Bau’s Blaug
The latest news from “the Big Cheese” – Executive Director Bau Graves.
Water The Roots
Folk culture has never caught much of a break from the institutions that fund the arts in America. Last year, the grand total of all the grants awarded to folk and traditional arts amounted to 7/10 of 1% of the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts – which is itself among the very smallest governmental agencies. To put things in perspective, Old Town School spends about ten times more on folk music and dance than the NEA. There is no major national foundation that includes support of traditional culture as a part of its mission. The substance that drives our organization turns out to be marginal in the world of public arts funding.
This week, the School is hosting a meeting of 25 organizations from all over the United States to discuss how we might change that. Jointly sponsored by Old Town School and the Fund for Folk Culture, the first Water The Roots national convening includes concert presenters, festival organizers, directors of folk schools, ethnic service organizations and other arts professionals. For three days, September 25 – 27, we’ll discuss the formation of a network of folk arts organizations that could advocate for more attention from funders, raise its own funds independently, and develop vehicles for funneling money to working folk artists. Other disciplines (dance, jazz, avant-garde performance art) have created consortia that have delivered tangible benefits to aspiring artists – we aspire to do the same for the folk arts.
I’m proud to say that Old Town School is taking a leadership role in generating this dialogue. While our colleagues are here to talk about the state of our field, they’ll also have a few days to observe Old Town School of Folk Music in action. Please go out of your way to welcome our visitors and inspire them by the example we set here every day.
Filed under: Uncategorized by Bau | September 22, 2008 | Comments (0)
