We're All Nonprofits Now

The White House has just announced plans for a $17.4 billion bail out of the auto industry. According to the Institute for Policy Analysis, America and European governments have already chipped in an unbelievable $4.1 trillion in total financial bailouts. So what's another $17 or so billion added to that mountain of cash.

So, if you're a nonprofit advocate and you find yourself begging to a funder and trying to justify why your organization should get a thousand dollars to continue providing for the common good, you can now take some comfort in this new reality. We are all nonprofits now.

Nonprofits that provide educational, health-related, social service, policy and cultural type services typically define themselves as being owned by no body - they act on behalf of the community and no one owns stock and so there are no "profits" from income in excess of expenses. These organizations exist to meet a need unmet by government or business. Nonprofits provide services to people who NEVER pay the full cost of receiving those services. By definition. Some nonprofits do better than others in charging fees, generating revenue from good and services other than what is provided directly to their customers, and getting sponsorships. Bottom line - there is always a gap between the total amount of what is called "earned" income and what it costs to run the organization. Contributions and grants make up the difference. For most nonprofit organizations that provide the type of services I'm thinking about contributions from individuals can be deducted from their income tax obligations - hence the term "tax-deductible contribution."

Well, with the hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. government has doled out to the financial services sector and now the auto industry, I think we have just obliterated the distinctions between "for profit" and "not for profit" operations in America. Unfortunately, the tax payers are not going to be able to deduct their "contributions" to the corporate sector.

"I Am Amazing", Anthony Overton Chicago Public School

Here is an interior mural project I painted this summer at Anthony Overton Public School, in Bronzeville. It is an image of President-Elect Obama looking at the amazing accomplishments of Overton's students, and a tribute to Bronzeville 47th Street Arts and Cultural District. It is located in the main hallway where two corridors intersect. It is an installation, creating a space for the students to experience. I started this project on June 15, 2008, completed it on August 24,2008. The Local School Council is in such an uproar about this project, they wanted it painted over. One parent asked me "What if he doesn't win?" My response was he has already won. Even though the school lost its arts funding, couldn't finish paying for this project, it was important for me to finish it. I stood on my own integrity to not just walk off this project. 

I wanted the students to be amazed on the first day of school. There was no dedication!

 The LSC didn't want Ms. Luster as their principal nor anything to do with her school beautification project, it seems she didn't have their final approval. This was lead by a "Community At Large" LSC member. Painful? Very! Now that President-Elect Obama has won this historic election, do you think that the school will acknowledge the gift that was given to them this summer? Oh, I ranted about this misuse of arts funding, misuse of an arts professional's time, and talent, and the unprofessional, and abusive behavior of a small-minded group of parents, staff, community members. For the most part, all of us artists had to remember where we were, 47th & Indiana, and the mindset of folks that live around the school. 

 I even sponsored a "RANT-A-Thon", at Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, 1060 E. 47th street (four blocks from President-Elect Obama's house), to give artists a place to exhibit politically charged art, and a platform to talk about "Issues That Matter". No, I didn't rant about this issue, I just hope the students felt prideful that they have one of the first murals in their school that depicts this historic moment.

GOTNEXT Election Tour Closing Reception

Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, Host: Heidi Hickman November 4, 2008 6pm 10pm Closing Reception. Join us for an evening of election watching, and celebration as Barack Obama rocks the vote in Illinois. Featured Artist: Ray Noland, "CRO" presents a "Traveling Art Exhibition" of Barack Obama-inspired works from stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin, Atlanta, and Chicago. Phantom Gallery Artist: Debra McLendon, Sherman Beck, Benyamin Maccabee, Tamasha Williamson, and Alpha Bruton.

Whose Values Count

Election eve thought on the role of artists in public life...

