press room

For Immediate Release

Washington, DC—May 1, 2008—As part of national Arts Advocacy Day last month, representatives of Americans for the Arts Action Fund met with campaign officials from all three presidential campaigns in separate meetings to review their support for the arts and arts education.

Through the ArtsVote2008 initiative, the Arts Action Fund has been advocating for each of the candidates to make strong public statements in support of arts and cultural issues since May 2007.  ArtsVote distributed a “Pro-Arts Issue Brief” to all of the presidential campaigns last year, outlining 10 public policy concerns, how they relate to the arts, and thoughtful proposals to address them. The issue brief is available online at www.ArtsVote.org.

Currently Democratic candidates Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton have published a number of policy statements relating to the arts, Republican candidate Senator John McCain has not published a statement, as of yet.

Led by Arts Action Fund President and CEO Robert L. Lynch, the group—including Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter John Legend—asked the domestic policy directors from each of the campaigns about the proposals they have put forward and how the presidential candidates view the arts as part of their overall policy vision.

Some highlights from the meetings are:

• Speaking on behalf of the Hillary for President campaign, Domestic Policy Director Catherine Brown confirmed that Senator Clinton supports a funding increase to $200 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (now currently at $144.7 million).
• Heather Higginbottom, the Senior Policy Strategist for the Obama for America campaign, outlined Senator Obama’s proposals, including the “Artist Corps” initiative to strengthen arts education in low-income schools.  Higginbottom was joined by Broadway producer Margo Lion, a co-chair of the 31-member Obama Arts Policy Committee.
• Dave Crane, a senior education advisor to the John McCain 2008 campaign, committed to considering how to include arts education into the national McCain education plan.

All available campaign materials on the arts are can be read online at www.ArtsVote.org.

Americans for the Arts Action Fund’s ArtsVote2008 seeks to secure bold, new policy proposals in support of the arts and arts education in America from candidates during the 2008 presidential campaign.  ArtsVote is a national initiative to help the arts impact the presidential election.

The Arts Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit membership organization created by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization for advancing arts in America. Launched in 2004, it seeks to engage citizens in education and advocacy in support of the arts and arts education. The Arts Action Fund’s goal is to enlist and mobilize citizen activists who will help ensure that arts-friendly public policies are adopted at the Federal, state, and local levels, and public and private resources are maximized. Additional information is available at www.ArtsActionFund.org.