press room

For Immediate Release

11/10/2006

Contact:
Beth Olsen
Goodman Media for Americans for the Arts
212.576.2700 x243
bolsen@goodmanmedia.com


Americans Vote for the Arts!

All Twelve Local and State Ballot Initiatives Supporting the Arts Tracked by Americans for the Arts Action Fund,  Pass in Six States Pro-Arts Candidates Elected at the Local, State and Federal Levels

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 2006 — According to an analysis released today by Americans for the Arts Action Fund, Election Day, November 7, was a good day for local initiatives supporting the arts. Twelve such initiatives were on ballots in six states, and all passed convincingly.  The 11 local initiatives that passed were in California, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Utah and one statewide ballot initiative in Louisiana.  In addition, pro-arts candidates were elected at the local, state, and federal levels increasing the outlook for the National Endowment for the Arts and for arts education funding.

A state-by-state listing of the 12 local and state initiatives and the election results is available here. The analysis report of the 2006 election impact on the arts at the federal, state, and local levels is available online www.artsactionfund.org/stay_informed/special_reports.

“We are proud to highlight the great support for the arts during this election,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Arts Action Fund. “These local ballot initiatives will make a huge difference in the lives of children and families in these communities. Through the Arts Action Fund we reached thousands of Americans this year and encouraged them to vote for the Arts.”

A significant electoral exchange is the replacement of current Republican House leaders—Majority Leader John Boehner (OH) and Whip Roy Blunt (MO) who received grades of D and F on Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC's 2006 Congressional Arts Report Card—for incoming arts-friendly House leadership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who both received a grade of A.

In a change whose implications are profound, the chairmen of both the House and Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittees, which have jurisdiction over funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), lost their races. Neither House Subcommittee Chairman Charles Taylor (R-NC) nor Senate Subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-MT) had ever proposed an increase for either agency.

There was minimal change in the Senate Cultural Caucus. Of its 31 members, only two are not returning: co-chair Jim Jeffords (I-VT) who is retiring and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) who was not re-elected.  In addition, both co-chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus, Representatives Louis Slaughter (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) won re-election.

Americans for the Arts, the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America, created the Arts Action Fund in 2004 to engage citizens throughout the nation in making known their support for the arts and advocating increasing support from all funding sources.

Americans for the Arts Action Fund and its connected PAC add a new dimension to arts advocacy in the United States by providing a vehicle through which any citizen can help ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to appreciate, value, and participate in the arts. Additional information on the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, including information on how to join, is available at www.ArtsActionFund.org.