Willow Fox from 4culture.org forwarded me an email from Lynn Basa about arts in the US. She doesn't identify who Basa is, but the email is fascinating and includes some relevant phone numbers. Warning: I have not tried any of these phone numbers, so try them at your own risk.________________________________________________
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"I was at a political fundraiser tonight and got introduced to someone who worked for Obama when he was in the State senate and who is now a lobbyist. I basically cornered him and told him what a terrible impact it would have on artists' livelihoods and those we employ if infrastructure stimulus funds were prevented from being used on public art.
I could see him get very interested when I told him we had a national group of almost 300 artists. He took out his Blackberry and gave me a list of every member of the House and Senate who is on the Conference Committee that is battling it out about what can be put back in the bill. THERE'S STILL TIME to get art in infrastructure back into the stimulus package. He guessed that we have until Friday.
He said to call each of the members on the conference committee. It doesn't matter if you live in their districts. He said e-mail gets ignored and it's too late for letters. He said even 45 calls to each office could get them to pay attention. I've done this before and know that you'll get an aide or a voice mail. All you have to do is say "I'm calling to tell Senator X/Representative Y to change the
wording in the Stimulus to allow for public art to be included in
infrastructure funding."
Here are the U.S. Senators and Congressmen:HOUSE
Obey (202) 225-3365
Rangel (202) 225-4365
Waxman (202) 225-3976
Jerry Lewis (202) 225-5861
Camp (202) 225-3561
SENATE
Reed (202) 224-3934
Inouye (202) 224-3934
Baucus (202) 224-2651
Cochran (202) 224-5054
Grassly (202) 224-3744"
2009 Orlando Fringe: Our Guide | Write reviews | Read reviews | Patron Choice Awards