While all three donor groups will be affected by the crisis, I believe we will see the biggest impact on corporate giving. Foundations may reduce funding as their endowments shrink but many are increasing their spending rates to help during this crisis. Individuals are typically the most generous during downturns.
I started drafting this post April 25th. Now that Washington is playing host to both Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan today, I guess, it’s time to pull this out.
I’m swapping books with a friend – she sent me Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, I finally sent her A Thousand Splendid Sunsby Khaled Hosseini (born in Afghanistan; immigrated to the US). Fiction is where I usually like to start to get some kind of insider, textured, human and non-statistical perspective. My friend and I both agree about Afghanistan [and I’d add Pakistan] – this will be part of our public and political conversations for awhile.
Even before September 11, 2001, warnings were circulating about the Taliban through grassroots efforts of human and women’s rights groups. In the late 1990s I would walk to and from the Metro station noticing a sign posted in the 2nd or 3rd floor window of a commercial building – a cry for help for Afghan women. A photo of a woman covered in a Burka would appear from time-to-time. Aside from the history lessons of Marco Polo and the boycott of the Olympics during the Carter administration, Afghanistan at that time seemed so far over there that it even transcended modern time.
I catch a video of a gigantic Buddha standing inside a sandstone cliff. Having stood for 1500 years, 12 stories high, the Buddha crumbles from the explosives planted by the Taliban. Religious cleansing. Cast out of the landscape. Cut off at the knee caps. There is no place for nirvana here. But there is talk that a sleeping Buddha remains and has yet to be found.
These were the signs…before 2001.
Burning schools for girls, public floggings, casting out widows, executing young lovers.
How a group treats its women, children, and people unlike themselves or have a different point of view illustrates how badly and even harshly they will govern.
I’m also reading Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time. It amazes me how far people stray from the teachings of their prophets. I can see these prophets now sitting with their head in their hands – “That’s not what I said.”
Nicholas Kristof said as much on his blog where he published an interview with the mayor of Karachi, Syed Kamal:
Let me just say it very categorically there is no 2 version of Quran or in the interpretation of Quran, what we see happening in the name of Islam and Quran in the valleys of Pakistan, it’s not Islam and Quran’s version. It is more a tribal traditions and customs combined with the medieval illiterate and brain washed people’s philosophy. Quran rather emphasizes men and women both to get education and knowledge of the world as much as possible.
From my reading I’ve learned the refugee crisis during the Soviet occupation brought Afghanis to neighboring countries like Iran and Parkistan. Iran, I gather, was firm enough to keep their system from being weakened by outside influences; but Pakistan, obviously, was fractured and fragile. There must be a whole lot more drama on that border terrain and a whole less control of what happens or who’s moving back and forth across the mountains.
I’m learning as I go. One thing I’ve come to believe in the last 8 years or so — no one should underestimate the human need for order and security even at the cost of personal freedom. Perception shouldn’t be underestimated as well, i.e. size matters. Any large force or troop build up is perceived as an occupier. Any attack on civilians is seen as an enemy invasion and/or a crime.
Remember when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry found their 1984 Afghan girl – Sharbat Gula? Her first photo was a work of art – one of the world’s famous faces; her second was a sign of the times, a reunion in a refugee camp in 2001.
A member of the Pashtun ethnic group in Afghanistan, Sharbat said she fared relatively well under Taliban rule, which, she feels, provided a measure of stability after the chaos and terror of the Soviet war.
Now that the Taliban has had time to settle in, it’s now clear their mission has evolved politically; they are hungry for more power.
Talibans rise and are the products of corruption within governments in power. Yet Talibans are like predatory understudies; just another cast of ambitious individuals who prey on the poor, insecure, and uneducated. The same people often neglected, exploited or cast aside by their own “democratic” governments or occupiers. So in calculated swoops, the Taliban take control using fear, cultural intimacy, and the need for order. This has nothing to do with religious freedom.
I see Sarah Chayes (www.sarahchayes.net ) on “Bill Moyers,” a former NPR reporter who decided to take up residence in Afghanistan to create micro economies in former Taliban strongholds. Her goal is to discourage opium production among farmers. An insightful perspective on that is the original 1989 mini-series “Traffik” produced by Britain’s Channel 4 that looks at drug trafficking across three countries – Germany, UK, and Pakistan – and from the bottom up as well as top down. The 2000 American feature film only focused on the middle men, and the people at the top which I thought missed the point entirely. I actually watched my DVD copy of the mini-series in one day months ago.
My friend and I will share notes. It’s too late to read the signs. We can only stick to the road. We’ll consider recommendations.
IMO the most egalitarian public taxpayer space on earth–at least in my city–is the local DMV. In this room, all are equal, there are no free passes; there is no privilege except if you have a spotless driving record. [The actual car inspection garage may be the exception. They definitely will drive a BMW with more care than your Pontiac onto the ramps.]
I don’t always feel that same “e pluribus unum” vibe in our arts and cultural spaces. One can see, hear, and even smell the divisions particularly by class, race, and education reflected in who’s attending this event, contributing to the fundraising, box vs. 1st or 2nd tier. And who really benefits from cultural enrichment when parents bring their artistic kids to perform or do their thing, then leave the event once it’s done before the entire show is over. Maybe it’s to get back to a job, or to have a smoke.
