Arts Day: Frequently Asked Questions
• What is Arts Day?
• What is the schedule on Arts Day?
•What are our goals for Arts Day 2007?
• How do Arts Wisconsin, Wisconsin's arts
community, and the Legislature fit together?
• How does the Legislature work?
• After Arts Day, is there anything else
I can do to help?
• I can't come to Madison for Arts Day this year, but I still want
to help. What can I do?
• My organization wants to be involved.
What can we do?
• Why do we want to talk to all legislators?
• What is Arts Wisconsin?
• What issues does Arts Wisconsin work on?
• Where does state arts money go?
• What is the Wisconsin Arts Board?
A: Arts Day is when arts advocates come to the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison to visit their legislators. We work in teams, organized by Arts Wisconsin and its advocacy captains network, and ask legislators to support the arts.
At Arts Day, representatives of all parts of Wisconsin's extraordinary arts community come together for one day to:
1. Talk about the arts
2. Make new friends
3. Educate elected officials about the importance of the arts to Wisconsin
Each year, there are representatives from small rural choirs and suburban community theaters, presenters and big organizations, museums and art centers of all sizes, painters, tenors, dancers, cellists, french horn players, arts administrators and YOU... joining together for this big day.
Past participants have enthusiastically reported three things about Arts Day:
First, they feel empowered by gathering together with like-minded people. Each year, at least 150 arts advocates attend Arts Day!
Second, they say that Arts Day is the best arts networking event of the year. This is the one of the only times that Wisconsin arts activists of all kinds gather together in one place. Through this big day, we show what a strong, vital arts community we have in Wisconsin. The unified voice of the arts community, through participation in events like Arts Day, is critical to successful increases in arts funding.
Third, they report increasing interest in the message about the economic, educational and civic impact of the arts from their elected representatives.
On Arts Day, we are out in full force to say "Please make an investment in the arts!"
Q: What is the schedule on Arts Day 2007?
A: Click here for the Arts Day schedule.
Q: What are our goals for Arts Day 2007?
A: Our goals are threefold:
1. We're here to ask legislators personally to support arts funding.
2. We're here to educate legislators about arts and arts education activities in their district.
3. We're here to give a face to the arts in each legislator's district.
Q: How do Arts Wisconsin, Wisconsin’s arts community and the Legislature fit together?
A: At Arts Wisconsin, Everyone gets involved and works together:
• Forming the legislative agenda
• Funding Arts Wisconsin
• Gathering Information
• Serving on the board
• Volunteering time
• Providing feedback
Arts Wisconsin connect Wisconsin’s arts industry to decision-makers, and watches action at the Capitol so we can tell our members what's happening, who to call, and what the issues are. We also talk directly with legislators as bills move through the Legislature. Arts advocates from all over the state talk to their legislators about the arts and why they should vote with us.
Legislators vote on arts issues knowing that their constituents believe the arts are important.
Q: How does the Legislature work?
A: There are several steps:
1. The Legislators and the Governor work hard to make friends in their districts, raise money for their campaigns, and get elected. It's important that arts folks get involved in the campaigns of both parties so even more legislators will be our friends, and, that advocates continue to build relationships with legislators during their terms in office. The Legislature has a Senate (33 members) and an Assembly (99 members). You live in the district of one Senator and one Representative.
2. There are a lot of issues to be discussed and voted on each year, so the Assembly and Senate split up into committees, just like most non-profit boards do, to get most of their work done. The Chairs of the committees have the most power, so Arts Wisconsin works especially hard to educate the committee chairs about the arts.
3. The Governor introduces his budget in February of the budget season year. After that happens, the Legislature gets to put its stamp on it. During the legislative session, the state's budget is split into pieces and sent to the committees for discussion and votes, including the arts budget. We pay most attention to the committee that gets the arts. (The budget making process takes place in odd numbered years; 2003, 2005, 2007, etc. Right now, they are working on the 2007-2009 budget).
4. In both the Assembly and Senate, once committees decide how much money they will spend, they send their piece to the "floor" so that the whole Legislature can vote on it. This is another good time to advocate by calling or writing your legislators.
5. The Senate and Assembly then have to agree with each other on how the final bill will look. This process is overseen by a “conference committee” made up of members of both houses. Arts Wisconsin tries to help them to agree on a high amount for the arts.
