The Creative Coalition Urges Congress to Support Funding for the Arts in the U.S.; The Creative Coalition and American Photo Magazine Present the “Art and Soul” Compilation to Washington Leaders
WASHINGTON, DC–(Marketwire – May 7, 2009) – On Friday, May 8, The Creative Coalition, the national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization for leaders in the arts and entertainment industry, will lead a distinguished group of entertainment industry leaders to Washington to urge The White House and the U.S. Congress to support public funding for arts and arts education. The delegation will present “Art and Soul,” which features anecdotal experiences from prominent Americans who have benefited from a strong arts background. “Art & Soul” is produced by The Creative Coalition and American Photo magazine, a Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. publication, using Blurb’s creative publishing platform in partnership with Sony Artisans of Imagery™ Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Brian Smith, Blurb and Splashlight. Blurb’s platform gave The Creative Coalition the creative control to design the book to their exact specifications, and to publish it in a matter of weeks.
The Creative Coalition Executive Director Robin Bronk writes in Art & Soul’s foreword:
When faced with a collapsing economy, President Franklin Roosevelt tried to put Americans in all lines of work back on the job. Instead of singling out artists as somehow frivolous and unimportant to our nation’s economy, he instituted a host of programs designed to put federal funds into the arts, employing America’s creative talent and leaving a cultural legacy that endures still today.
The highpoint of this commitment was the Works Progress Administration’s Federal One program, which put thousands of Americans to work in the arts. The government program was a lifeline for Jackson Pollock, Burt Lancaster, Sidney Lumet, Ralph Ellison, Studs Terkel, John Cheever, Saul Bellow, and thousands of other artists across the country.
These programs created much-needed jobs in the immediate term, but they did much more. They fostered great talents that otherwise may have been lost. The work of the many great artists supported by the government in the 1930s still benefits us today. Their contributions to our culture endure, and their successful careers resulted in employment for many others in the years that followed.
We cannot forget this lesson of our not-so-distant history. Faced with an economic downturn of staggering proportions, some attack any help for the arts as waste, ignoring the millions of Americans who earn their livings and support their families through their artistic endeavors and arts-related enterprises.
Beyond the finances, though, investing in the arts during these tough times can ensure that America doesn’t lose a generation of creative talent to our temporary economic woes. Somewhere in America today, there are individuals with the potential of Orson Welles and the artistic gifts of Mark Rothko.
Look deep into the souls of those artists who are portrayed in these pages. They truly represent a great American legacy.
“Art and Soul” was photographed in mid-February in Los Angeles a few days leading up to the Oscars at an exclusive event called Haven produced by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Each portrait was taken by Brian Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Sony Artisans of Imagery™ photographer, who has been creating bold, graphic images of celebrities, athletes and executives for more than 25 years. The portraits are accompanied by personal testimonials from each artist which express their support for the importance of the arts in our lives.
Participants include actor and Creative Coalition Co-President Tim Daly, Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, Tony Bennett, Anne Hathaway, Dana Delany, Kerry Washington, Alfre Woodard, Zooey Deschanel, Alyssa Milano, and David Hyde Pierce, among others. Elementary school students from Loyloa Village Fine and Performing Arts Magnet School in the Los Angeles Unified School District also participated.
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