State of the Arts

I think that Cuyahoga County should secede from the State of Ohio and declare statehood. And I think that state should claim the arts as its major resource. Cuyahoga County is the home of more than 100 non-profit arts organizations. These arts orgs add more than $1 billion dollars to the local economy, annually. These institutions employ 3,000 full-time workers; and more than 7,000 people who work in related businesses. That’s more than 10,000 people in Cuyahoga County whose work depends on the arts.

As you may know, the Cleveland Cavaliers made it to the NBA finals and the Cleveland Indians made it to the American League Championship Series. Both teams brought a lot of dollars into the community. And so do the Browns. But the economic impact of all of Cleveland's major professional sports teams put together is not as great as that of the arts.

Cuyahoga County may be Number One in arts funding per capita in the United States. The $20 million per year spent for the 1.3 million people in the County comes out to about $15.38 per person – that’s every man, woman and child. Plus you can add in the Ohio Arts Council’s $11- to 15-million per year for the state of 11.5 million people; plus the National Endowment for the Arts’ $125 million for the US population of 300 million – both which bring the total up to $17 of arts funding per capita in Cuyahoga County. And there are major funders here as well, including the Cleveland Foundation, George Gund Foundation, and other foundations and corporations.

The region has long been known for its tremendous support of and dedication to the arts. In just a few years, it will be a century since the founding of Cleveland’s major arts institutions – the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Cleveland Play House – each of which is among the oldest continuously operating organizations in its field in the country. Today, Cuyahoga County, with a population of 1.3 million, supports several art museums and dozens of galleries; nearly 10 orchestras; about 60 professional, college and community theater companies; maybe a dozen professional dance companies; and some 25 other types of museums.

The Playhouse Square complex in downtown Cleveland comprises seven theaters, making it the second-largest theater complex in the country. Among its theaters, it presents nationally touring musicals, national music acts of all genres, theater, opera and ballet and contemporary dance companies. There are two major comedy clubs downtown, Hilarities, in Pickwick and Frolic, and the Cleveland Improv. Clubs

Several summer venues thrive every year, including Cleveland Heights’ Cain Park, which presents two musicals plus 10 weeks’ worth of national and local music artists of all kinds, dance companies and other performing arts; and downtown Cleveland’s Plain Dealer Pavilion and Time Warner Cable Amphitheater, which both present national rock, country and jazz artists.

And all year long you can find literally every type of popular music, new and old, at Quicken Loans Arena (home of the Cleveland Cavaliers), Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland, the Beachland Ballroom on Cleveland’s far eastern edge, the Agora Theater in Cleveland’s Midtown section, the Winchester Tavern & Music Hall just west of the city in Lakewood, the Grog Shop (mostly new rock) and Nighttown (mostly jazz), both in Cleveland Heights, and many other venues around the region.

Ideastream was formed in 2001 from the merger of this region’s National Public Radio station, WVIZ 90.3FM, and its Public Broadcasting System TV station, WVIZ-TV25. Besides its radio and TV broadcasting, the innovative organization also provides many educational services.

For decades the area was the home of much heavy manufacturing. We furnished the country with coal, steel, automobiles, rubber, electrical equipment, and other goods. For several reasons, most of that dried up or moved away. The economy has shifted toward areas like biomedical technology and high-tech software. But throughout all of that, we have also always supplied the world with art and artists.

The region has always provided the rest of the country and the world with visual artists; classical, rock, jazz and folk musicians; ballet and modern dancers and choreographers; authors, playwrights, screen-writers and poets; comedians and comedy writers; actors, directors and producers. The arts already is one of our biggest and most important resources.

I assume that most people who live here enjoy, patronize and support the area’s arts and cultural organizations. I mean, people haven’t been flocking here for jobs, so the culture must be holding many of us here.

In 1997 an organization called Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC), was formed by Cleveland Foundation and The George Gund Foundation to become, as CPAC states, “a non-profit arts and culture service agency dedicated to Northeast Ohio’s success by preserving and advancing its arts and culture sector. CPAC works to prove and promote our cultural assets’ extraordinary contributions to our economy, education and quality of life. We help arts and culture prosper by fostering best practices in business development, sound cultural policy and in-depth research.”

