JazzFest has been chosen by the website www.topeventsusa.com as one of the top ten events in South Dakota! The listing of SD's Top Ten Events can be found here.
JazzFest 2009 will be held July 17-18 at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls, SD.
More information at www.jazzfestsiouxfalls.com.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
What You and Every Legislator Should Know about SDAC Funding
As the South Datkoa Arts Council faces elimanation here are some things that you and every legislator should know.
- The revised budget would cut all state funding to the Office of Arts. This would eliminate our state arts agency, the Office of Arts/South Dakota Arts Council, which has only two sources of support, state and federal.
- Without a state agency and investment of state funds, South Dakota is ineligible to receive its annual appropriation, $746,000 for 2010, from the National Endowment for the Arts, our federal arts agency.
- The economic stimulus package that passed in the House and is headed for the US Senate includes an increase in funding for the National Endowment for the arts that would increase South Dakota’s 2010 appropriation to over $900,000. With no state funding for its state agency, South Dakota would receive $0.
- Local arts grants totaling $1.1 million and annually funding 8,000 events, across every legislative district in South Dakota, would be eliminated, beginning July 1, 2009. These grants are awarded to 530 local arts organizations and other non-profit arts programs, schools, artists and units of government.
- These grants are matched on the local level by 14:1, generating over $14 million annually in communities all across South Dakota. These grants are critical to the state’s large and small arts organizations, providing matching funds for other grants and contributions. Some form of financial support for more than 18,000 professional and amateur artists would be impacted.
- The loss of our state arts agency would reduce the state’s rankings for federal and private grant organizations who rate quality of life, educational opportunities, economic development, cultural tourism, and overall attractiveness to businesses, visitors, and citizens.
- The Artists in Schools & Communities Program will end. This program has been active for 35 years. Annually, 26 artists travel to 162 schools for a total of 231 weeks, educating 35,000 young people in South Dakota.
- The Touring Arts Program will end. 45 endorsed performing and visual arts groups provide 255 engagements, and reach an audience of 335,000 annually, primarily in rural areas. State funding for the arts in 2009 was $636,000, an investment of 86 cents from each state resident.
- The Office of Arts is a part of the Department of Tourism and State Development. It is a supporting piece of the infrastructure of state government. State funding of this office is an investment with a significant return for the people of South Dakota.
- The South Dakota Arts Council is exemplary among state arts agencies (50), and received highest ratings from the National Endowment for the Arts on its grant application for 2010. Nevertheless, without substantial reinstatement of state funds, we will not receive this federal funding.
- The revised budget would cut all state funding to the Office of Arts. This would eliminate our state arts agency, the Office of Arts/South Dakota Arts Council, which has only two sources of support, state and federal.
- Without a state agency and investment of state funds, South Dakota is ineligible to receive its annual appropriation, $746,000 for 2010, from the National Endowment for the Arts, our federal arts agency.
- The economic stimulus package that passed in the House and is headed for the US Senate includes an increase in funding for the National Endowment for the arts that would increase South Dakota’s 2010 appropriation to over $900,000. With no state funding for its state agency, South Dakota would receive $0.
- Local arts grants totaling $1.1 million and annually funding 8,000 events, across every legislative district in South Dakota, would be eliminated, beginning July 1, 2009. These grants are awarded to 530 local arts organizations and other non-profit arts programs, schools, artists and units of government.
- These grants are matched on the local level by 14:1, generating over $14 million annually in communities all across South Dakota. These grants are critical to the state’s large and small arts organizations, providing matching funds for other grants and contributions. Some form of financial support for more than 18,000 professional and amateur artists would be impacted.
- The loss of our state arts agency would reduce the state’s rankings for federal and private grant organizations who rate quality of life, educational opportunities, economic development, cultural tourism, and overall attractiveness to businesses, visitors, and citizens.
- The Artists in Schools & Communities Program will end. This program has been active for 35 years. Annually, 26 artists travel to 162 schools for a total of 231 weeks, educating 35,000 young people in South Dakota.
- The Touring Arts Program will end. 45 endorsed performing and visual arts groups provide 255 engagements, and reach an audience of 335,000 annually, primarily in rural areas. State funding for the arts in 2009 was $636,000, an investment of 86 cents from each state resident.
- The Office of Arts is a part of the Department of Tourism and State Development. It is a supporting piece of the infrastructure of state government. State funding of this office is an investment with a significant return for the people of South Dakota.
- The South Dakota Arts Council is exemplary among state arts agencies (50), and received highest ratings from the National Endowment for the Arts on its grant application for 2010. Nevertheless, without substantial reinstatement of state funds, we will not receive this federal funding.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Your Urgent Action is Needed! SD Governor Announces Plans to Kill All Arts Funding For the State
Dear Friend of the Arts,
The arts in South Dakota need your help.
The revised budget Governor Rounds presented to the South Dakota Legislature cuts all funding to the South Dakota Arts Council.
The South Dakota Arts Council provides a primary source of grant funding to many local arts organizations and artists throughout the state. Shutting down this agency means that South Dakota would be the only state in the nation without a state arts council or state-run arts program.
If the doors to the South Dakota Arts Council are closed, I can not imagine the barriers that will need to be broken down for their reopening in the future.
The arts affect every one of our lives, every single day. Funding from the South Dakota Arts Council provides local artists and arts organizations with the financial resources needed to create art that makes our communities beautiful, programs that inspire and educate us, enhancing our lives.
Please take two minutes to help.
Write a letter or email your Legislators. You can find your Legislator contact information here: http://legis.state.sd.us/who/index.aspx
Below is a sample letter to use by simply copying and pasting into a new document.
