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For the Poor, the Arts Are a Path to Opportunity
Robert L. Lynch and Arts Advocate/Actor Robert Redford at our National Arts Policy Roundtable. Oct. 2012
This Letter to the Editor was co-authored by Robert L. Lynch and Robert Redford and originally published in the New York Times on February 11, 2014. The New York Times version incorrectly mentions the city of Los Angeles. This version correctly states the city as San Diego.
To the Editor:
Re “N.E.A. Funds Benefit Both Rich and Poor, Study Finds” (Arts pages, Feb. 5):
A few years ago, a homeless girl in Los Angeles walked into a community arts center. Her name is Inocente. An Oscar-winning documentary by the same name told the story of how the arts turned her life around. Her success story illustrates the benefit of the arts to thousands of poor children and lower-income people all across our country.
The assertion by the House Budget Committee that the arts are the domain of the wealthy has proved to be a myth. A Southern Methodist University study reaffirms what nearly 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations already know. Public funding allows access to the arts for millions of Americans who otherwise couldn’t afford the benefit of the arts in their lives.
Arts are a path to opportunity. Businesses benefit from the creativity, perseverance and problem-solving skills that Americans develop through the arts. The arts drive private-sector investment and job creation. Every dollar of N.E.A. funding generates $9 of non-federal money to the arts, and the nonprofit arts industry generates 4.1 million jobs.
This new study can help educate our elected leaders from both sides of the aisle about the true value of the arts for all our children, our communities and our country.
Read this Letter to the Editor in The New York Times.
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Statement on the Passing of Joan Mondale
I know the nation’s arts community joins me in mourning the loss of one of our country’s staunchest arts advocates, Joan Mondale. As the wife of Walter Mondale, vice president to President Jimmy Carter, she used her public position to place a bright spotlight on the vital role that artists and arts organizations play in strengthening American communities.
Mrs. Mondale intersected with Americans for the Arts on a number of notable occasions, beginning with her service on our board in the mid-1970’s, when we were known by one of our predecessor names, the American Council for the Arts. In 1977, she was the guest speaker at the tenth annual meeting of the Business Committee for the Arts (now a division of Americans for the Arts).
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“It's Not Forever”: Temporary Works and Deaccessioning
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Directing the Conversation: Anticipation and Harnessing the Power of NEW
In the theater, there is value in new work. In both the art and the nature of “new,” there’s excitement in the process of discovery, risk, and reward.
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Pro Sports could be your Arts Organization’s next Power Play
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BEA’s Arts in the GDP Study: How You Can Help Make it Great
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A Shared Endeavor
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The Sweet Side of Arts and Business (from the pARTnership Movement)
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Arts Education Matters, Darn It!
Each day we witness the power of the arts to transform lives – whether it's a child learning to draw, a teenager taki
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Friday Is the New Tuesday, and Other Observations on the “New Normal” in the Nonprofit Arts Sector
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Bob Lynch's Statement Receiving the Sidney R. Yates Award from APAP 1/14/14
Statement made at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters' Awards Conference on January 14, where I was honored with the Sidney R. Yates Award:
My very first National Arts management training came from Association for Performing Arts Presenters conferences in the mid-seventies. I needed that because my presenting passions were not usually very lucrative: prisons, senior centers, inner-city and rural communities, large, all-embracing community festivals.
