CULTURE STOPS! on March 10th

February 28, 2011

“Culture is worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we are all totalitarian beasts. ”

Revered writer Norman Mailer truly summed it up; we at ADX are dedicated to help spread awareness of the importance of culture, craft, and art.

Culture Stops!, a grassroots group of artists and arts and culture supporters based in Rhode Island’s Creative Capitol, developed a national day of action to draw attention to the impact of proposed federal budget cuts to the creative sector of the United States.

On March 10th , 2011, cultural organizations and creative businesses – from theaters to libraries to design houses and bookstores – will be asked to stop work from just eight minutes to a full eight hours in recognition of a possible future without their knowledge and services. This day of action will put a face to the millions of individuals, for-profit companies, non profit organizations and institutions who fuel and sustain the creative sector and are the backbone of America ingenuity.

“Culture Stops! formed around the simple belief that that creative thought is the lifeblood of democracy,” says Drake Patten, the group’s spokesperson. “We know how significant this force is in all of American life – in our schools, in our businesses, in our homes – and how much our society will be damaged if we fail to honor and support the creative impulse and drive of our people.”

Both the current Congressional budget and President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget call for massive reductions to, and even eradication of, a range of agencies and programs that directly seed and support creative endeavors and indirectly spur billions of dollars of additional corporate, foundation and individual philanthropy. The budget proposals call for deep cuts, or wholesale elimination, of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Arts in Education, funds for Community Development Block Grants, Pell Grants and funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These institutions are a critical source of funding for arts and culture programs in public schools, libraries, museums and galleries, public radio and television stations and performing art venues across the country, and support the work of individual artists, designers, writers, musicians and historians.

According to Americans for the Arts, the non-profit arts industry alone generates $166.2 billion annually in economic activity, supports 5.7 million full-time equivalent jobs in the arts and related industries, and returns $12.6 billion in federal income taxes.

For the organizers of Culture Stops! however, it’s not just the potential for economic devastation that is troubling, but the prospect of diminishing the vitality of American life. They maintain that funding cuts to the arts and humanities, heritage and preservation, arts education, public broadcasting, and a host of related federal programs that quietly seed and leverage investment in the creative sector will result in a crisis of our national conscience.

To learn more about Culture Stops!, please visit their website and mark your calendars to observe their call to action on March 10, 2011.