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• House Gives NEA $10 Million Increase; NEH $3 Million; IMLS $2 Million

• Bush Announces Intention to Nominate Italian Renaissance Scholar Bruce Cole as Head of NEH

• Billy Collins Appointed Poet Laureate

• Conferences, Lectures, Festivals:
  The Playwright/Agent Relationship - A TCG LIVE Chat
  CATSKILL FESTIVAL OF NEW THEATRE
• Arts Events:
  (preceded by a few bars from John Lee Hooker - "I Cover the Waterfront"):
  TUGBOAT FILM AND VIDEO SERIES - Opening July 1 on the Hudson River
  GREAT LAKES - at Harbourfront Centre, on Toronto's Waterfront
  CROSSSOUND NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL - SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY in Southeast Alaska

• Funding/Opportunties for Organizations:
  ALA LIVE @YOUR LIBRARY Promotes Live Appearances by Literary, Visual and Performing Artists
• Opportunities for Artists:
  Image-Maker Presentations: Fiction and Fantasy - SPE MidAtlantic Region Conference
  Current Calls
• Job Opportunities:
  WNBA Ann Heidbreder Eastman Grant Fosters Library and Publishing Profession Connections
  Job Listings

• Arts Wire Web Reports:
  THE DIGITAL PERFORMANCE ARCHIVE

• Elsewhere on the Net:
  NEA Honors Folk Artists With 13 National Heritage Fellowships

Although last year, the Senate originated moderate increases for the cultural agencies, this was the first year -- since right wing Republican attacks resulted in drastic cuts for the NEA -- that the House has approved a funding increase. Absent in the debate were those rancorous attacks on artists which characterized Congressional arts funding debate in the 1990s. And it was a decisive vote -- 221 to 193.

"I am delighted that Congress has reaffirmed it commitment to funding the arts. For too long the House of Representatives has denied that the arts play a vital economic, educational and cultural role in our nation's well being," said Representative Louise M. Slaughter, (D-NY) who with Steve Horn, (R-CA) Norm Dicks, (D-WA) and Nancy Johnson (R-CT) introduced the amendment.

"All three of these agencies share overarching goals for a new century," Representative Horn emphasized. "They all strive to involve traditionally underserved American communities in art, culture and community. These agencies have done wonders with severely reduced budgets, and if given the opportunity, they can reach many more Americans and transform many more lives for the better. America's cultural heritage is well worth the investment."

Slaughter also pointed out that voting for the arts puts money in the bank. "For the price of 0.1% of the federal budget, the arts provide $3.4 billion in taxes to the federal government, bring tourism to our communities and make our children smarter," she observed.

The amendment survived an attempt by Clifford Stearns (R-FL) to take away the new NEA money. The Stearns amendment was defeated 145 to 264.

On Friday, the Interior Department appropriations bill which included the Slaughter amendment was approved by the house by a votes of 376-32. It now goes to the newly Democrat-run Senate where Robert Byrd (D-WV) is chair of the Interior Subcommittee as well as the full Appropriations Committee.

"Three years ago, our efforts were focused on trying to just save the NEA from elimination. Today, this incredibly strong bipartisan coalition is successfully winning amendments to restore the 40 percent deep cuts originally made by the House," said Americans for the Arts President Robert Lynch. "We are hopeful that the Senate will now match or provide even larger increases for the arts and culture, thereby enhancing fuller access to the arts for all Americans."

Lynch commended the bipartisan public support for the arts which the amendment signaled, pointing out that this first NEA increase in the House in a almost a decade was particularly significant given that it was a truly bi-partisan and geographically inclusive initiative.

The Arts Endowment received a substantially larger increase than the NEH, because, as explained by NHA-ANNOUNCE: "Many friends of both endowments in Congress are determined to close the gap between NEA's $105 million budget and NEH's $120.5 million."

