Winter 2009

LINCnet.news

In the midst of converging financial forces begun with the housing market collapse, we face new conditions reshaping our national economy. From the field, we hear of organizations suspending operations, artists unable to secure credit, budget cuts within foundations, and sharp declines in corporate and individual giving—all likely to continue well into the next year and beyond.  As a kind of psychological antidote to this economic malaise, the country welcomes the new Obama administration into the White House.

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Creative Sector Real Estate in Period of Economic Decline by Jeremy Nowak, President and CEO of The Reinvestment Fund

January 22, 2009

How will arts and cultural organizations fare in the current economic climate and what are the specific challenges and opportunities as it relates to the acquisition and development of arts based real estate?  What follows are a few ideas intended to create a dialogue around these challenges and opportunities. 

Economic Downturn
America is experiencing a dramatic economic downturn. Today’s recession will last longer than others during the past fifty years and it may very well be deeper. We don’t yet know whether unemployment will reach double digit levels as it did 25 years ago, but it is possible.

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Announcing: Arts and Cultural Indicators at PolicyMap

Interested in measuring cultural vitality in your community? Getting a better understanding of how arts and culture contribute to community life? Increasingly, research points to the important of arts and culture in comunity development, health, education and the building of social capital, among other issues. Without a focus on cultural activity, a comprehensive or even adequate understanding of community conditions and dynamics is not possible and people concerned with improving places cannot do their best work. Through funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and LINC, nationally comparable measures of cultural vitality developed by the Urban Insitute are now available at PolicyMap. Measures address professional and amateur arts and cultural activity in nonprofit and commercial sectors.

Health Insurance and the Ongoing Economic Crisis by Jim Brown of the Artists Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC)
January 22, 2009

With the dramatic downturn in the economy at the last quarter of 2008, the Artists Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC) has seen a dramatic rise in the number of artists contacting us for assistance in finding coverage or, if unable to afford it, reasonably priced health care.

The main source of health insurance for most working Americans is a union or an employer.  For artists, however, the main sources are a spouse or partner’s employer, insurers selling individual plans, and arts and self-employed persons associations.  And, because health insurance in this country has been tied so closely to employment since World War II (when benefits like health insurance were used to offset the effects of wage freezes), coverage all too often ends when the job ends, affecting not just the employee, but the entire family.  Sadly, the ability to access insurance through these resources has been and will continue to be impacted negatively by the deep recession.

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