Its president and CEO is Thomas Schorgl, who masterminded and led the campaign that culminated in the November 2006 passage of Issue 18, a countywide tobacco tax that will produce approximately $20 million in support for arts and cultural organizations.

So, given all of this, that is why I hereby propose that Cuyahoga County secede from the State of Ohio and declare statehood.

Our slogan will be “State of the Arts.” Our new state will need a new name, though. Artsylvania is one option. But we may be too close to Pennsylvania for that to work.

Another possibility is Artanis. As I’m sure you’ve already figured out, that’s “Sinatra” spelled backwards. I’m not a big Sinatra fan; in fact, I’m not much of a fan at all. But many people are, and, of course, in a democracy, sometimes you don’t get the person you wanted, and you do get the person you didn’t want – which was the case for the vast majority of Cuyahoga County residents in the most recent Presidential election. So we know all about that kind of thing. On the plus side, the name Artanis did figure prominently in the plot of an episode of the Dick van Dyke Show, one of the all-time best TV series.

So that name has at least two ties to the arts – or, at least, to pop culture. And, mainly, it sounds good. It sounds stately. Plus, it starts with the word “art” and ends with the word “is.” And, after all, that’s what we’re trying to say: “We is art.” Well, sort of.

So let’s say that our new state will be called Artanis. With a population of 1,393,845 (in the most recent census), Artanis already would have a bigger population than 12 states and the District of Columbia. That would make it the 39th largest state – not bad for a newcomer.

The U.S. does add states every once in a while, you know. We started with 13 and now there are, what? – 50, 51, 52? (I mean, what is the District of Columbia? And why does Guam vote in our national elections? And didn’t Puerto Rico want to gain statehood not long ago?)

The last places to become states were Alaska and Hawaii – and look at how far away they are. But we’re right here! So, no contest. Plus, one of them gets rain every day, and the other one gets tons of snow. We get both of those. So, again, no contest.

Now, some states did try to secede a while back, which proved to be an unpopular move, at least among the other states. So after some shooting and millions of deaths, they gave up and returned to the fold. But we’re not a state that’s trying to get out of the United States; we’re a county trying to get into the United States. I can’t see any reason why the other states wouldn’t welcome us with open arms (as opposed to firearms, if, for instance, we were trying to move in the other direction).

The U.S. Constitution does say that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union." So that sounds pretty hopeful. It does forbid a new state to be created out of the territory of an existing state, without the consent of both that state's legislature and of Congress. But, we just need to work on the Ohio State Legislature. I think the U.S. Congress will like the idea, though.

And, anyway, what state, after the original 13, wasn’t created out of the territory of an existing state? Look at a map from the 1700s. There are the 13 states, with clear borders north, south and east (east being the Atlantic Ocean), but westward, they all go on apparently forever – they sort of fade out into a watercolor wash – because no one had any idea of what happened very far west because no one had ever been there. (Except the Native Americans, upon whose land we were drawing these maps in the first place. But, hey, that’s another story.)

The first thing we’d need to do is vote in favor of the idea here. Then we’d need to draw up a state Constitution, and that would have to be accepted by Congress. Then we’re a state. A state of the arts.

We would still have a major city, Cleveland, and more than 60 other cities, townships and villages. We would still have our part of the Lake Erie shoreline, and the section of the Cuyahoga River that runs through our new state, on its way to our neighboring state to the south, Ohio. We’d still have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum and the Great Lakes Science Center in downtown Cleveland, and all of the University Circle cultural institutions. And seven or so colleges and universities. And a huge library system. And our major league sports teams.

The new state’s capital, as I see it, would most likely be located in Cleveland Heights. After all, that city actually calls itself the “Home of the Arts.” And there’s already an organization there called Heights Arts, that was founded seven years ago by its director Peggy Spaeth, to cultivate a collaborative arts community, because so many artists and arts organizations reside in the city.

And I nominate Thomas Schorgl as our first Governor. And Peggy Spaeth as Lieutenant Governor …

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, we have to start with a vote of the county’s residents.

All in favor?

From Cool Cleveland contributor David Budin popcyclesATsbcglobal.net
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