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

[Marty posch]

I think Tiger gets paid in more than golf balls

[wug laku]

From the Arts Councils website-

"The Arts Council of Indianapolis is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship program. Originally conceived as a renewal opportunity similar to an academic sabbatical, this groundbreaking initiative offers 40 artists and arts administrators the opportunity to renew and refresh their creativity through a two-year fellowship with a cash award of $10,000 each. Since the program's inception, 250 artists and administrators have been awarded fellowships through this program. The Arts Council of Indianapolis has awarded more than $1.8 million in direct-dollar support to artists and administrators through this program! The program is funded by a grant to the Arts Council through the extraordinary generosity of Lilly Endowment Inc."

So 250 artists and arts administrators have received partial funding by a fairly major corporation. What Lilly gets from this is a more sophisticated, intelligent Indianapolis, which in turn helps them recruit and retain the kind of employee they need, which in turn helps keep them in business, which in turn means they're making money.

Too bad Indy at large can't comprehend they'd get the same return on their tax dollars. You get what you pay for.

[Andrew Ball]

Nope. Tiger is sponsored by Nike. Drivers are sponsored by companies. You are giving me a headache.

[wug laku]

"So 250 artists and arts administrators have received partial funding by a fairly major corporation."
i.e.- they been sponsored.
i could use a coupla aspirin, too. the semantics are killin' me.

[Steve Stuck]

OK. Spent last night and this morning studying this economic data. Here are some points of interest.

The part of the study I agree with would be visitors coming in and spending more money then Hoosiers coming to the arts show. That would be true in a economic sense. I also agree in the study that when a business, person, etc. spends money it does trickle down into the economy. They call it direct/indirect economics in the study.

Here is where their flaw is and they dramatically inflate their numbers by doing this. I also researched another economic study that took a similar approach in questioning artists in New York City and how much money they "bring back" into the economy. The study is showing that $1 of tax revenue generates $5 of private money. The correlation of "trickle down economics" is used to show that money will then be paid to other people. This is a flawed approach because they are trying to say that they can better spend that dollar compared to the person that keeps it. They are assuming that person who could have kept that dollar wouldn't have spent it. This is absolutely a critical error in the economic study.

The person would generate revenue in taxes and revenue for a business no matter what. Even if that $1 went into McDonald's, the money just created tax revenue and money for someone's paycheck. Another flaw of the study is that they are trying spell out a financial trail that "The art company buys paint from the hardware store, the hardware store then pays the employee and the employee then spends the money." Your economic study has to stop at the hardware store reporting salary numbers and employees. Economic studies would have to be more detailed to show how money is spent by that employee of the hardware store. They don't do this with the numbers in this economic study.

The final flaw is the $1 that is wasted. Say you give a grant to a theater company that breaks even in sales compared to tax money or loses money, you cannot then compare that to a artist getting tax money and making a profit at their art exhibit. These examples in reality of economics have to be treated as two seperate business's or government agencies. One lost money and the other made money. Same is true with tax revenue.

I would say these numbers have been seriously inflated.

[Erik Deckers]

Yes, we should. While I am a full supporter of government support for the arts, I understand that government doesn't always see that. I know government arts support is unpopular with a lot of people. They don't want their taxes used for something they'll never use, but then again, I don't use public schools, I don't drive on every single highway, visit every city park, or take advantage of every government program.

"Oh, but you could, and there are people who use them, so they're important," someone else might say.

Yes, and you could visit museums, patronize artists, go to plays. Besides, there are people who do.

I'm not real wild about a lot of the things the government uses my tax dollars for -- township government, bank bailouts, unjust wars -- but I also know that my contribution is just a few bucks in the grand scheme of things. My contribution for the arts can be measured in pennies, my contribution for public broadcasting is more than a buck.

I get more upset when I get short changed at the gas station, so I'm certainly not going to worry about where my tax money goes.

[Erik Deckers]

Yes, we should. While I am a full supporter of government support for the arts, I understand that government doesn't always see that. I know government arts support is unpopular with a lot of people. They don't want their taxes used for something they'll never use, but then again, I don't use public schools, I don't drive on every single highway, visit every city park, or take advantage of every government program.

"Oh, but you could, and there are people who use them, so they're important," someone else might say.

Yes, and you could visit museums, patronize artists, go to plays. Besides, there are people who do.

I'm not real wild about a lot of the things the government uses my tax dollars for -- township government, bank bailouts, unjust wars -- but I also know that my contribution is just a few bucks in the grand scheme of things. My contribution for the arts can be measured in pennies, my contribution for public broadcasting is more than a buck.

I get more upset when I get short changed at the gas station, so I'm certainly not going to worry about where my tax money goes.

[Nancy Lee]

Google corporate art or artists sponsored by corporations. Artists are sponsored by corporations - it's a fact. Someone please pass the Tylenol.

[Marita Topmiller]

OK, I've taken 2 aspirin and here's my 2 cents. I love what Venice is doing. If corporate America
would like to sponsor some of our artists or public arts or programs, I would be happy to drop my
coins in the slot. I love what Cissie had to say. But concerned citizens can pitch in their time
and make terrific contributions that can be measured easily.

A few years back I felt the need to make a difference. I wrote a children's book called The C Team and I
pitched it to the then President of the local PTA, who then recommended me to the Head of Title One for
Perry Township Schools. Title One oversees our children who can't or won't read at grade level.

I was allowed to use my book to teach one semester of Language Arts at Perry Meridian Middle
School. I have written testimony that ALL the children in my class improved their grades in EVERY
one of their classes. And I did it for FREE.

I live in Carmel. Our city government has spent THOUSANDS of dollars buying Seward Johnson
statues and displaying them all over the city. Now, people from all over the country come to see
the statues because there are more here than anywhere else in the country. Yes, there are
people who will travel across the country to see a favorite artist. Years ago, I displayed some of
my sculpture and jewelry at Penrod - another art venue that attracts people from Indy and
surrounding counties and exhibitors from far and wide. Columbus Indiana attracts people from
across the country who come to see public art and architecture. Install Coke machines. lol

Perhaps some of our local philanthropists could add a charity ball or two to raise money for more
public art and or art outings for our schools.

Hey, do you think the Sierra Club might sponsor a wild life refuge in my back yard? As long as I get
a percentage of the gate, they can hang a sign on the front of my house.

[Cissi Sherlock]

Hey Marita!

Post a picture of your backyard!