You are the manager or director of an arts organization or institution in the Bay Area. Your organization is weathering the current crisis and has made a strategic plan for more disaster preparedness, including response to ongoing climate emergency. From this standpoint, write a letter to an elected government official articulating how the arts and your organization/institution are essential to the health and wellbeing of the community/region, including how funding for the arts will support disaster preparedness. Refer to at least three (3) artworks studied during the course and draw on the ideas from at least three (3) assigned texts (chosen from only these authors: Sherman, et al.; Bebelle; Crosby and Stein; French; Lehrman; Demos; Scott), including both analysis and desсrіption of each of these elements. The letter should be 1200-1500 words, not including footnotes or figure labels. Choose from one of these three organizations/institutions in the Bay Area to represent: (1)Oakland Museum of California, (2) Southern Exposure, or (3) San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. As you decide, take note what type of organization it is and how it benefits or would benefit from public funding and/or disaster relief funding. Look at “About” or “Mission” pages of these institutions to learn more and to plan how you’ll write from their perspective. Look up local, regional, or national elected government officials and consider who would be in a position to award your organization more funding (e.g. for a small non-profit gallery, writing to a California state senator or assemblyperson might be more helpful; for a larger semi-private/semi-public museum or regionally-known arts foundation, it might make more sense to look to a representative in the US Congress). Organize your letter in a way that presents concepts from texts and your analysis of artworks as support for why your organization (and the arts in general) would use additional funding in a way that is beneficial to society. Begin the letter with a clear statement of why you are writing and brief introduction of the organization you represent; conclude the letter with a brief synopsis and gratitude for the reader’s time and attention. Make sure the analysis in the letter is addressed to the specific reader’s understanding throughout; they haven’t read or seen what you have in this class – share it with them. As you draft your letter, you may end up writing longer than 1500 words – this is an opportunity to practice revising down to only the most essential and concise ideas; do not exceed 1500 words. Formatting: Begin the letter with a formal header (their address and the date, followed by Dear Senator Padilla (or appropriate title and name)), and close with your name and signature. Please cite with footnotes in Chicago style and limit quotation to only what is essential. Identify your artworks in the text with the artist’s full name, title in italics, and date.
