Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 22:14:32 +0100
From: Robert Smythe <78rsmythe-AT-andover.edu>
Subject: Re: PUPT: Art and Business


At 10:47 PM +0100 4/10/99, Preston Foerder wrote:
>The NEA has done away with  all grants to individual artists.  They only fund
>non-profit organizations.

Dear Preston:

This is not entirely true and is the kind of misinformation that is
ultimately harmful to the very success of the NEA.

The truth is that fellowships to most artists have been eliminated as a
result of the lawsuit brought by four solo performers who were recommended
for funding by the NEA panels and denied funding by the NEA's board of
directors.

The NEA itself says, "For many years, the Arts Endowment was able to award
fellowships to individual
artists, but due to recent changes in our legislation, only one category
remains
open for applications: Literature Fellowships.  Two other areas are available
through nomination only: National Heritage Fellowships in the Folk &
Traditional
Arts and Fellowships for American Jazz Masters.

"The nomination process for the National Medal of Arts, awarded each year
by the
President of the United States, is also administered through the National
Endowment for the Arts."

True, not as dramatic as the black and white statement you made, but there
we are.

You can access the NEA's rather extensive web site at

http://arts.endow.gov

>And most state arts organizations have followed in kind.

I don't know that this is entirely true either. It certainly isn't in
Pennsylvania where the Council on the Arts is busy beating the bushes
trying to convince people to apply for fellowships in all disciplines.


>You either have to be a non-profit or use a 501C3 Umbrella, who will
>generally take a percentage of whatever money you get.

It depends on the agency you are working with. Depending on what that
agency does for you, a percentage may or may not be adequate compensation
for what they offer the artist. If an individual is truly interested in
this kind of funding, one can make use of such an arrangement (known as a
"financial conduit") with ANY non-profit authorized to receive payments
from government and non-taxable authorities. Mum Puppettheatre does this
all the time for artists here in Philadelphia. We don't advertise and we
don't take a cut. We see it as part of our mission to help.

>Another reason is the
>pitiful amount a lot of puppet companies pay their puppeteers.  Many companies
>pay barely above minimum wage, and when you add up the actual amount of hours,
>including loading in and out, set-up, strike, and travel, less than minimum
>wage.  We are constantly discussing how to get the rest of the world to
>respect
>puppetry as an art form, first we have to show respect for our talents
>ourselves
>by paying a decent wage.
>

Ann Landers often says that no one can take advantage of you without your
permission. The only way for puppeteers to make decent wages is to demand
them and not settle for anything less. We all know performers whose fees
are far less than our own and I'm sure we know of performers who get more.

It's an interesting fact that you can perform a lot of shows for less money
or fewer shows for more money. I think a lot of it depends on your
attitude: either you have a commodity (like widgets) that is basically the
same as the competitor's widget and therefore the only thing separating you
both is price; or you really have no competition (and I don't think any
artist truly has "competition," although his agent might) and what you have
to offer the consumer is a unique view of the world, a view that some (but
not all) people find worth paying for.

This is what I call the "theatre by the pound" point of view: what some
people will pay for things is based entirely on volume. How many puppets,
how many performers, what size is the truck that you haul things around in?
Producers in both the puppet and live actor worlds exploit the knowledge
that artists will often take crap just for the opportunity to do what they
desire. If not this actor or that puppeteer, then another.

So, I think you can decide to compete with the other widget makers and
therefore need to keep costs low to keep profit margins up, or you can take
the risk of waiting for the people who will pay for what you have to offer,
the people who don't need any proof of your "value" to them because they
can clearly see it for themselves.


Robert Smythe
78rsmythe-AT-andover.edu
207 Cornell Avenue
Swarthmore PA 19081




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