Should Indy sell sponsorships to fund the arts?

[Pat Coyle]

Venice installs Coke machines to save art and architecture
BBC News - The Italian newspapers claim that Venice is not only being swamped with mass tourism and threatened by floods from the Adriatic Sea, but will soon also be awash with fizzy drinks. The city council has accepted a $2.7m subsidy from the drinks giant, Coca Cola.

Sixty vending machines will sell the drink all over the city, including at the main waterbus stations and reportedly even St Mark's Square, where a city ordinance already forbids picnicking by tourists.

Mayor, Massimo Cacciari, says that commercial sponsorship is the only financial strategy for safeguarding the monuments of Venice, he says. The cash-strapped Italian government led by Silvio Berlusconi has slashed its budget for culture and the arts by a half this year and is investing millions of dollars in an ambitious engineering scheme of flood barriers to prevent Venice being swamped by high tides in winter.

Should Indy sell sponsorships to fund the arts? Share your comments here

[Andrew Ball]

Why not? We sell a variation of sponsorships in the naming rights for sports venues. Others have suggested selling the naming right to the new convention center. How about: The Cha Cha Center...

[Mike Seidle]

This idea beats the heck out of raising taxes, use fees and so on.

[Taylor Martin]

Yes, anything to help it survive. There's 2 words to the 'art business' and only one is art.

Taylor

[Nancy Lee]

The question regarded funding of the arts was via corporate sponsorships, not by raising taxes. By the way funding for the arts has already been cut by Mayor Ballard. Frankly, most artists/arts organizations cannot depend on money from taxes to survive on - it is always among the first things cut in tough economic times.

Having corporate sponsorships is a way to infuse some cash into a worthwhile facet of our city. Worthwhile at least in the view of young professionals who look for a vibrant arts community to attract and retain them in cities where they become a part of the tax base. And as the Arts Council's data states:

The Arts in Indianapolis generate $468 million to the city’s economy each year. $52 million of that activity is realized in state and county tax revenue. The arts support over 15,000 jobs, and make a good public investment for every $1 of local government support the arts generate $5 in return to the city’s economy.

If the arts can get more cash through corporate sponsorships, that would be fine with me. How else will Indy become a "world-class city" without the arts?

A final note about taxes and corporate sponsorships: Indianapolis exists in the minds of many as a mecca for sports. Please keep and eye on the massive tax handouts provided to Lucas Oil Stadium and Conseco Fieldhouse. Both of those institutions are in trouble and asking for more money - potentially from taxes which would take away money from schools and other worthwhile institutions.

The fact of the matter is that everyone is hurting. I would realistically not expect corporate sponsorships to assist any artists or arts programs that I know of anytime soon, but it sure is fun to think about. The Pepsi Pop School of Arts and Crafts. The Coca-Cola Cafe and Art Co-Op. Might as well have a snack with your soda - how about the Frito Lay Museum of Art?

[Steve Stuck]

I would like to see a break down of how this organization comes up with how it brings this much money to the city in revenue each year. I went to the website and cannot find a complete breakdown.

Why I question this is because if you were to take the $1 of tax revenue spent on art that then generates $5 of consumption from people seeing Art, then the $3 Million of art the city spent at the new airport would then be bringing in $15 million in revenue. How would you measure that economic thesis?

Does the City of Indianapolis and Indiana Internal Tax have tax revenue audit stats to back this up?

[Pat Coyle]

I think selling sponsorships on state or city media / assets makes sense, and so far everyone else seems to like the concept...but taking it to the extreme, where will this (potentially) lead? Might we change our name altogether

Just as the Hoosier Dome became RCA Stadium...

Indiana could become the State of Microsoft (or whatever)

And Indy could become Prozacville...(so our airport would be Prozac International).

No more Monument Circle. Instead we'd have Pepsi Circle.

At what point do we say, um, that's far enough?

[Cissi Sherlock]

1) And, I am so with you on this! Why tax me venues that I don't attend or support, when those that do would not mind paying the extra dollars. They are going to spend it in concessions, anyway!


I just read in Wednesday's Star that Jim Irsay is opposed to charging an additional ticket tax and that the Pacers never have.

Hello!!!!! When you buy your tickets from TicketMaster you pay them a surcharge and it goes into their pockets. At least in this cast we can see where the money is going. and, with the coming of the Super Bowl, there are people who are already budgeting to be here in 2012. they are already prepared to spen thousands of dollars for America's unofficial holiday, what's 3 to 6 more per person. Do they realize how much moey that would bring in???