In expressing the Arts Endowment's appreciation of the vote of confidence by the House of Representatives, NEA Chairman Bill Ivey noted that "We are especially gratified by the support for our Challenge America program." The additional 10 million will go towards this program which centers on the unique power of the arts to strengthen America's communities, focusing in particular on arts education and on outreach.

"Without these crucial agencies' programs, many would miss the opportunity to experience the delights of an opera, symphony, ballet, or museum," said Representative Steve Horn, a co-sponsor of the funding increase amendment. "These types of opportunities foster imagination, spark creativity and broaden future ambitions." And he noted that as a small child, he was "awestruck and inspired" by a symphony that came to perform at his school.

"It changed my life," he said.

This March, during Arts Advocacy week, Representative Louise Slaughter reminded arts advocates of President Lyndon Johnson's words at the bill-signing ceremony for the law that established the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965.

Johnson said: "In the long history of man, countless empires and nations have come and gone. Those which created no lasting works of art are reduced today to short footnotes in history's catalog. Art is a nation's most precious heritage, for it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.'"

Sources/resources:

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS -- http://www.arts.gov

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES -- http://www.neh.gov

THE INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES -- http://www.imls.gov

CONGRESSIONAL ARTS CAUCUS -- http://www.house.gov/slaughter/about-me/artscaucus.htm
a bipartisan organization for Members of Congress who support the arts through Federal initiatives.

AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS -- http://www.artsusa.org

NHA-ANNOUNCE -- http://www.nhalliance.org/news/

"President's Budget Blueprint Proposes Flat Funding for NEA 'We're going to make every attempt to increase that' -- Congresswoman Louise Slaughter"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur030601.html
March 6, 2001

"Bipartisan Spirit Prevails at House FY02 Cultural Funding Hearing; Arts Funding Still Spread Thin, NEA, NEH Chairmen Testify"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur041701.html
April 17, 2001

Cole, whose field is Italian Renaissance art, is not noted for an inclusive 21st century vision. Although the conservative NATIONAL REVIEW, which applauds the nomination, writes that Cole "is not expected to become a provocateur in the mold of Cheney or William Bennett," it also emphasizes that Cole, who helped found the Association for Art History as an alternative to the College Art Association, has been "a powerful force for traditionalism within his field."

Bruce Cole has been a member of the IU faculty since 1973. In 1991, he was appointed to the National Council on the Humanities by George Bush Sr, and he served on the council until 1999. In addition to many journal articles, Cole has published twelve books. Mainly devoted to the art of the Italian Renaissance, they include both scholarly monographs and surveys aimed at the student and general reader. Among them are GIOTTO AND FLORENTINE PAINTING; (Harper & Row, 1976) ITALIAN ART 1250-1550; (Harper & Row 1987), and TITIAN AND VENETIAN PAINTING. (Icon Editions, 1999)

He would replace author, folklorist, filmmaker, and arts administrator, William R.Ferris, appointed by President Clinton in 1997 and scheduled to complete the term in November of this year. Ferris' scholarship covers the fields of folklore, American literature, music, and photography. Among his books are IMAGES OF THE SOUTH: VISITS WITH EUDORA WELTY AND WALKER EVANS. His films include MISSISSIPPI BLUES, (1983) which was featured at the Cannes Film Festival. He also spearheaded the creation of the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOUTHERN CULTURE. Ferris has had bipartisan support in Congress, and earlier this year a group of Republican Senators voiced support for his continuation as NEH chair.

The NEH Chairman is appointed for a four-year term by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

According to NHA-ANNOUNCE, an 'intent to nominate' usually means that a selection has been made but the background check needs to be completed. If the background check does not affect the intent to nominate, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, chaired by Edward M. Kennedy, (D-MA) will be responsible for review of the nomination. Usually, but not always, the committee holds a hearing prior to voting on whether to send the nomination forward to the Senate floor.