There's a lot of talk in the press about "value" and "values." Value in the sense of "what is something worth" in economic terms and "whose values guides the politics and policies that decide what something is worth?" It seems that the financial and general press is learning something that we knew all along - that not everything with a big price tag is"worth" a lot of money and things that seemingly have no value on the stock market really do have tremendous value and meaning. What drives creative people to create and what is the "value" of what they create is worthy of study here. Lewis Hyde wrote "The Gift - Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World" in 1979 and he was on to something when quotes Joseph Conrad - "The artist appeals to that part of our being...which is a gift and not an acquisition - and, therefore, more permanently enduring." and then goes on to say "The art that matters to us - which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience - that work is received by us as a gift is received....The spirit of an artist's gifts can wake our own. The work appeals, as Joseph Conrad says, to a part of our being which is itself a gift and not an acquisition." This resonates with arts marketing studies by large foundations and hard-working consultants who endeavor to guide the arts industry in making a stronger case for itself with the public and politicians. These studies discount the economic impact of the arts and revive a conversation about the intrinsic value of the arts and creativity that, while hard to measure, is the real distinctive power of the creative process. But the market place says we only measure what matters and that Wall Street experts and Blackberry punching M.B.A.s RALLY know how to assign value in this society. How's that been working? But this conversation about who gets to value what is a prelude to my real concern around "values" - namely that people who live and practice the creation and exchange of intrinsic value, America's artists and cultural workers, have been absent from the political discourse and so have been unable to transfer their values into governance. So if we are cringing that taxpayers will spend $750 billion to bail out Wall Street firms, banks and potentially General Motors. If we are livid if taxpayers spend $123 billion to bail out AIG and then it spent $440,000 on a lavish executive retreat. And if we just shrug our shoulders when we see that the National Endowment for the Arts is budgeted for a pathetic $145 million for 2008. (Don't even mention the estimated $3 trillion cost of the Iraq War). If these facts - these expressions of what America "values" don't jive with yours, then, “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings.”

Tom Tresser wants artists to run for local office all over the country as creativity champions and bring their values and skills into public life in new ways.

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

RANT-A-Thon

LITTLE BLACK PEARL ART AND DESIGN CENTER 1060 E. 47TH STREET, CHICAGO IL
773-268-5040

pHANTOM gALLERY

773-638-1217X3

FEATURED ARTISTS RAY NOLAND - "GOT NEXT- GENERAL ELECTION TOUR
VIP RECEPTION

OCTOBER 10, 2008 6-8PM
6PM -

8PM

RANT-A-THON, FRIDAY OCTOBER 10TH, CALLING TO:
SHERMAN BECK, CELESTINE, "WOMBYKIND", BENYAMIN MACCABEE, NATHANIEL MCLIN, DEBRA MCLENDON, TAMASHA WILLIAMSON, $1 a minute to Rant


CHICAGO CALLING TO: OCT 10, 2008 10PM- MIDNIGHT
ALPHA BRUTON, ERIN OBRADOVICH, STAJAABU "STRAIGHT OUT SCRIBBE", CARYL HENRY ALEXANDER, JESSE ALEXANDER, YAYA PORRES, ALAN AMERSON HICKS, ANN WARD, ERIC REIDMAN, DOUGLAS EWART
$5 SUGGESTED DONATION

312.543.7027, http://www.chicagocalling.org/,

INSTALLATION ARTISTS- HELEN MYERSJONES, AND ELENI V.

INSTALLATION ARTISTS- HELEN MYERS ONES, AND ELENI V. 

Garfield Park Conservatory Market Place, 300 N. Central Park Ave, October 17 - 19, 2008 1:00pm - 5:00 pm "Let Us Examine The State of Our Environment" Communities throughout Chicago have engaged, inspired, and empowered their residents through art. During October, explore South Chicago, Little Village, and East Garfield Park and get to know the artists that are living and working there and the issues these communities care about.

Mobile Exhibiton 3

Thursday October 16, 2008 12noon - 8pm
MOBILE EXHIBITION 3 is an art event in three rented trucks. Three art installations, each encompassing the entire inside of a 24 foot truck, invite you to enter and explore the transformation inside. Images, forms and light are carefully institutions, perceptions of space, and themes of viciv systems in the urban landscape

Examining the State of Our Environment

EXAMING THE STATE OF OUR ENVIRONMENT-

INSTALLATION ARTISTS EXPLORE BY BUILDING SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATIONS: Fred Owens, Helen Jones Myers, Vivian Vissar, Jamin Jadda, Gabriel Patti, Kat Silverstein, Nancy Zook, Students from Chicago Christian Academy, Loveitta Simpkins, Dewitt Quayim

GARFIELD PARK MARKET PLACE INSTALLATION RECEPTION FRIDAY OCTOBER 17, 2008 12NOON- 8PM
RECEPTION BEGINS AT 5PM - 8PM. OCTOBER 18 - 19TH 12NOON-5PM.

"America Needs You!" - Artists as Leaders...

Tom Tresser has written a book that calls you to lead in the public sector as a creativity champion! Check it out...

ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS (EPW)

On September 11, 2008, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and
Public Works (EPW) will hold a hearing on the tragic consequences of
disposing of toxic sewage sludge on agricultural land, public land,
and as bagged "compost."

Sludge News at http://www.sludgenews.org is a dedicated website on the
hearing, including information about sewage sludge, how you can upload
your testimony, latest news, science, and how to take action.

The EPW hearing is a first step in a long overdue examination of the
policies that have led us to the appalling situation we are now in
with respect to contamination of our food supply and the degradation
of our health from the byproducts of wastewater treatment.

###

Thanks.

Laura Orlando

--
Community Garden Moderator

Join Creativity Champions Community @ Ning.com

Check out a new online community for creativity champions at http://creativitychampions.ning.com. This is a space for sharing, collaborating and advancing the idea of creativity as a global priority. Tom Tresser is the organizer.

Jacob's School Kids Gardening Project

Jacob Beidler Elementary School Community garden just got generous donations from Open Lands, so that the children in Pre-K - 3rd grade could plant flowers in their container gardens. The teachers scheduled a workday with their class. Each class filled large containers with dirt that was delivered on Tuesday and came out on Thursday morning to plant the flowers into the large Terra cotta planters. The children were excited and loved how beautiful they were able to make their school. The same children participated in a "Saturday Clean UP Day", where they picked up trash around the school, planted tulip bulbs that were donated by the Garfield Park Conservatory bulb giveaway. The master gardener/consultants at City escape garden center & design studio helped make decisions on the arrangements.

The Plans of Chicago -- Past, Present, & Future

Nearly 150 years ago, the Great Chicago Fire brought this city to its knees. Soon thereafter, a team of visionaries, led by Daniel Burnham, crafted The Plan of Chicago, which was part of The City Beautiful Movement. Some aspects of the Plan were realized, but others didn't make it. Among the many excellent aspects of the plan which were realized include completion of Chicago's Boulevard System (also called Chicago's "Emerald Necklace"), downtown Chicago's Museum Campus, and Lake Shore Drive. One idea in the Plan that didn't make it was the Civic Center, illustrated by Jules Guerin; the illustration looks like Plastic Man stretched the U.S. Capitol Building.

Artists, activists, and people of different walks of life have worked individually and collectively to help realize a vision of Chicago as as great city. Jane Addams is an amazing Chicagoan who helped to make this city great and more livable for its people. Many artists working in a range of media have lived in Chicago, and many art groups have been founded / developed in Chicago, including Sun Ra, the AACM, Gwendolyn Brooks, Saul Bellow, Nelson Algren, Lorraine Hansberry, the Chicago Surrealists, the Chicago Imagists, and others.

There are lots of plans for Chicago's future, including those being organized by Chicago Metropolis 2020, the Chicago Plan Commission, Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics, and a campaign to raise money to build a weather-shielding dome over Chicago. What other plans are being envisioned and implemented? What can we do to ensure that the right visions direct what happens to our neighborhoods, rather than allowing wrongheaded political and real estate decisions to take our neighborhoods in bad directions? What roles do artists, educators, grass roots organizers, and other leaders in the community have -- to ensure that our city keeps getting better, more exciting, and more livable?

Farm Dreams

Farm Dreams, June 7, 11am-3pm
Chicago Center for Green Technology, 445 N Sacramento
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own farm? This interactive course is designed to help you explore whether a farming business is the right choice for you. We'll learn about real farm business examples and discuss market opportunities in the Chicago region. You'll get a chance to ask questions about the development of successful local farms with our presenters: Tim Wilson, manager of City Farm, and Sheri Doyel, farm forager for the City of Chicago and Green City Market. We're excited to offer this class in the Center for Green Technology's new Resource Center!

$60.00

Light refreshments will be provided. All attendees should bring a lunch.