Guest Column: Leslie Danks Burke

“Liberty and the Arts”

WATKINS GLEN, April 29, 2020 -- Perhaps our American President whom we know best for also being an artist was Ronald Reagan. Before he was elected Governor of California and then President of the United States, Reagan was an actor and a union leader.

President Reagan said, “In an atmosphere of liberty, artists and patrons are free to think the unthinkable and create the audacious.”

Today’s world needs artists more than ever.

We in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes are rich in artistic opportunity. Summertime usually brings us live music at Lafayette Park in Watkins Glen, and the Alive After Five Summer Street Music Festival in Elmira. I love that back in the early 1900s, American moviemaking launched in part on the Cayuga lakeshore, and today the Wharton Studio Museum puts on Silent Movies Under the Stars as one of the many performances at Taughannock State Park.

There are concerts aplenty, from the Hornell Area Wind Ensemble, to the Keuka Lake Music Festival, to the Summer Stage at Tag’s in Big Flats. Community Arts of Elmira and The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, among many others, help artists learn how to market their work, and The Rockwell Museum in Corning is upstate New York’s Smithsonian Affiliate. Elmira’s Clemens Center, Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre, Hangar Theatre, and Cherry Arts Space bring world-class theater here, and artist studios are nestled along main streets and hillsides in one village and town after another.

The cultural richness that artists bring is immeasurable. Less heralded, but also significant, is how much artists and artistic institutions contribute to our economy. The Corning Museum of Glass alone brings more than 500,000 visitors annually. It comes as a surprise to many to learn what a big part of national GDP comes from arts -- it’s bigger than transportation, and it’s a growing sector.

We can’t let the coronavirus pandemic permanently rob us. Anyone who relies on volunteerism, donations, visitation, room taxes, or tourism, stands to lose if we lose our artists and artistic institutions. And when we think about life after COVID-19, we want that to be full of these arts that make our lives as rich as they are here.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s “three R’s” during the Great Depression -- relief for farmers and unemployed, reform of Wall Street, and recovery of the economy -- are well known through the Works Progress Administration of 1939, the Farm Security Administration of 1937, and the Social Security Administration of 1935. But before any of these, in 1934, FDR set up a prototype in the Public Works of Arts Project, which got up and running within a couple of weeks to pay artists an average of $75.59 per artwork “to produce 15,663 paintings, murals, prints, crafts and sculptures for government buildings around the country,” explains Jerry Adler of Smithsonian. FDR’s right-hand man, Harry Hopkins, quieted down those who thought artists weren’t worth protecting by saying, "Hell, they've got to eat just like other people!"

Hopkins was foresightful. He knew the savings of self-sufficient artists was persuasive to naysayers, but he also knew the value multiplied. Like any investment that takes years to grow but can get wiped out overnight, we can and should sustain our arts organizations so they’re not just here but strong and thriving when this is over. FDR and Ronald Reagan -- who entered office pledging to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts but was smart enough to wholly reverse course once he studied it -- would agree.

Photo: Leslie Danks Burke

Top row (from left): Carl Blowers, Jim Howell, Michael Lausell, Van Harp

Bottom row: Gary Gray, David Reed, Phil Barnes, Mark Rondinaro

Legislature Chairman

Carl Blowers, 535-6174 or 237-5469

Legislature Members:

Gary Gray, 292-9922

Van Harp, 329-2160

Jim Howell, 535-7266 or 227-1141

David M. Reed, 796-9558

Michael Lausell, 227- 9226

Phil Barnes, Watkins Glen, 481-0482

Mark Rondinaro, 398-0648

County Clerk: Theresa Philbin, 535-8133

Sheriff: William Yessman, 535-8222

Undersheriff: Breck Spaulding, 535-8222

County Treasurer: Holley Sokolowski, 535-8181

District Attorney: Joseph Fazzary, 535-8383

State, Federal Officials for Schuyler County

Sen. Charles E. Schumer

United States Senate
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3201
DC Phone: 202-224-6542
DC Fax: 202-228-3027
Email Address: http://schumer.senate.gov/webform.html

Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand

United States Senate
478 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
DC Phone: 202-224-4451
Website: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/

State Senator Tom O'Mara -- Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Yates, western Tompkins, Enfield, Ithaca (Town and City), Newfield, Ulysses(Trumansburg)

Room 812, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247
Phone: (518) 455-2091
Fax: (518) 426-6976
www.omara.nysenate.gov

Assemblyman Phil Palmesano-- Steuben, Schuyler, Yates
Room 723, Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Phone: (518) 455-5791
Website: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Phillip-A-Palmesano