University News

L-R: Dale Lonis, Elgin (IL) Symphony; Scarlet Svedlow, Illinois Art Alliance; Congresswoman Halvorson; Doug Johnson, McLean County Arts Center; Nancy Stemper, Carbondale (IL) Center for the Arts; and Paul Kreider, Dean, WIU COFAC
[Download Print-Quality Image]

WIU's Fine Arts Dean Lobbies at Arts Advocacy Day

April 17, 2009

Share Printer friendly version

MACOMB, IL - - Paul Kreider, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Western Illinois University, was part of a working contingent from Illinois that participated in the 22nd annual Arts Advocacy Day: 2009 National Arts Action Summit held March 30-31 in Washington, D.C.

He attended the National Arts Action Summit (artsusa.org/events/2009/aad) as a representative of the Illinois Arts Alliance (IAA), which elected him to the board of directors in Fall 2007. Kreider's agenda on behalf of the IAA was K-16 arts education.

He spent March 30 at fact-finding conferences; March 31 was dedicated to lobbying state senators and congressmen to increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and for Arts in Education.

Two weeks prior to the Arts Advocacy Day, Congress passed the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which included a $10 million increase for the NEA and the NEH, making their budgets at $155 million each. However, the Illinois Arts Alliance (artsalliance.org) was lobbying to increase the NEA funding from $176 million to $200 million, which would be below the 1992 funding levels ($250 million) if inflation were factored in, Kreider said.

"We also asked congressman to support passage of the $53 million Arts in Education appropriation, and we also talked to legislators about dollars for the arts in health care," he added.

Kreider and the IAA contingent met with Illinois' U.S. representatives Jerry Costello (12th District), Bill Foster (14th District) and Debbie Halvorson (11th District), encouraging them to become members of the Congressional Arts Caucus. They also met with U.S. Representative Phil Hare (17th District), whose son Louis Hare is a 2006 MFA theatre graduate, and Senator Dick Durbin's chief aides. Durbin is a member of the Senate's Cultural Caucus.

Western's dean took a break from lobbying long enough to attend the 22nd Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy presented by jazz great Wynton Marsalis in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. His talk, "The Ballad of American Arts," focused on the importance of arts and culture to the American identity and included performances by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and by Marsalis.

Kreider's message to patrons of the arts is: "E-mailing our senators and representatives works. Our group was told by congressional aides that e-mails are shared with the congressmen and congresswomen, and they make a difference and a lasting impression."

An operatic baritone who has performed on stages throughout the world, Kreider has been a member of the music panel for the Illinois Arts Council since 2005. He is also an elected member of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (icfad.org), an alliance of arts administrators representing institutions of higher education. The ICFAD provides leadership in arts education, offers a forum for the exchange of ideas and information and addresses issues of common concern.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing