The Creative Coalition Urges Congress to Support Funding for the Arts in the U.S.: The Creative Coalition and American Photo Magazine Present "Art & Soul" Compilation to Washington Leaders
05/07/2009
Washington, DC. (May 7, 2009) – On Friday, May 8, The Creative Coalition, the national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization for leaders in the arts and entertainment industry, will lead a distinguished group of entertainment industry leaders to Washington to urge The White House and the U.S. Congress to support public funding for arts and arts education. The delegation will present “Art and Soul,” which features anecdotal experiences from prominent Americans who have benefited from a strong arts background. “Art & Soul” is produced by The Creative Coalition and American Photo magazine, a Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. publication, using Blurb’s creative publishing platform in partnership with Sony Artisans of Imagery™ Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Brian Smith and Splashlight. Blurb’s platform gave The Creative Coalition the creative control to design the book to their exact specifications, and to publish it in a matter of weeks.
The Creative Coalition Executive Director Robin Bronk writes in Art & Soul’s foreword:
When faced with a collapsing economy, President Franklin Roosevelt tried to put Americans in all lines of work back on the job. Instead of singling out artists as somehow frivolous and unimportant to our nation¹s economy, he instituted a host of programs designed to put federal funds into the arts, employing America¹s creative talent and leaving a cultural legacy that endures still today.
The highpoint of this commitment was the Works Progress Administration¹s Federal One program, which put thousands of Americans to work in the arts. The government program was a lifeline for Jackson Pollock, Burt Lancaster, Sidney Lumet, Ralph Ellison, Studs Terkel, John Cheever, Saul Bellow, and thousands of other artists across the country.
These programs created much-needed jobs in the immediate term, but they did much more. They fostered great talents that otherwise may have been lost. The work of the many great artists supported by the government in the 1930s still benefits us today. Their contributions to our culture endure, and their successful careers resulted in employment for many others in the years that followed.
We cannot forget this lesson of our not-so-distant history. Faced with an economic downturn of staggering proportions, some attack any help for the arts as waste, ignoring the millions of Americans who earn their livings and support their families through their artistic endeavors and arts-related enterprises.
Beyond the finances, though, investing in the arts during these tough times can ensure that America doesn¹t lose a generation of creative talent to our temporary economic woes. Somewhere in America today, there are individuals with the potential of Orson Welles and the artistic gifts of Mark Rothko.
Look deep into the souls of those artists who are portrayed in these pages. They truly represent a great American legacy.
“Art and Soul” was photographed in mid-February in Los Angeles a few days leading up to the Oscars at an exclusive event called Haven produced by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Each portrait was taken by Brian Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Sony Artisans of Imagery™ photographer, who has been creating bold, graphic images of celebrities, athletes and executives for more than 25 years. The portraits are accompanied by personal testimonials from each artist which express their support for the importance of the arts in our lives.
Participants include actor and Creative Coalition Co-President Tim Daly, Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson, Tony Bennett, Anne Hathaway, Dana Delany, Kerry Washington, Alfre Woodard, Zooey Deschanel, Alyssa Milano, and David Hyde Pierce, among others. Elementary school students from Loyloa Village Fine and Performing Arts Magnet School in the Los Angeles Unified School District also participated.
About The Creative Coalition (www.thecreativecoalition.org) The Creative Coalition is the premiere 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan social and public advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by prominent members of the creative community, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating its members on issues of public importance, primarily the First Amendment, public education and arts advocacy and is headquartered in New York City.
About AMERICAN PHOTO, published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (www.hfmus.com), a Lagardère Active company, offers a unique visual environment and authoritative editorial voice that inspires and informs an audience of advanced photography enthusiasts and photo professionals. These are opinion leaders who respond to excellence in imagery, design, and writing. American Photo intends to be the “bible” of the photographic world in the United States, covering the art and the swiftly-changing technology of photography. Finally, American Photo celebrates photography in a cultural setting, showing readers new ways in which to enrich their own photographic lifestyles.
About Sony’s Artisans of Imagery Program: Based on synergies between their unique styles of photography and Sony’s line of α (alpha) cameras, Sony hand-selected six professional photographers to be included in its professional photographer program, Artisans of Imagery. These pro photographers include Andy Katz, Me Ra Koh, David McLain, Christina Mittermeier, Brian Smith and Matthew Jordan Smith. By presenting these photographers in educational workshops, books and special events, the Artisans of Imagery program is influencing the next generation of professional and consumer photographers. Visit www.Sony.com/darkroom for more information about the professional photography program.
About Blurb (www.blurb.com) Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the power of books: making, reading, sharing, and selling them. Blurb is flexible and smart enough to help anyone make a book--photographers, creative professionals, bloggers, artists, writers, travelers, everyone. Blurb™s bookstore and online marketing tools let people share, market, and sell their books, and keep 100% of the markup. Blurb™s community features empower socially connected groups of consumers and professionals to create Blurb books together. Blurb won a 2008 Webby Award for Best Services website, has been recognized as an OnMedia 100 winner by AlwaysOn in 2008, was named a Momentum 15 company by Dealmaker Media in 2007, and was the 2007 Pixel Awards Geek Winner. Blurb was founded by Eileen Gittins in 2005 and is funded by Canaan Partners and Anthem Venture Partners. Blurb BookSmart, software is free for Mac or PC at www.blurb.com.
About Splashlight. Splashlight is a world-class leading resource for photography, offering a full range of photographic services including studio rentals, state-of-the-art photographic equipment, digital capture, production, digital asset management, CGI, retouching services, video production, event space and more. It is located in the heart of SoHo and occupies more than 60,000 square feet of premium space with top amenities. On-site facilities at Splashlight include eight day-rental studios that range in size from 1,600–3,000 square feet that can be combined into much larger spaces; two private client studios; a fully equipped digital retouching suite; a state-of-the-art equipment room; and gourmet full-scale catering is available for all photo shoots both in studio and on location, and special events.
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