Search Great Leap Arts Advocacy Home News Programs Artists Booking Calendar About GL Community Site Map Contact us Mailing list Supporters Board Staff Photo Gallery Online Survey Message Board Rice, Frijoles, Greens Grain of Sand Grain Reunion Concert To All Relations Help save the California Arts Council! Copy our letter, or write your own to Governor Schwarzenegger, and urge him to save what remains of the CAC. Below is a sample of what your letter should look like, feel free to use it! Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814 Phone: 916-445-2841 Fax: 916-445-4633 governor@governor.ca.gov RE: California Arts Council Budget Dear Governor Schwarzenegger: As a member of the California Asian American and Pacific Islander Arts Community, I am writing to express our concern over the California Arts Council budget. While we recognize the difficulty of this time, we encourage your support for the Arts in California. Our organizations have worked closely with and been supported by the California Arts Council (CAC) for over ten years, and they have helped us to serve community members, especially in traditionally underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander communities throughout the state of California. The CAC has shown sensitivity and expertise in managing and prioritizing a wide range of arts programming during both good and bad fiscal times. We will all be better served—artists and community members alike—by retaining their full programming while we look forward to better days. Currently California ranks amongst the lowest in the country, and in the world, in financial support for the arts for its citizenship. As one of the more diverse states in the nation, it is a disgrace that California does not value the arts. Governor Schwarzenegger, as a member of the arts community and as an immigrant, you understand first hand what the arts means to our multicultural communities. Many people have lost their jobs, communities have lost business and revenue, and cultural survival is becoming a fear. Not only does cutting arts funding hurt multicultural communities but it also eliminates a revenue-generating engine. Studies have shown that for every $1 invested in the arts, the economy gets $1.8 back. We understand that California is in an extreme economic crisis but in times like this we need real leadership and real values. I urge you to restore the budget for the California Arts Council to ensure, at the very least, a skeletal framework for the arts so vital programs could at least survive instead of perish. Thank you, Governor Schwarzenegger, for supporting a better future for California through the Arts. Sincerely, Name Address Updated: 4/5/04

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