Examiner.com has arranged for White House officials to answer questions from Examiners and Examiner readers about any topic related to President Obama’s State of the Union address this evening. Opportunity doesn’t knock twice and this is a very relevant opportunity for San Diego, where tourism is the second largest industry and cultural tourism plays an important role in that success.
The exclusion of art projects which have a good track record as engines of economic growth from the stimulus programs and future investments is difficult to overlook. The value added in art related projects is very high compared to some stimulus projects such subsidizing for-profit universities which are unable to place a third or more of their graduates in relevant positions. The high value added of art and creative professions was especially visible this weekend at the Insignia Sportswear Show and California Gift Show. Both of these programs showed many specific examples of well designed art increasing the value of a blank canvas or other sturdy material by ten or twenty times.
Some of the most financially significant issues in the arts are rarely discussed. For example, non-profit art museums and art related grant making organizations like the Putnam Foundation have a disgorgement requirement. That means they are supposed to spend at least five percent of their endowment each year on education programs and acquisition of assets related to their mission. As San Diego based Blackbaud Corporation has pointed out in its research of the non-profit sector, staff turnover among business managers is very high about 30% a year. This has gone hand-in-hand with routine disregard for disgorgement requirements and other guidelines for making non-profits efficient enough to achieve their full potential as engines of economic growth. Will the White House have more to say about these subjects of importance to the arts? It will if you will.
Comments