GCA crisis reveals deeper systemic issues
Arts community should work toward being more proactive than reactive
- Joeff Davis
- Cinqué Hicks
Last April, hundreds of art lovers armed with well-designed protest signs and a lifetime supply of face paint swarmed the steps of the Gold Dome. It was a stirring sight. Shouting “Save the arts!” and beating drums, they demanded that the state Senate restore funds slashed from the 2011 state budget for the Georgia Council for the Arts. The paltry $250,000 that remained for arts grants would have been a kiss-off, just enough to send out a round of farewell cards and turn out the lights.
Artists rallied to GCA’s defense. Dance troupes did interpretive dances. Rousing speeches were made (including one from a puppet), and the media turned out to gawk at the ruckus.
In the end, GCA was spared. The bit of street theater at the Capitol together with a flurry of calls and e-mails from around the state were widely credited with turning the tide. At last Atlanta’s absentee art community arose with a united voice and declared, “Give me art or give me death.”
But what was touted as a triumph over the forces of philistinism, in fact masked a massive failure. We needed the protest at the Capitol because an entire system of arts advocacy failed to deliver when it should have: before there was a crisis in the first place.