6. When the Legislature is done, the budget goes to the Governor to sign. Arts Wisconsin encourages advocates to help educate the Governor about the arts so he won't veto the budget. When the budget is signed, we are finished. The money goes to the Wisconsin Arts Board, and other state agencies, to be distributed for arts opportunities all over the state.
Q: After Arts Day, is there anything else I can do to help?
A: YES! Two simple ways you can help the cause:
1 Send a thank you letter to your legislators when you get home, thanking
them for your visit in Madison and asking them once again to support the
arts. Get your friends, relatives and colleagues to write a short letter
too.
2 Join Arts Wisconsin’s Legislative Action Center Arts Alert list,
and find out before everyone else what is going on at the Legislature
for the arts. Just email Arts Wisconsin (info@artswisconsin.org) and ask
to be added to the email arts alert list.
• I can't come to Madison for Arts Day this year, but I still want to help. What can I do?
A: YES! On Wednesday, March 7, Arts Wisconsin’s Legislative Action Center will have a template message to your legislators asking them to support the arts. You can personalize the template with stories from your community, to make it easy for you. And check out the Advocacy Calendar for individuals to see what's hot!
Q: My organization wants to be involved. What can we do?
A: 1. Recruit people from your organization to attend Arts Day. Registration will be online soon!
2. Check out Arts Wisconsin’s political "dos and don'ts", and check our Advocacy Calendar to see how your organization can get involved with what's happening right now!
Q: Why do we want to talk to all legislators?
A: Every legislator is responsible, in part, for the availability of arts resources because they all vote to approve the final appropriations bills. We need every legislator to have personal knowledge and experience in how arts funding brings cultural resources to their own town, how important the arts are to their friends and neighbors…YOU.
A: Arts Wisconsin is the state's arts service, advocacy and development organization. We are:
--Your voice at the Capitol--we organize and educate the arts community
to affect the outcome of legislative decisions on arts funding, tax policies
that affect philanthropy, and other issues important to the non-profit
arts.
--Individual artists and arts advocates, including audiences in every
corner of Wisconsin.
--Small, medium, rural, suburban and metro arts organizations of all genres
and their staff, boards, and audiences (there are over 2000 non-profit
arts organizations in the state).
--Large arts organizations of all genres and their staff, boards and audiences.
Q: What issues does Arts Wisconsin work on?
A: Arts Wisconsin works on issues of importance to Wisconsin’s arts industry, and to the state as a whole:
• State Arts Funding. To ensure access to the arts for everyone
in Wisconsin by working to protect, and hopefully, increase, state appropriations
to the arts in Wisconsin. State funding reaches into every Wisconsin county
via the grants and services of the Wisconsin Arts Board.
• Enlightened Tax Policies. Recognizing and encouraging the public's
engagement with and support of nonprofits by working to promote and maintain
tax policies beneficial to charitable giving, arts philanthropy and nonprofit
arts organizations.
• Arts Education. To support the inclusion of arts as a basic requirement
in Wisconsin schools by supporting the work of our sister organization,
the Wisconsin Alliance for Arts in Education.
• National Endowment for the Arts. To support federal funding of
the arts and enlightened national tax policies for charities.
Remember, the priorities of the arts are the priorities of the state: good jobs, quality education, and healthy communities.
Q: Where does state arts money go?
A: The Wisconsin Arts Board is the primary state agency that funds the arts. The Arts Board ensures that state funding reaches every single Wisconsin county in grants and services, so all legislative districts benefit from these grants. The Wisconsin Arts Board provides grants to small, medium and large arts organizations and other organizations providing arts programs for the people of Wisconsin; individual artists and schools; presenting organizations; arts education programs; folk and traditional arts programs; and festivals across the state. The Arts Board also provides news, information, resources, arts directories, workshops and technical assistance to all.
Q: What is the Wisconsin Arts Board?
A: The Wisconsin Arts Board is funded primarily by the State of Wisconsin, supplemented by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the private sector. The Arts Board is governed by up to fifteen private citizens appointed by the Governor from all over the state to serve four year terms. Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton currently serves as chair of the Arts Board. As a state agency, the board sponsors a wide variety of grant programs, services and resource publications for individual artists, arts organizations and schools throughout the state. More information about the Arts Board is available at www.arts.state.wi.us | 608 266 0190.