The management of arts and cultural organziations may also be in peril by having their own class wars over public and private funding. Some claim they are entitled to certain public tax-payer funds over others (let’s repeat – “public tax-payer funds”). These debates may be distractions from the fact that during the economic downturn, audiences are setting their own priorities, cutting back, or are simply not showing up for lack of interest.
And Hollywood is prepared to take them all in this summer – Yeah, I’m seeing “Star Trek,” “The Terminator” and what else? But let’s not separate Hollywood. Once the lights go out in a movie theater, it’s an egalitarian space. Audience’s film choices may signal any and all other social characteristics.
Sunday, the Washington Post devoted its entire Style & Arts section to arts and the economy – “State of Emergency.”
I’ve been talking with local artists in check out lines and over the phone about their audience development. And for some reason, we all seem to agree on the “small is beautiful” model. Those who are less stressful work within their means and are steady on vision and mission. They grow by steps and not necessarily leaps. Others enjoy presenting in the 100 seater or the black box space where they intereact with their audience, there’s no place for cliques to go off to themselves. It’s like the old speakeasy or rent party where Zora’s taking a pan gingerbread from the oven to serve with a glass of buttermilk because the check for that last article was still in the mail.
Maybe DC arts is more of a cabaret than a coleseum.
However, undercutting the “small is beautiful” model is the Kennedy Center which has for some time aspired to be something more than local, and everything — from small to grand — in scope. Jacqueline Trescott writes in the WaPo The mantra at the Kennedy Center during good and bad times is to put your best foot foward, even if the price tag is high, because great art will produce strong revenue.
The KC is banking on two big Tony Award-winning musical productions: “Ragtime” and “The Color Purple” (road tour) with American Idol winner Fantasia. The American musical is probably an egalitarian art form when it comes to bringing audiences into art spaces. But the ticket prices hinder its ability to have that full “big tent” effect until the script and score hit the regional and high school stages. Musicals are expensive to produce and don’t always bring in a profit. Investors are necessary however, the KC managed to bring together not just investors, but donors for “Ragtime.” Currently ticket prices for the two musicals at the Kennedy Center range from $25 – $90.
Readers can chat online with KC President Michael M. Kaiser live on the economic crisis and its affect on the Arts acommunity, Tuesday, May 5 at 11 AM (washingtonpost.com/style).
Even in New York, where one doesn’t have to justify the value of the arts within the frame of an educational or behavior modification tool, the big benefit galas are also in recession for lack of willing honorees. For those unfamiliar with the routine, there’s more expected of an honoree than just showing up. …an honoree is not chosen just to give a speech and be feted. He or she must be willing to make a big donation, usually from the company’s coffers, and — more important — to invite friends and contacts to the gala who will buy $20,000 tables or single tickets for $2,000 to $3,000, bringing new support to the organization. New York Times (5/3/09)
And there’s the peer pressure on the social scale as all fundraisers will attest: Just as potential honorees don’t want to pressure contacts to buy tables, neither do they want to be embarrassed if their “list” doesn’t buy enough tickets.
In these tough times some sort of balance needs to be achieved between public and private financial support of arts and culture. It’s not that we’ve got a Chrysler situation where no one’s buying. The question may be why should they? Arts education may have an answer. Bringing students up close including behind the scenes also brings in the next generation of audiences or contributors. But when public schools require that arts organizations provide transportation to events whereas private schools do not — these could be speed bumps to the presenting group who might opt to accomodate the private school if funds are limited.
Some kind of truce needs to happen between organizations competing for the public funds in these uncertain times. What are the options for collaboration? As I’ve said, the operating clause needs to be “and” not “or.”
This could be the reason why I’m reading more and more books about the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its arts projects (writers, theater, music, visual arts).
Maybe the next art and cultural space will be the local DMV.
I had no intention of giving up bacon. But apparently someone else wasn’t so sure about bringing it home along with the Swine flu.
The Obama team knows the power of words, so they’ve given the pig farmers and maybe the pigs a break. We’re now dealing with H1N1. Note: You don’t get H1N1 by eating pork. High blood pressure, maybe. The wrath of God for some religions, maybe.
After the Vice President’s direct fatherly or brotherly advice, the President has stepped in with some official words of information and a little comfort. Even some kudos to his predecessor for preparations as part of their Homeland Security program. I’m off to work in a very public place. For this administration, hand washing only applies to its literal interpretation in preventing the spread of H1N1 flu.
May Day! May Day!Undercover Blackman published his last post today. Undercover Blackman was the blog created by Emmy award-winning writer and producer David Mills (“Homocide…, “The Corner,” “NYPD Blues,” “King Pin”). The archives is still live. There are classics. Relive the longest Democratic campaign in history – 2008. Check out the music. Check out Random.
UBM let us rant, rave, debate, even cuss each other out. Only the most outrageous (and that must’ve been pretty low in bad taste) were removed from the comments. He researched, busted a lot of bloggers on their BS.