Winter 2005
Fractured Atlas Quarterly Newsletter
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Futurepoem Books
by Krista Apple
Dan Machlin , a Fractured Atlas member since 2002, is the co-founder of independent publishing collaborative Futurepoem books. Dedicated to presenting innovative works of poetry and prose, Futurepoem began in 2001 as a collaboration between Machlin (himself a poet) and graphic designer Anthony Monahan. They are the recent recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 2006 Access to Artistic Excellence grant, making them the first...
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Arts Advocacy Day
by Adam Natale
Arts Advocacy Day, established by Americans for the Arts, is the only national event convening America's cultural and civic organizations, as well as hundreds of grassroots advocates, to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased public funding for the arts. As a National Co-Sponsor of this year's event, Fractured Atlas encourages its members to join us in Washington, D.C. as we help promote the...
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The Current Agenda
by Adam Natale
So we've convinced you to get involved. Now what?
Below are three issues and agenda items currently up for debate in our national legislature. Write a letter, send an email, make a phone call. Find out how these issues affect you and your community. Seek out local grassroots organizations and ask how you can contribute. No matter what you do get involved!
Disaster Relief for the Arts
Since September, Congress has passed legislature...
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Development Desk
How can an emerging artist or arts group fund and support advocacy efforts? There are many ways of incorporating advocacy in your artistic work. Having a dual purpose to your work (arts and advocacy) can broaden the kinds of funding you are eligible to apply for, and may strengthen your case for support. But the advocacy angle has to be an intrinsic part of your goals - not just an afterthought - and you have to be careful that you're not...
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If We Don't, Who Will?
Advocate , noun , from Latin advocatus, advocare - to summon or to call.
(1) one that pleads the cause of another especially before a court.
(2) one that argues for, recommends, or supports a cause or policy
You're busy with your career, pursuing your creative goals and dreams. It takes time, energy, focus, and dedication to hone your skills and artistic endeavors. With everything that it takes to make a living in the...
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Jesse Helms was Right
When one talks to arts industry insiders about their advocacy priorities, high on most lists is more dollars from Uncle Sam. Although the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and other sources of federal funding account for only a tiny portion of overall charitable support for the arts, funding at the federal level is seen as a reflection of national priorities. More money, after all, supposedly indicates that we're a more respected and...
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Lobbying 101
by James Brown
In 2001 The Actors' Fund, a nonprofit organization devoted to the social welfare of entertainment professionals, discovered that more than 70% of entertainment industry union members were unable to afford COBRA (the extension of union or employer health insurance) when they became ineligible for their union benefits. We at the Actors' Fund quickly realized that new state legislation was needed that would offer a subsidy to help pay the...
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Fashioning a Cultural Policy versus a Cultural Fashion Policy
by Paul Nagle
Why have the worthy National Endowment goals of access and democratization, pluralism, excellence and a leveraging imprimatur all become merely processes of validating “taste?†It seems that no matter who controls the social discourse, culture is always in the process of being used as a weapon of domination. As the social pendulum swings, the Weimar whores and drag queens, with their pale sunken cheeks and their eyes smeared with...
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