Please help support ART in GA!

I've gotten this flood of emails lately about the Georgia House of Representatives
eliminating Georgia Funds for the Arts/Georgia Council for the Arts and it saddens
me to see that our own State isn't going to be able to support any of our wonderful
non-profit arts organizations or offer grants to artists or money for arts in education-
I wanted to post some information so if you felt you could do anything to
speak out now’s your chance!

This weekend these are the ways to make sure your Senator considers your opinion. As a state agency, GCA staff can not lobby. They need your help to stay alive!

• Have all staff and Board members of your organization contact their Senator individually.
• Send an e-mail to your mailing list with a sample message that people can cut and paste into their own e-mail. Include a specific example of the impact your organization has on your community or a program that may be cut if funding is eliminated.
• Put a sample e-mail and the link to locate representatives on your website or Facebook page.
• Contact media in your area. If they need more information, ask them to contact GCA's Public Relations Manager Jhai James at 404.685.2784 or jjames@gaarts.org.
• Anyone who knows a Senator should reach out and make direct contact.
• Pass along your concerns to people who are not in the arts industry, but who are impacted by program reductions, such as a Convention & Visitor's Bureau, Main Street Program, local restaurants, schools, senior centers, etc. Ask these people to also contact their Senator.

Inform the audience before a performance this weekend; include an insert in your organization programs, brochures and other collateral that explains the budget process and how to contact the Senate.

Here are two reasons members of the House may have voted to kill
Georgia Council for the Arts.

First, the Georgia House of Representatives explained their reason for eliminating GCA during the reading of the budget bill; the Georgia Arts Alliance was cited. The bill creating this organization passed in 2008. It will be an organization working towards statewide success in arts education. However,

• Unless Georgia has a vigorous and statewide nonprofit arts industry, there are no organizations to provide arts education or arts-in-education (contracting to schools) programming.
• There are no state funds attached to the Georgia Arts Alliance; if there were, the organization still would not provide support to our state's nonprofit arts industry.

Second, some state Representatives are excited about HB 1049, the enabling legislation for a local option sales tax (LOST) to support the arts. While HB 1049 could greatly benefits arts organizations in the state's metropolitan centers, it does not replace GCA for these reasons:

• Most counties do not have sufficient sales tax revenues that would allow
• this LOST to replace GCA's grant awards.
• Most counties do not have enough nonprofit arts organizations to meet
• the threshold for their County Commission to pass this LOST
• Rural and small counties across Georgia have lots of needs, the arts are but one.
• Implementation of this bill requires a county-wide referendum, a costly process for our state's smaller and rural counties.

There WILL BE AN ARTISTIC rally on Monday at 1:00 from the Rialto to the capital. I invite you to join artists of Georgia and share your performances. Spread the word.

Please sign the "Save Georgia Council for the Arts!" petition!

The mission of Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) is access to the arts for all Georgians.

As a state agency, GCA provides this access through the award of highly competitive grants that fund arts programming.

In response to the current economy, GCA has amended it mission to read:

access to the arts for all Georgians with the primary responsibility to

the state's nonprofit arts industry.

I was also lucky enough this weekend to be part of a committee who actually gets to award an emerging artist in

Atlanta a grant to create work for a solo show and it made me feel so grateful to these group of people who

offer this grant up to emerging artists in this community to further their vision -So if you ladies are reading this

then you know who you are and I thank you so much for your generosity in supporting the Atlanta Arts!

Also while poking around on Design Sponge this weekend I discovered this yummy recipe and FYI you can find lots of

designers and artists from Young Blood on there and have a sneek peak into their lives! Like this peak into Eleanor Grosh's home!

And if you aren't on a porch already then whip some of this up and invite some folks over for porch sippin' (seeing
that we're in the bible belt if you don't already have wine/tequila in your house you'll have to wait till tomorrow)

Ingredients:

1 bottle of red wine (we prefer to use Sarloos and Sons red)

1 cup of tequila (we prefer to use 1800 Silver)

1/2 a cup of orange juice (living in such an organic

environment we only drink organic orange juice from

New Frontiers in Solvang, CA)

1/2 a cup of brown organic sugar

1/4 cup of fresh squeezed organic lime juice

1 sliced organic red apple (and other fruit if you desire – raspberries, watermelon, oranges, mangos, etc)

Mixology:

In a pitcher mix ingredients in this specific order. Add ice to chill.

The longer it sits in the pitcher the more flavorful it will be.

Using a little lime juice, give the glasses a nice brown-sugar rim and then serve and enjoy!

and for another inspiraton we have lots of prints! Here's a little vision on what your bedroom could look like!!