauty that it needs. Joan Mondale's parting plea is that we continue to provide a safe haven for the arts. For art to exist, it must thrive in an atmosphere of security, certainty, and appreciation. And each one of you holds that key. Each one of you have done much, but you can do more. Art is a part of our everyday lives, it's part of our present and part of our past. Its civilization signature, the thumbprint we leave behind, whether traced on rocks or

caves, on palace walls or domes of churches. The artist is the dreamer who makes the dream visible. Through the artist we will leave stories, images, beautiful buildings, sculpture, symbols, songs and dances. And they all remain as part of our heritage and our gift to the future. Joan Mondale delivered the keynote address to the conference on arts and the city image sponsored by the quality of life division of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. If you have a comment, or wish to purchase a cassette copy of this program right to forum, the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University of Texas at Austin 78712. Our technical producer is Walter Morgan, I'm Olive Graham. One is produced and distributed by the Center for Telecommunication Services, the University

of Texas at Austin, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Texas at Austin or this station. This is the Longhorn Radio Network.