SPEAK UP FOR THE ARTS!!!

Hello Arts lovers! Now that I’ve got your attention with one man’s creative approach to photographing his wife (click here)
Let’s support the Arts in Massachusetts by speaking up now! I know you and I believe in the arts as essential to life, and a key part of what makes our state great! The following is a message from my friend Matt Wilson, Executive Director of MASSCreative (www.mass-creative.org)

“I am writing to you as a leader of the arts and cultural community to join MASSCreative and others across the Commonwealth to send a clear message to Governor Patrick to increase the state’s investment in the creative community.

Governor Patrick is preparing his FY2014 budget for release at the end of January and he will be deciding how much money to allocate to the creative community through the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC). From now until July, the Governor, the State Senate and the House of Representatives will be debating how to allocate the estimated $32 billion in state revenue.

As the first action of MASSCreative’s new Third Friday Advocacy Day series, we need you, your staff and your organization’s members and supporters to sign a petition on or before Friday January 18th urging Governor Patrick to increase the Commonwealth’s investment in the arts and cultural community. The petition asks Governor Patrick to increase the MCC budget next year by $3 million to a total of $12.5+ million to help build vibrant and connected communities across the Commonwealth.

Yes, I want to send a strong message to the Governor to increase funding to the creative community. Register here and MASSCreative will provide you with the materials to act.

You can engage your organization in different ways:

*Encourage your staff and board to sign the petition.

*Send out a request to your email lists of supporters, Facebook friends and Twitter followers linking them to the petition and encouraging them to sign.

*Engage your live audiences on Friday the 18th by encouraging them to sign the petition on their smart phones or on a hard copy at your event venue.

Click here to join with dozens of other groups across the state that clearly see the impact of our work and believe we can do even more to build vibrant and connected communities. Last year, money from the MCC funded more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations helping create exciting and accessible programming across the Commonwealth.

We need to band together and send a clear message to the Governor that the creative community is a priority. Let’s tell him that he needs to increase the Commonwealth’s investment in the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Sign up here.

Keep up the good work,

Matt Wilson
Executive Director, MASSCreative”
https://www.mass-creative.org/