It seems that ever since the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was created, it has been under siege. Although it is a tiny agency, less than 0.006% of the $3.54 Trillion federal budget, it has had enormous impact on the quality, abundance and diversity of the arts in America through its 140,000 grants, totaling […]
Dear Friends: These are trying times for all of us: so many needs… so many challenges. It is indeed daunting. I think that if 2016 has taught us anything, it is that exercising our freedom of expression is a fundamental privilege we enjoy as Americans. That is why I believe the arts are so important…because […]
This week’s post is by guest blogger Rocío De La Roca, Communications Associate at ArtsWestchester. To fans all around the world, Steve Pollak is “the Dude of Life,” lyricist and singer behind numerous hit songs by the jam-band Phish. Since his songwriting days for Phish, the “dude,” who toured with the Vermont band in the […]
What’s in a name? There’s a new upbeat movement afoot in education circles called Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). It’s a “wishful thinking” piece of legislation in which the expected outcome is right up there in the program’s name. Near as I can tell, it does not carry the baggage of the program it replaced […]
Counting my blessings is a mental exercise I do during the holidays. I don’t plan it. It just seems to pop into my head along with the strains of “Let It Snow.” This year, perhaps triggered by the loss and restoration of county funds for the arts, I began to count our collective blessings as […]
Some thirty-five years ago, during New York City’s fiscal crisis, a proposal was made to cut the arts. To save them, the chairman of the city’s arts commission likened this foolish notion to the goose that laid the golden eggs. You remember that story: The goose was shot. Disaster. No more golden eggs. Last week, […]
Image: “Peace for Paris” by Jean Jullien It is no coincidence that, in the aftermath of last week’s terrorist attack on Paris, the response heard round the world was one of an original work of art – an image of peaceful protest and compelling unity in the face of tragedy. It was an artist’s original […]
In many ways, it’s been all about the people – five decades of forward-thinking arts advocates, civic and business leaders, arts patrons, individual artists, volunteers and arts professionals – coming together to create a one-of-a-kind organization: ArtsWestchester. It began as a conversation among volunteers in a living room in 1965. Now it is a nationally recognized private arts council, the […]
Connect with Janet