I greatly appreciate your advocacy on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Robert Joyce
Executive Director
Dear [Legislator],
I am writing in support of state funding for the South Dakota Arts Council. I do not favor the proposed elimination of this important state agency.
If you have attended a symphony concert, community theater production, jazz concert, visited a local art gallery, or your children attend a public school, you have surely witnessed the positive impact that South Dakota Arts Council funding provides for us all.
-Last fiscal year, the state of South Dakota’s investment in the arts was 86 cents for each state resident. The return on that investment included $48 million in economic impact from programs by arts organizations across the state.
-In addition, that 86 cents for each citizen sent 26 artists to 162 schools for 231 weeks, bringing arts opportunities to 35,000 South Dakota young people.
-And that same 86 cents per person investment made $1.1 million available on a matching basis to 530 local arts organizations and other non-profit arts programs, schools, artists and units of government in every county of South Dakota.
-The arts attract a creative and educated workforce for our state, furthering economic growth. Cutting funding to the Arts Council would put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy and threaten the retention of our most precious resource, our young people.
-A typical attendee of a nonprofit arts event spends $27.79 per person, per event (excluding admission) on transportation, lodging, and other event-related costs. Non-local attendees spend twice as much.
-Tourists who visit South Dakota because of an arts related event are more likely to spend more in our state, using hotels and spending more than the average traveler.
Shutting down the Arts Council means that South Dakota would be the only state in the nation without a state arts council or state-run arts program.
At a time when our newly-elected President sees the arts as a vehicle for national change and has stimulus plans to increase support for the National Endowment for the Arts by $50 million dollars, South Dakotans may completely miss out. Without funding from the state legislature, the South Dakota Arts Council won’t be eligible for any matching funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
I trust that you will work to reinstate funding for the South Dakota Arts Council.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
The arts in South Dakota need your help.
The revised budget Governor Rounds presented to the South Dakota Legislature cuts all funding to the South Dakota Arts Council.
The South Dakota Arts Council provides a primary source of grant funding to many local arts organizations and artists throughout the state. Shutting down this agency means that South Dakota would be the only state in the nation without a state arts council or state-run arts program.
If the doors to the South Dakota Arts Council are closed, I can not imagine the barriers that will need to be broken down for their reopening in the future.
The arts affect every one of our lives, every single day. Funding from the South Dakota Arts Council provides local artists and arts organizations with the financial resources needed to create art that makes our communities beautiful, programs that inspire and educate us, enhancing our lives.
Please take two minutes to help.
Write a letter or email your Legislators. You can find your Legislator contact information here: http://legis.state.sd.us/who/index.aspx
Below is a sample letter to use by simply copying and pasting into a new document.
I greatly appreciate your advocacy on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Robert Joyce
Executive Director
Dear [Legislator],
I am writing in support of state funding for the South Dakota Arts Council. I do not favor the proposed elimination of this important state agency.
If you have attended a symphony concert, community theater production, jazz concert, visited a local art gallery, or your children attend a public school, you have surely witnessed the positive impact that South Dakota Arts Council funding provides for us all.
-Last fiscal year, the state of South Dakota’s investment in the arts was 86 cents for each state resident. The return on that investment included $48 million in economic impact from programs by arts organizations across the state.
-In addition, that 86 cents for each citizen sent 26 artists to 162 schools for 231 weeks, bringing arts opportunities to 35,000 South Dakota young people.
-And that same 86 cents per person investment made $1.1 million available on a matching basis to 530 local arts organizations and other non-profit arts programs, schools, artists and units of government in every county of South Dakota.
-The arts attract a creative and educated workforce for our state, furthering economic growth. Cutting funding to the Arts Council would put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy and threaten the retention of our most precious resource, our young people.
-A typical attendee of a nonprofit arts event spends $27.79 per person, per event (excluding admission) on transportation, lodging, and other event-related costs. Non-local attendees spend twice as much.
-Tourists who visit South Dakota because of an arts related event are more likely to spend more in our state, using hotels and spending more than the average traveler.
Shutting down the Arts Council means that South Dakota would be the only state in the nation without a state arts council or state-run arts program.
At a time when our newly-elected President sees the arts as a vehicle for national change and has stimulus plans to increase support for the National Endowment for the Arts by $50 million dollars, South Dakotans may completely miss out. Without funding from the state legislature, the South Dakota Arts Council won’t be eligible for any matching funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
I trust that you will work to reinstate funding for the South Dakota Arts Council.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
Monday, January 19, 2009
MLK on Jazz
On the Importance of Jazz
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, WPFW News (Washington), [23 August 2002]
God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.
Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.
This is triumphant music.
Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.
Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.
In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, WPFW News (Washington), [23 August 2002]
God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.
Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.
This is triumphant music.
Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.
Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith.
In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Listen to John Hammond on SDPB's Dakota Midday
Listen to today's interview here. Note that the John Hammond interview begins around 26 minutes.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Blue Note Turns 70
We are greatly looking forward to wrapping up our 2008-09 concert series by celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Blue Note Records with an all-star lineup of musicians.
On Wednesday, March 25 at the Orpheum Theater, Bill Charlap on piano (musical director), Ravi Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Peter Bernstein playing guitar, Lewis Nash on drums, Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Peter Washington playing bass and Steve Wilson on alto saxophone will explore a sample of some of the most notable tunes from the Blue Note Records catalog.
NPR's Talk of the Nation will spend time today discussing the history of the record label. More information available here along with a playlist of Bill Charlap's Blue Note Picks.
Tickets to the March 25 concert are on sale now!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Obama and the Arts: "incredibly important"
President-elect Obama discusses the importance of the arts and culture during an interview on Meet the Press, December 8, 2008.
See the video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5154432425426831376&hl=en
See the video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5154432425426831376&hl=en
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