Pretty cool happening that show listeners and facebook peeps got a heads up on. i thought some of y'all in bloggyland might like to hear about it too. The Moronic Ox Literary Arts and Cultural Journal picked up this week's show article and republished it here:

http://www.moronicox.com/damage-report-phillips.html

Nice bit of PR for the show and gave me a total "squee-girl" moment. heh.

Happy Halloween everyone- i'll be halloween partying online tonight and then at a girls-only party tomorrow night.

DAMage Report - Audiences Decline or Just Moving Online?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/15/AR2009061503026.html?hpid=artsliving http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/06/nea-reports-decline-in-arts-audiences-for-2008.html

According to the Washington Post and LA Times, surveys indicate that the public is attending less and less arts related performances and exhibitions. "Two separate national surveys gauging youth and adult participation in the arts reported yesterday that visits to art museums are declining....The percentage of eighth-graders who reported that they visited an art museum or gallery with their classes dropped from 22 percent in 1997 to 16 percent in 2008."

Uhhhh - well, duh. Cutbacks in arts education means there are no funds to get the kids to museums. Of course there is going to be a drop. And it will of course profoundly affect the Arts in the future as these kids grow up with little or no exposure to it. But it isn't just the kids not being encouraged to go to museums and festivals.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts fewer adults are going to art museums and visual arts festivals. The exception seems to be in major cities where they can attend museums and festivals for free. Has FREE become the operative word here? Are we becoming a society where if we can't get it for free, we don't want it at all? Because the starving arts will only live so long - you don't feed the artist/arts at least a little... it dies.

It is interesting to note that the surveys indicate arts participation online has increased... possibly because viewing art online is free. And as much as I enjoy the easy access of art online it still doesn't replace acting DOING, SEEING, FEELING. It is like looking at a print in a book of Salvidor Dali's " The Discovery of America" - it looks cool and can be appreciated for a fine painting. But see the fourteen foot high painting in person at the Dali Museum and it completely, totally blows you away.

Same goes for listening to music on you tube or itunes rather than experiencing it live. Convenience is great but it doesn't replace actual real, live experience. We need to mesh the two together and create something new that continues to encourage people to experience art in more than just a virtual environment. We need to back it the hell up and stop the slippery slide down that slope before all we have left are old vid clips and copies of paintings that were done decades ago.

****Meet me this afternoon on the DAMage Report LAtalkRadio.com at 2:30pm PST/ 5:30pm EST / 10:30pm GMT. And post a comment on my wall - what arts event have you recently attended?

DAMage Report: Can you smell that smell - The Reek of Amazon Rank

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8000401.stm

Excuse me, I need to "Ham-fist" you... it'll only hurt for a second.

The world truly is a smaller place and when bad news hits, it travels faster than ever before due to instant cybernet of Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Sunday morning I saw a cry of outrage in the status of one of my favorite authors, Jaci Burton. In addition to being a best-selling mainstream romance author, she also has numerous erotic romances published. Her link led me to Mark Probst online commentary and a letter from Amazon explaining that they had a change in policy and that is why his YA novel with gay characters was no longer being ranked. 

More than 57,000 books were affected, including gay- and lesbian-themed titles. Novels such as Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain" and Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" were unranked Tuesday morning. Countless romance and erotica authors saw their best seller ranking disappear and many couldn't find their books any longer using the Amazon search engines. However, Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds" by Chronicle Books, which features pictures of over 600 naked women, remains ranked. Even sexual self-help books were unranked.

Debby Herbenick told me that her book "Because It Feels Good: A Woman's Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction" was affected too. Her sales data was gone and the search function was messed up. 

Was it a glitch? A Hacker? A change in policy? It has been interesting to watch the evolution of "oh crap" responses from Amazon. From Policy change it became a glitch. From glitch it became an embarrassing ham-fisting. And from ham-fisting it became a cataloging error.

Bill Thompson a journalist with the BBC observed "...some sort of filtering seems to have been going on since at least early February when former gay stripper Craig Seymour saw the sales ranking on his memoir disappear. He complained at the time and the ranking reappeared.  What this seems to show is that Amazon are trying to make search results more 'family-friendly'. There's nothing wrong with this, and Amazon aren't violating the First Amendment or even, I suspect, breaking the terms of their agreement with publishers by doing it. However they have clearly broken the bond of trust with a large number of their readers, and it will take a long time to recover."

The power of the pen (and keyboard) definitely came into play and showed that even a small, well connected group like the erotica and romance authors can call the Giant to task and refuse to quietly accept censorship. 