Or, is Jim Irsay afraid that someone won't like him because the tickets cost a few dollars more?

If I pay $150 - will (say) $153 break the bank?

2) I have always been for corporations supporting elementary schools in many different ways. If you want to give those kid a leg up, don't wait until high school, create an early foundation for success. And, it should be easier for corporations to adopt a school. I even see tax breaks for corporations that do.

There are many athletes that get the support in high school, but that is after they have proven themselves. Start early so that the parents can breath easily about the future of their children. All children are not going to be athletes, but they can be something with the support of their community.

I see a sort of "Habitat for Humanities" for elementary schools!

[Cissi Sherlock]

Of course!!!!

When I was in elementary school, there was a city and state wide contest called "Music Memory". Even in ghetto schools, we were taught classical music and standards and had to compete for our schools in how well we knew the music. I won city and competed in regional (I was a nerd! Do you call a ghetto nerd a "GERD"!)). My point being that today, because of my education in the arts, (in this case Musical) I mentally prospered and I believe I get along better with people today!

We had a program when I was in the third grade where they would have us dress up and take us out to lunch in couples to a high end restaurant. Before the field trip, we were instructed in etiquette and manners. We were then graded on how well we used them. My class went to the Ayre's Tea Room. We had to be ladies and gentlemen of and we were graded on it.

We strove to produce a better class of people. We went to plays. We participated in plays. We went to hear important people speak, sing, dance, talk and play music. It was ground into us that arts and etiquette were the key to our future and that it would make us better people. Seeing the movie "The Red Shoes", going to Clowes Hall to hear the orchestra and ballet perform Copelia and other classics, going to art museums and symphonic productions in Indianapolis and Dallas to study the classics as well as the moderns, made me who I am today and I sure is would be a formula that would be successful today. Quiet as it's kept, I even went to Times Square in 2000 to study street art!

Such things open and expand our minds and our hearts and just make us better, more well-rounded people.

Throwing away the arts is like throwing away history and a foundation of our future. We need to have a secure way to fund ours and our children's futures and not end up storing everything in a vault and wasting away. Episodes of The Twilight Zone and such movies as The Time Machine and the Planet of the Apes series come to mind. Remember the scene where the statue of liberty is sunk into the muck and mire of human destruction.

Where will we be if we destroy (or let fall to the wayside) everything we are based on as a people, especially our creative outlets?

NOTE: For additional information on the historic L. S. Ayres department store and tea room, click here.

[Nancy Lee]

There is no denying the arts receive tax dollars. My previous statement was that funding had been cut by the current administration. This is common knowledge.

The arts doesn't just mean looking at a painting. The arts provide us with architecture for the buildings we work in, the music we listen to, including the marching bands at half-time, the culinary arts for the food we eat in restaurants, theatrical productions like "The Lion King" and the Disney movies, the clothes we wear, the jewelry and handbags we (I) buy, etc. The arts surround people of all ages and cultural backgrounds (you are right, not just young professionals) even if we do not notice them as such.

The Arts Council has a study regarding the economic impact of the arts: "Economic Impact Study 2007". Please check it out for some interesting facts.
http://www.artscouncilofindianapolis.org/research/economic_impact_s...

When I am traveling, and I tell people where I am from, the first comment about our city is sports-related. ""Oh, the Indianapolis 500!" or "How about those Colts", something like that. They are not talking about the arts so it seems that there is no imminent danger of Indy being associated with the arts before sports. However, it is still only my humble opinion that Indianapolis is known outside of Indiana for sports first.

My home town schools girls sports team is still known as one of the strongest to come out of the school, back in the olden days, and it has enriched my life in many ways - I do support sports. I do not begrudge sports team corporate sponsorships - why should an artist not get the same opportunity?

Perhaps some corporate sponsorships come through - that would be great. Especially if they would fund a school or enrichment programs, as Cissy Sherlock suggests. The type of school programs and experiences like the ones Cissy had should be supported! What a wonderful way to enrich the lives of youth and create well-rounded individuals.

I further agree with Cissy's statement "Where will we be if we destroy (or let fall to the wayside) everything we are based on as a people, especially our creative outlets?"

[Cissi Sherlock]

Thank you, Nancy!

[Cissi Sherlock]

Sadly, I wish they would.

[Andrew Ball]

As I recall some small time athlete named Woods is sponsored by some small time company called Nike. And some small time race series is sponsored by some small time telecommunications company called Sprint. I'm just sayin'.....