Arts Funding Debate on This Weekend in Jacksonville

[Metro Jacksonville]

Arts Funding Debate on This Weekend in Jacksonville



Kent Justice of WJXT sits down with Stephen Dare of MetroJacksonville.com and Abel Harding, Chairman of the board of the Cultural Council to discuss the nature of arts funding.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-apr-arts-funding-debate-on-this-weekend-in-jacksonville

[Redbaron616]

The idea that taxpayers should fund art is ridiculous. Let the marketplace determine the art market. If taxpayers should fund art, is there anything they shouldn't be funding? We have forgotten the true role of government and that is to do that which the private sector is incapable of: Armed Forces, A Judicial System, etc. Art is something that the private sector is perfectly capable of funding. Good art will be bought; bad art will go unsold.

[jerry cornwell]

 Good interview from both Stephen and Abel. After an enormous amount of time spent towards developing our downtown, we seem to be on the next, if not the right, track towards a solution. A popular and successful method of public funding for artists
would be subsidized housing downtown specifically for artists. This is practiced in NYC from my experience. It would involve definite classification of the "professional artist" that would qualify as such.
  This would work well as a compromise to RedBarons view that the artist themselves would still be financially committed  to the specific housing they were using. While similar to the CoRK district, a big step up towards not just arts in Jacksonville, but residential presence in our downtown.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

The idea that taxpayers should fund art is ridiculous. Let the marketplace determine the art market. If taxpayers should fund art, is there anything they shouldn't be funding? We have forgotten the true role of government and that is to do that which the private sector is incapable of: Armed Forces, A Judicial System, etc. Art is something that the private sector is perfectly capable of funding. Good art will be bought; bad art will go unsold.

True role of government?!?

Governments have been funding or commissioning art practically since humans created primitive forms of government.

[CityLife]

Good interview from both Stephen and Abel. After an enormous amount of time spent towards developing our downtown, we seem to be on the next, if not the right, track towards a solution. A popular and successful method of public funding for artists
would be subsidized housing downtown specifically for artists. This is practiced in NYC from my experience. It would involve definite classification of the "professional artist" that would qualify as such.
  This would work well as a compromise to RedBarons view that the artist themselves would still be financially committed  to the specific housing they were using. While similar to the CoRK district, a big step up towards not just arts in Jacksonville, but residential presence in our downtown.

There's an organization called Artspace that develops affordable housing for artists around the country. They've developed projects in NYC, California, Portland, DC, Ft Lauderdale, Chicago, Minneapolis (where they are HQ'd), and quite a few other places. I touched base with them about 5 years ago about building something in Jax (namely Springfield), but the housing market was awful at the time and conditions probably weren't right. Despite that they were still receptive to exploring any options.

The market would probably be much better for it now and DIA actually may have some money to play with. Hopefully someone at the DIA, DVI, or Cultural Council has explored it, or would be willing to.

Check out their site

http://www.artspace.org/

and projects:
http://www.artspace.org/our-places