Rocco Landesman, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, is setting off on a tour of arts organizations around the nation. In this article he also discusses the important role art has to play in an economic recovery, “they have a real economic impact in America…creating jobs and bringing in money…I can go to Congress and the administration and say, ‘The arts should be part of domestic policy, should be part of coming out of this recession, should be a part of the revitalization of our communities and neighborhoods…We need to move [arts] into the West Wing…in the place where they’re making decisions about economic initiatives…We need to be at the table with the grown-ups, and that means the West Wing.”

via NPR

Being VOTED ON TODAY….
from Jim on Light
“Attention, Lighting Designers! YOU MUST READ Texas House Bill 2649
Posted May 26, 2009 at 8:33 pm by Jim in Architectural Lighting, Civil and Infrastructure Lighting, Designers, Home Lighting, Industry News, JimOnLight.com, Legal Light, Lighting Design, Lighting Discussion, Lighting Manufacturing, Policy and Legislation, landscape lighting

Everybody, this bill is scheduled for a vote TOMORROW. Texas House Bill 2649 puts us out of business, folks.

I just got information from John Baker in Houston about Texas House Bill 2649. I don’t know what your feelings are on this, but it deserves a read. IALD sent out a letter about voting this down - I have copied both the verbage in the bill and the letter from IALD below.

First and foremost, this bill is going to make it impossible for lighting designers who work in Texas to work on projects without being licensed as either an electrician, architect, engineer, landscape architect, or interior designer.”

Please go to the original article and take action.

“Take four candidates for Houston mayor, place them in a museum auditorium and ask them if they support the arts. Wanna bet their answer will be an artful yes?

It was. There was little room for disagreement among Gene Locke, Peter Brown, Roy Morales and Annise Parker in a forum at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston sponsored by the Houston Arts Alliance, the Houston Downtown Alliance (Theater District) and the Houston Museum District Association. Worth mentioning is that the audience of 300-plus was probably the biggest crowd to view the candidates together so far in the campaign for the November election.”

full article at Houston Politics: A portrait of agreement.

This article is a little dated, but I still felt it was relevant reading.

Houston Arts - Wayne Dolcefino, Art Critic - page 1.

Houston Art Alliance is looking for arts professionals to help select upcoming civic art commissions. Architects, designers and art historians are encouraged to apply. Artists can apply, too. Feel free to nominate yourself by contacting Piper Huddleston , HAA’s Civic Art + Design Coordinator.

via Glasstire: Texas visual art online - Do the NIMBY!.

Not your typical review, but one that gives the rest of us some insight into what went down at the Arts Advocacy Day in Austin…

Glasstire: Texas visual art online - Austin Arts Advocacy Day.

On Monday, our Texas legislature began to chew on declining enrollment in arts classes among Texas schoolchildren. Author Dan Pink, in Austin to address the Texas Association of School Administrators, told a group of lawmakers that there is too much focus on routine and standardization and “getting the right answer,” and today’s schools are “preparing kids for my past rather than their future.” Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, (R-Plano), who hosted the session with Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said it is too early to say how the Legislature might accomplish the goal of integrating fine arts and the core subjects, but that the first step will be a new accountability system, Shapiro said, “will give us the opportunity to utilize the fine arts as we have never done before.”

via Glasstire: Texas visual art online - With friends like these . . ..

Texans for the Arts is kicking off its 2009 lobbying season with Arts Advocacy Day on Tuesday, February 10th. $45 gets you an arts advocacy workshop with Kellner consulting and HillCo, and lunch at the Radisson Hotel, Austin with keynote “dynamic arts advocate” Bill Lively, CEO of the both the Dallas Center for the Performing Art and the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee. According to the press release, the goal is to increase public arts spending to $1 per capita, and to “promote the arts as one of our state’s critically important economic engines”, not to mention “making Texas a world class cultural destination.”

via Glasstire: Texas visual art online - Art Advocacy Day.