Each week, PAA will attempt to bring to you a hot arts' issue that we feel is worth discussing with the community at large.  Your comments are welcome.  We hope that you will think carefully about the issue and call us if you require more information.  The dialogue may even take the form of a mini survey.  In either format, we will review all posted content.

In order to participate, you must register with us.  We will not provide any personal information to any outside entity.  All information and data collected is solely for research purposes and to engage the community into an "arts frame of mind."

All ages of people may participate.  However, if you are under the age of 16, we highly recommend that you seek your parent or guardian's permission to participate, as some issues may be difficult to understand.  We feel that the arts is a family affair and the affair of everyone.  It's important to discuss current issues together, so that we as a community can solve any problems together.

Many of you have heard of the old African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child."  We at the Polk Arts Alliance believe that it takes an opportunity to experience art, encouragement to pursue it, a developed passion to continue it, creativity to spur it and a community to support it.  But first, AN ARTS DIALOGUE MUST HAPPEN!

We may provide more than one issue or question each week in the event one may appeal to you more than the other.  Of course you would be welcome to respond to both or none.  Feel free to read what's been posted.  It may just change what you think about ART.  But, whatever it does, ART-ASK FOR MORE, ESPECIALLY IN CENTRAL FLORIDA'S ALL- AMERICA COUNTY--POLK COUNTY!

Thank you for your time.

#1

Recently, the New York Times journalist, Christopher Caldwell wrote, "Opera's Cancellation a Risky Move for Free Speech in Art," reprinted by The Ledger on Sunday, October 1, 2006.  Please note the following:

"It takes a lot to shock a vanguard theater audience in Berlin.  The Deutsche Oper production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" adds a scene in which the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad are pulled from a bloody sack and propped on chairs - and it is meant to provoke.

When the director, Hans Neuenfels, staged the opera in 2003, though, the outrage was muted.  That was before last winter's "cartoon affair," in which caricatures of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper led to several days of rioting and arson in the Muslim world, and protests in Europe.

Neuenfels' production was scheduled to reopen at the Deutsche Oper next month.  But acting on an anonymous call from a worried opera goer, the Berlin police made an assessment that staging the opera would constitute a "risk with incalculable consequences."  In German as in English, incalculable can mean two things.  It can mean too high to reckon, or it can mean your guess is as good as mine.  The Deutsche Oper's artistic director, Kristen Harms, took it in the former sense.  Monday, she announced that "Idomeneo" would be struck from the fall schedule. .."  (this is only an excerpt from the full article which you can get in its entirety from www.theledger.com).

Did Ms. Harms overreact and why?

#2

Recently in May, the Polk Local Delegation held court in the Administration Building for the Polk County Board of County Commissioners.  Their purpose was to hear from constituents and local elected officials what we thought about property tax reform.  It was made clear that it would have serious fiscal consequences on their ability to collect revenue from property taxes.  Recently, as part of PAA's monthly conference call with other local arts agencies, we have learned that one county has already notified all arts and cultural organizations that they will receive no funding in the new fiscal year. 

Is funding for the arts as significant to a municipal budget, as other services or should it always be the first to get scrapped?