Sources/resources:

NATIONAL HUMANITIES ALLIANCE NHA-ANNOUNCE -- http://www.nhalliance.org/news/

"Bruce Cole"
INDIANA UNIVERSITY -- http://www.indiana.edu/~alldrp/members/cole.html

John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru
"Clean Cole; Meet the next NEH chairman"
THE NATIONAL REVIEW -- http://www.nationalreview.com/daily/nr053101.shtml
May 31, 2001

"GOP Congressmen Support Ferris to Continue as NEH Chair"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur022001.html
February 20, 2001

"I have never before felt possessive about a poet, but I am fiercely glad that Billy Collins is ours - smart, his strings tuned and resonant, his -over- wonderful eye looping over the things, events and ideas of the world, rueful, playful, warm-voiced, easy to love," the Library of Congress quotes author E. Annie Proulx as saying.

Billy Collins' books of poetry include PICNIC, LIGHTNING; (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998) and THE ART OF DROWNING. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995) His next collection of poems, SAILING ALONE AROUND THE ROOM, is scheduled for release this fall from Random House.

His honors include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College, City University of New York, where he has taught for the past 30 years. He is also a writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College, and served as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library. He lives in Somers, New York.

His poem "Jazz and Nature" (in DOUBLETAKE, 1997) begins with the poet reading jazz musician Art Pepper's autobiography and listening to an Art Pepper album while sitting outside in the August sun; encompasses reflections on Pepper's "life of junk and prison while I listened to his speedy, mellow alto pouring out of two big maples as if West Coast jazz were the music of Nature itself"; and concludes with a series of carefully rendered details (pink flowers in the back yard, a persistent bee, a cat sleeping on a chair) of the poet's own environment:

"...all likely parts of my own autobiography,
a more cautious tale, told in the present tense,
with a few crude illustrations
and a diagram of a small family tree,

the work whose pages are turned
every day like a wheel that is turned by water,
the thing I can never stop writing,
the only book I can never put down."

Collins succeeds Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wilbur, Howard Nemerov, Mark Strand, Joseph Brodsky, Mona Van Duyn, Rita Dove, Robert Hass, Robert Pinsky, and Stanley Kunitz.

The Library keeps the specific duties required of the Poet Laureate to a minimum, in order to permit poets to work on their own projects while at the Library. Increasingly in recent years, the Poets Laureate have sought to find new ways to broaden the role of poetry in our national life. For instance, Joseph Brodsky initiated the idea of providing poetry in public places - supermarkets, hotels, airports, and hospitals. Rita Dove brought a program of poetry and jazz to the Library's literary series, along with a reading by young Crow Indian poets, and a two-day conference, OIL ON THE WATERS: THE BLACK DIASPORA, featuring panel discussions, readings, and music. Robert Hass sponsored a major conference on nature writing, WATERSHED, which continues today as a national poetry competition for elementary and high school students called RIVER OF WORDS.

Sources/resources

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEBSITE -- http://www.loc.gov

Billy Collins
"Nature and Jazz"
DOUBLETAKE -- http://www.doubletakemagazine.org/issues/09/
Issue 9, Summer 1997

Conferences

THE PLAYWRIGHT/AGENT RELATIONSHIP - A CONVERSATION WITH REBECCA GILMAN AND BRUCE OSTLER

Rebecca Gilman's plays include SPINNING INTO BUTTER, BOY GETS GIRL, BLUE SURGE, THE GLORY OF LIVING, THE LAND OF LITTLE HORSES and MY SINNING AND NOTHING MORE. Her play THE AMERICAN IN ME will premiere this summer at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, and her third commission for Chicago's Goodman Theatre will premiere during the 2001-2002 season.

Bruce Ostler is a literary agent and partner in Bret Adams Ltd., which represents playwrights, authors, directors, designers, composers and actors. His clients include Rebecca Gilman.

TCG LIVE is a series of moderated Internet chat events To find out more, go to the THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP WEBSITE at http://www.tcg.org Click on TCG Live and then click on Help.