Wonderful Fantasy Art - just some sharing

2fer - on LAtalkRadio.com again today - same time: Struggling Arts

From USA Today Article: Fine arts are in survival mode as funds dry up 

Doreen Bolger sees her new exhibit of circus drawings by Pablo Picasso and other 20th-century artists as just right for the times. The images of acrobats and clowns, says the director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, are "uplifting and fun" at a time when the economy is in free fall.

Not so great is the $8 fee Bolger was forced to charge when the exhibit opened last week in the otherwise free museum. The museum has charged for a few special exhibits, but she had hoped this one could be free. Steep drops in the museum's endowment, contributions, government grants and gift shop sales, however, have made budget-balancing a high-wire act.

"There's rarely extra money in good times," says Bolger, whose museum opened in 1929, the year the Great Depression began. "We're already into the adversity mode."

The downturn walloping the entire economy has hit non-profit arts organizations especially hard. With millions of people scrambling to pay for food and other basics, a night at the opera can seem frivolous. So museums, symphonies, theaters, ballet companies and opera companies have cut staff, canceled performances, shortened seasons and, in some cases, shut down.

The worst may be yet to come.

Jesse Rosen of the League of American Orchestras says season subscriptions to performances, which are sold a year ahead of time, mask the full impact. "It's the second year when it catches up," he says.

That worries Jane Shannahan, a subscriber to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. The festival recently canceled a $1.3 million production of Les Misérables because of declining contributions.

"It's important to support museums, symphonies, the dance and theater," she says. "These are things we need in society. If we lose them, we are declining faster than we think."

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll in December found that 69% of Americans are cutting back on entertainment. Such sentiments have forced arts organizations to plan survival scenarios.

In New York, where more than a dozen Broadway shows closed in January, Carnegie Hall pared its schedule by 10%. The Miami City Ballet cut eight of 53 dancers. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra cut musicians' pay 11%.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art this week said it would eliminate 30 positions, postpone a Spanish art exhibit and possibly increase admission fees to deal with a 26% drop in its endowment. In Washington, the Smithsonian Institution has frozen all hiring. Brandeis University sparked an uproar when it announced it would close the Rose Art Museum outside Boston and sell works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and others to fill potential budget gaps.

When soaring gas prices, plummeting tourism and a big drop in contributions threw it into financial crisis, the Kentucky Repertory Theatre in Horse Cave enlisted actor and native Kentuckian George Clooney to help raise $350,000.

The Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City dealt with dwindling donations by shortening its summer season and putting on plays with smaller, less-expensive casts in its fall season.

In California, the Palm Springs Art Museum has resorted to layoffs, shorter hours and a hiring freeze as it waits for checks from supporters whose investments have shrunk. Says marketing director Bob Bogard: "The pledges just haven't come through yet."

As foundation grants and private donations dry up, arts groups become more creative. When the real estate bust and high unemployment sent ticket sales south and once-generous donors stopped returning phone calls, Florida Repertory Theatre in Fort Myers improvised with a limited-time deal of five plays for $99, nearly half the regular price. That "put hundreds of new people into the theater," artistic director Bob Cacioppo says.

Others beg.

In January, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra e-mailed an urgent plea just before canceling the season's final two concerts. "Our future is not certain. BCO's fate is in the hands of our loyal audience and donors," it said. "There are no bailouts for non-profit organizations."

"It's frightening," says Lockwood Hoehl, BCO's executive director. "We're unfortunately at the bottom of the food chain. The general thought about the arts in our society is it's expendable."

Overcoming 'practicality'

The philosophical divide between those who see the arts as frivolous and those who see its value is as old as the nation. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the federal Works Progress Administration paid thousands of unemployed artists to write regional guidebooks, produce plays and organize symphony orchestras. The work of more than 5,000 artists can still be seen today in murals commissioned for schools, post offices and other government buildings.

President Obama has not proposed such a program but supports increased arts funding. Most Republicans oppose spending tax dollars on aesthetics.

"America is a practical nation that comes from very practical roots," says Robert Lynch of the advocacy group Americans for the Arts. "That practicality … is part of what we've had to overcome."

It was on display in the recent debate in Congress over the economic stimulus package.

The House of Representatives version included $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to help non-profit arts organizations avoid closing or laying off workers, but the Senate version left it out. The final bill restored the money for the NEA.

"Putting people to work is more important than putting more art on the wall of some New York City gallery frequented by the elite art community," said Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia during the debate.

Lynch calls that attitude "uninformed and perhaps disingenuous." His group estimates that non-profit arts organizations generate $166.2 billion each year in cultural and related spending such as restaurants and parking, and they produce $30 billion in tax revenue and 5.7 million jobs.

"Those jobs are every bit as important as an auto industry worker," Lynch says. He says 10,000 arts groups employing 260,000 artists and support workers could close this year.

Brian Riedl, a federal budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, sees it differently.

"When families are struggling to make ends meet, $50 million going to the arts means $50 million less to help families put food on the table," Riedl says.

Josh Bivens of the liberal Economic Policy Institute calls that "a false choice" and says any spending is good spending in an ailing economy. Plus, "it's something we should support as a society."

Artists have heard it all before.

"We in the arts have always had to fight to get the message of our value across," says Debbie Chinn, managing director of Centerstage, a regional theater here. "The arts isn't fluff. It's not discretionary. It's a very important piece of our lives."

'Nobody to turn to'

As in other cities, the economic downturn has not hit all parts of Baltimore's arts scene with equal force. More-established, better-endowed groups such as Centerstage, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Walters Art Museum have cut back but are financially sound. Smaller organizations with less-secure financial underpinnings, such as the Baltimore Opera, the Baltimore Theatre Project and the chamber orchestra, may not survive.

With few huge corporations in the community, Baltimore arts groups have relied on local companies such as money manager Legg Mason, Constellation Energy and Whiting Turner construction for support. All are reeling.

Randi Vega, head of cultural affairs at Baltimore's arts council, says next summer's Artscape festival will be scaled back. Sponsors have cut funding and at least one, General Motors' Saturn, is expected to pull out.

Public money also is drying up as states struggle with yawning budget deficits. In Maryland, lawmakers have threatened to cut arts funding by 36%. "There's nobody to turn to," Vega says. "There isn't going to be a white knight to pick up the slack."

There wasn't for the Baltimore Opera. In December, owing $1.2 million to creditors, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and canceled two performances, the first time since 1950 it cut its season short.

Opera may face the most perilous times. Companies often must charge ticket prices of several hundred dollars to cover the cost of large orchestras and elaborate sets and costumes.

Next to past recessions, "this is more widespread and came up quicker," Baltimore Opera general manager M. Kevin Wixted says. "You can continue to try to bump along, but it didn't work."

Wixted hopes to be back by the fall season but says, "All operas are basically on the edge."

The Washington National Opera has put off Wagner's four-part Ring cycle. The Los Angeles Opera laid off 17% of its staff. A few companies have closed, including Opera Pacific in Santa Ana, Calif., and Hartford's 67-year-old Connecticut Opera.

Marc Scorca of the advocacy group Opera America hopes fans elsewhere will keep coming.

"The opera audience is unusually passionate," he says. "We hope that passion places opera at the very bottom of the list of things that will be cut."

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has seen ticket sales sag and its endowment plunge, but the full season will go on — with a tweak. Instead of performing Mahler's SixthSymphony— which would have required 10 extra brass musicians at a cost of $20,000 — the orchestra will play Mahler's Ninth.

At Centerstage, where the endowment has shrunk by 35% and fewer people are buying full-season subscriptions, Chinn is struggling to keep the curtain up. She and five others worked without pay in February.

A recent production of the musical Caroline,or Change was staged without understudies to save money.

A few blocks away, at the Walters Art Museum, director Gary Vikan is taking a one-month unpaid furlough after a 27% drop in endowment funds forced him to lay off seven of 150 employees, freeze salaries and hiring and cancel an exhibit on French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Vikan and the Baltimore Museum of Art's Bolger are determined to preserve free admission, which began three years ago with a local government grant that runs out in October. Since 2006, they say, the number of minorities, children and first-time visitors has soared.

Vega, of the arts council, isn't surprised: "In times like these, people are looking for ways to reduce their stress, and the arts are certainly a way to do that."

*******************************************

An article today about the Met having to lay off 75 people led me to search around and see who else is hurting. I'm afraid we tend to think that with $50 million allotted to the NEA in the stimulus package that the arts should be all cool and survive just fine. Uhhhh... no. Something is better than nothing but it's not going to save the arts. We need to do that. How? Do at least one art related activity a month. Pay the small fee to go to the museum on sunday with your family. Or take them to see a local performance. Visit a local gallery opening and if you can afford to - buy some art. Buy a book. Do SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be expensive but I promise - it'll be better for you than a Big Mac with a side of wii.