My Turn: SB 154 a win for the art community

  • By Ben Brown
  • Sunday, May 1, 2016 1:01am
  • Opinion

The past few weeks have seen some exciting and noteworthy news in the world of Alaskan arts.

To start with, an Alaskan has been named to serve on the National Council on the Arts, which is the board that oversees the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The NEA, of course, is the federal agency that was created in the 1960s to help ensure that Americans have access and ample opportunities to participate in and enjoy the arts. The NEA provides grants to arts organizations across the land; here in Juneau Perseverance Theatre has been a recipient of several of these so-called “direct grants.” Elsewhere in Southeast, the Sitka Summer Music Festival and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp have also been honored with the award of grant funds from the NEA.

The way in which most Alaskans have benefited from the NEA is through its partnership with the Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA). ASCA is Alaska’s state arts agency (on which I serve as chairman) and our partnership agreement with the NEA requires us to match every federal dollar we receive with state funds, which in turn allows us to receive and expend funds from private foundations. ASCA has many programs, including making grants to artists and arts organizations across the Last Frontier.

Annette Evans Smith of the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) in Anchorage is the Alaskan who was selected by the White House to serve on the National Council on the Arts. The Council is a small, high-level group that oversees all of the NEA’s programs, and it is an incredible honor to be chosen to serve there. She has been the president of ANHC since 2011, having started her service there back in 2003. With a long history of service to Alaska Native cultural institutions and causes, including chairing the Alaska Native Language Preservation & Advisory Council, Annette Evans Smith is eminently qualified, and will perform this duty with distinction. Appointments to the National Council on the Arts require vetting by the federal government and the White House, and then confirmation by the United States Senate. Having an Alaskan on the National Council on the Arts presents a unique opportunity for the unique perspectives of Alaskans to inform arts and cultural policy nationally.

As the State Legislature approached the 90-day statutory session deadline, a bill that will help the arts in Alaska was passed in a surprising but welcome manner. Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins of Sitka introduced House Bill 217 to set up a program for specialty license plates to celebrate the arts in Alaska. What made this plan for special license plates different from the other varieties (for the Alaska Children’s Trust, University of Alaska alumni, and other causes) is that instead of a design by DMV simply available for purchase by Alaskan motorists, there will be a juried process allowing Alaskan artists to create proposed designs from which the most exciting and alluring will be selected for a four-year period. Alaskans who wish publicly to display their support for the arts will then be able to buy these plates, and the additional funds generated will support ASCA’s work and programs. Earned income is something that many State agencies are likely to rely on increasingly in future years, so this would be a positive development.

Unfortunately, as the 90-day mark approached, it didn’t look likely that HB 217 was going to make it through the legislative process. Rep. Kreiss-Tomkins and his perspicacious staff came up with an idea, one that might not have worked without a meticulously careful approach. He approached Sen. Bill Stoltze of Chugiak who also had a license plate bill, one allowing Alaskans to buy special plates to support the Blood Bank of Alaska. This legislation, Senate Bill 154, had made it all the way through the Senate and to its last committee of referral in the House. The representative approached the senator, and diplomatically sought permission to add the arts license plate provisions to the blood bank bill. We are most grateful that Sen. Stoltze graciously agreed to the change, and this allowed something very good for the arts that otherwise would not have happened. News about the design contest will be forthcoming once SB 154 is signed into law.

Alas, there has also been some less than happy news for Alaskans who are passionate about the arts. Shannon Daut has served as ASCA’s Executive Director for the past four and half years, and she has been offered an employment opportunity Outside that she simply couldn’t let go. Alaskans have benefited greatly from Shannon’s leadership, and she is leaving ASCA in a position of strength yet ready for further transition and improvement. As we wish Shannon the best, Alaskans can remain confident that ASCA will continue to strive to ensure that our lives are enriched by the arts, our economy made stronger, and our young people immersed in the arts in their educational experiences so they are as likely as possible to succeed throughout their lives.

• Ben Brown is an attorney who lives in Juneau and is president of the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

More in Opinion

Web
Have something to say?

Here’s how to add your voice to the conversation.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start and Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
Opinion: Sullivan plays make believe with America’s future

Two weeks ago, Sen. Dan Sullivan said Pete Hegseth was a “strong”… Continue reading

Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Our comfort with spectacle became a crisis

If I owned a home in the valley that was damaged by… Continue reading

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Letter: Voter fact left out of news

With all the post-election analysis, one fact has escaped much publicity. When… Continue reading

The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
My Turn: Maybe the news is ‘No new news’ on Canada’s plans for Tulsequah Chief mine cleanup

In 2015, the British Columbia government committed to ending Tulsequah Chief’s pollution… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Rights for psychiatric patients must have state enforcement

Kim Kovol, commissioner of the state Department of Family and Community Services,… Continue reading

People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
Opinion: Mired in bureaucracy, CBJ long-term flood fix advances at glacial pace

During meetings in Juneau last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)… Continue reading

Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)
My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice… Continue reading

The settlement of Sermiligaaq in Greenland (Ray Swi-hymn / CC BY-SA 2.0)
My Turn: Making the Arctic great again

It was just over five years ago, in the summer of 2019,… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Small wins make big impacts at Alaska Psychiatric Institute

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), an 80-bed psychiatric hospital located in Anchorage… Continue reading

President Donald Trump and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy pose for a photo aboard Air Force One during a stopover at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage in 2019. (Sheila Craighead / White House photo)
Opinion: Dunleavy has the prerequisite incompetence to work for Trump

On Tuesday it appeared that Gov. Mike Dunleavy was going to be… Continue reading