Archived chats available on the TCG LIVE site include: Ben Cameron, TCG's Executive Director, discussing "The Role of Live Theatre in a Digital Culture", the theme for the 2001 TCG National Conference in Philadelphia and an Arts in Education Chat with Eric Booth, who leads the arts-in-education program at the Juilliard School.

THE CATSKILL FESTIVAL OF NEW THEATRE

NaCl Theatre (North American Cultural Laboratory) will host its second annual theatre festival at NaCl Catskills, the company's renovated church-turned-theatre in Highland Lake, NY. The festival features theatre makers from across the US, Canada, Italy, and Brazil -- as well as outdoor stilt performances, late night entertainment, and a performance conference.

Among Festival productions are:

July 27, 2001 - 8:00 PM
Wishhounds (Cleveland, OH)
THE HIDDEN TWIN -- A World Premiere
"An unorthodox book steers a young historian into an antiquarian cult, whose ritual reenactments threaten to shatter her conception of America's beginnings. Cleveland-based Wishhounds marry the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne with evocative physicality and haunting songs in The Hidden Twin, a rare theatrical double-take on early American history." The performance features the six performer ensemble of Brett Keyser, Holly Holsinger, Tracy Broyles, Kristie Lang, Mariah Sage, and Rebecca Spencer, and is directed by Raymond Bobgan."

July 28, 2001 - 8:00 PM
Segni Particolari (Naples, Italy)
VINSANTO -- A World Premiere
"...reveals, through text, music, and physical action, the life and times of Saint Francesco of Assisi who chose "an extreme path of devotion, rootlessness, and poverty." Actors Donald Kitt and Alessandra di Castri perform in Italian and English. Directed by ex-Odin Teatret artist, Sylvia Ricciardelli, a current director of Koreja in Lecce, Italy.
July 28, 2001 - 10:00 PM
LAKE IVAN PERFORMANCE GROUP (New York City) "....unpredictable, visionary, and surreal theater, laced with ironic humor. Actors David Finkelstein and James Martin blend their voices with a live sound mix created by Cassandra Weston, while silent performer Agnes de Garron creates visual magic from simple objects."

July 29, 2001 - 8:00 PM
Lisa Black (Los Angeles)
MURDERERS BAY
"...a solo show written and performed by Los Angeles artist, Lisa Black, is a spellbinding travelogue that explodes with tales of battle and glory that beget legends in New Zealand's Thermal District. Murderers Bay strikes terror, makes you laugh, and speaks directly from the heart of actress Lisa Black...."
July 29, 2001 - 10:00 PM
Laura Astwood (Toronto)
THE GARDEN -- USA Premiere
performed by Toronto artist, Laura Astwood, directed by Karin Randoja, with text by Barbara Gosling Gray. "A vigorous young woman who is dying has one hour before her spirit must depart for the next place...the performance explores the emotional and psychological state of a woman whose time is up, and who must leave life before she's ready."

Other 2001 participating artists are:

July 29, August 2, August 5 - NaCl Theatre
August 4 - Number Eleven Theatre
August 5 - Selma Trevino
August 5 - Spatial Relations

Opening Night Ceremonies will take place on Friday, July 27 beginning at 7:30 PM, with a stilt show performed by local Eldred High School students and directed by Brad Krumholz and Tannis Kowalchuk. Following opening night's featured performance, The Hidden Twin, guests are invited to stay for a reception and hear the music of Turkish soprano, Elif Savas. And there will be entertainment and refreshments following each evening Festival performance.

NaCl was founded in New York City in 1997 by Brad Krumholz and Tannis Kowalchuk. The company has an office in Brooklyn, creates original theatre performances in New York City, tours its children's performance, THE TIME CYCLE, in the tri-state area, and teaches its unique performing technique to professionals and young people. For the summer, the company is based at NaCl Catskills -- organizing the festival and holding weekend workshops in preparation for NaCl's next theatre project.

"NaCl is interested in showcasing the work of bright new ensembles and artists whose keen pursuit of craft and the fine art of performance lead them into new and exciting directions in contemporary theatre creation, technique, and production," they state.

Tickets are $15 regular; $12 for students and seniors; and $65 for a festival pass to all shows.

Tickets, information, accommodations, and directions: 845-557-0694, nacl@nacl.org
or http://www.nacl.org

I COVER THE WATERFRONT -- Legendary blues man John Lee Hooker
(born circa 1920, died on June 21, 2001)

TUGBOAT FILM AND VIDEO SERIES

At around Sunset on July 1, 2001, the Tugboat -- a series of site-specific screenings of film and video shorts and installations by artists whose works address the context of the waterfront -- will open on a tented barge docked on the Hudson River. In diverse works, 19 participating artists meditate on water, maritime history, human life below sea level, ship travel and the aesthetics of the waterfront at the line where water and land meet.

Sponsored by the Working Waterfront Association, the screenings are free and open to the public. Shorts will be screened continuously from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM -- with video installations in various locations on the barge at Pier 63.

Among Film and video shorts included in first screening in Tugboat's 2001 series are :

David Gatten
WHAT THE WATER SAID (16 minutes)
"....a camera less collaboration between the filmmaker, Atlantic ocean and a crab cage. For 3 days in January, lengths of unexposed, undeveloped film were soaked in a crab cage on South Carolina beach. Both the sound and image in What the Water Said are the result of the ensuing 'oceanic inscriptions' written directly into the emulsion of the film as it was buffeted by the saltwater, sand, rocks, shells, and the sides of the crab cage."

Sally Gutierrez
CROSSINGS (video, color)
"edited down version of a project consisting of a series of long video takes shot from the 91st floor of One World Trade Center. Crossings includes intersecting streets around the financial district, boats and ships passing each other on the Hudson."

Reynold Reynolds and Patrick Jolley
DROWNING ROOM (35 mm, black and white)
"....shot entirely underwater in a diving container in the East River on the Brooklyn waterfront. The film revolves around the daily lives of a cast of characters submerged in the blurriness of an 'underwater soap opera.'"

Plus Siegfried Fruhauf, MOUNTAIN TRIP; Dave Gearey, H TO O; Joel Katz's DEAR CARRY; Manfred Kirchheimer's COLOSSUS ON THE RIVER; and Douglas Van Horn's MOSTLY LEFT TO RIGHT.

Installations include:

Rosten Woo/Place In History
A SHORT PRIMER ON INTERMODALISM (Sound installation) "Thirty years ago, documentary filmmaker Leo Hurwitz produced HERE AT THE WATER'S EDGE, a LP of field recordings made in the port of NY/NJ. Many of the recorded noises can still be heard on our waterfront, but changes in the technology of shipping have, for the most part, eliminated the sound of human labor from the landscape. A short primer on Intermodalism combines a brief lesson in the economics of shipping technology with extracts of Hurwitz's record of longshoring labor, providing two means of describing change on New York's waterfront.

Plus Laurie Halsey Brown, INSIDE/OUTSIDE (FIREBOAT); Michael Intriere, FISH; Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty, FREEZE; James McGrath, Nicole Ellis, and Barton Staggs, TIDAL VECTORS; Florence Ormezzano, ORGANISM; and Khristian Weeks, ENVIRONMENTS (PART 1 OF 4)

ABOUT THE SERIES

Tugboat Film and Video Series is a multi-year project utilizing maritime vessels and structures (boats, rafts, barges and bridges) for screenings and art venues. After July 1, screenings are tentatively scheduled for:

August 2 at the South Street Seaport Museum (confirmed)
Late August on the Red Hook waterfront
September 23 on the Lackawanna Railroad Barge (confirmed)
October in Rockaway Park

The program will vary at each venue and will continue in 2002. Visit http://www.workingwaterfront.org for details on upcoming screenings.

Tugboat Film and Video Series continuously solicits submissions from individual artists and artist collaboratives whose works deal with the context of the Waterfront in some way. Some works that have been selected in the past directly address environmental issues that affect the New York - New Jersey Estuary, while other works incorporate imagery and conceptual themes that have to do with water and/or maritime history.

The works for this screening were selected by Tugboat curator Sara Reisman in conjunction with a curatorial committee which gave feedback, taking into consideration each work's appropriateness and relevance to the waterfront as the screening setting. Using the committee's feedback, Reisman created the program for July first which includes a sit-down screening with surrounding installations -- in the hope that viewers will feel free to move throughout the space of the barge to experience the variety of media (film, video and sound) at their own pace.

Tugboat is a project of the Working Waterfront Association, an advocate for environmentally sound uses of the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary that are compatible with traditional maritime activities.

Tugboat Film and Video Series is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and generous support from New York City Council member Kathryn E. Freed, and the Manhattan Delegation. Additional project support is provided by the Lackawanna Railroad Barge, International Digital Centre and media sponsorship by Museums New York.

For more information, visit http://www.workingwaterfront.org
In addition to visiting the website, where a section on submissions will be available soon, artists can email curator Sara Reisman at tugboatfilm@hotmail.com for information about submissions.

GREAT LAKES

"...Catastrophe and creation are always co-mingled. Lake Ontario, the body of water that gives us our identity, now threatens toa multi-disciplined exhibition -- engaged in personal journeys, exploring connections to the North American Great Lakes. Environmental issues, industry and growth, shipping, mythology, tourism, history, cross-border relations, lake swims and the landscape are all examined in this multi-media exhibition. The results fill York Quay Gallery's core, extending outside the gallery into the eight windows of Case Studies and out again to the exterior of York Quay Centre.

Participating artists, poets, and writers are: Shelley Adler, Kemeny Babineau, Joe Blades, Jane Buyers, Scott Childs, Sharon Cook, Michael Davey, Beverley Daurio, Sheila Gregory, C. Herbert, Penn Kemp, Eugene Knapik, Malca Litovitz, Lorna Mills, David Merritt, Mary Angela Nangini, John Porter, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Anthony Stagg, Edie Steiner, Terry Watada and Robert Wiens.

In "Harbour Cruise", in GREAT LAKES LOGIA which he edited, Joe Blades writes:

"cold june, damn cold, windy, no shelter, no place to step out of/into, only this charged so-called parking lot, pier 27, off queens quay east just east of the foot of yonge, traces of warehouse building walls, plumbing left in this two-level slab cement and cracked, rain-puddled asphalt expanse, wayward princess supposed to leave 630. it's after 6 now and they're not ready, can't board yet, stand huddled into raincoat, not enough warm layers, who would have though this cold in June? a three-masted yacht (schooner?) further along the seawall slowly fills movie/television thin almost 100 per cent black clothed actor-looking types (are they?) dj fast house hip hop rap rolls across the water from a steamed-up boat pulling in, ending its cruise, its on-the water dance party, big men the size of football players weighed down with gold chains and skinny high-heeled barebacked women in bright-coloured sequined or metallic bits of dance floor cloth running through cold rain on bare skin for smoked glass cars, the crew of the emptied boat hauling cases of empties, cartons, garbage bags, sweeping and cleaning before the next..."

Harbourfront Centre, on Toronto's waterfront, is an innovative non-profit cultural organization which creates, for a diverse public, events and activities of excellence that enliven, educate and entertain. Working in partnership with various communities, Harbourfront Centre nurtures and supports educational and recreational activity as well as contemporary artistic creation through showcasing Canadian and international talent.

Great Lakes acknowledges the support of The Writers' Union of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council and the League of Canadian Poets.

For more information, visit http://www.harbourfront.on.ca/programs/visarts.htm