Guest Commentary: A Case for the DIA Arts Millage
'The case for the DIA millage is compelling . . . for future growth in the arts and the economy. That is pretty good return for about $15 per year.'
Photos
This viewpoint essay by Birmingham-area photographer Rod Arroyo, who's also a certified planner and design consultant, is reposted with permission from his blog at cityphotosandbooks.com. Guest commentaries can be submitted to jen.anesi@patch.com.
Voters in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne Counties will be asked Aug. 7 to approve 0.2 mils for 10 years, which is approximately $15 per year for every $150,000 of a home’s fair market value. This money will go to provide one of many sources of funding needed to support a world-class art museum: the Detroit Institute of Arts.
As the vote nears for the Arts Millage in southeast Michigan, I feel compelled to share some of my thoughts.
The Detroit Institute of Arts is an irreplaceable resource that brings incredible works of art, film, music, and so much more to our collective Detroit community. I personally choose to pay for a membership so I can enjoy these treasures many times throughout the year. My experiences at the DIA have been positive, exhilarating, educational, fun, and memorable.
Residents living in counties that approve the millage will receive free unlimited general admission, including students taking field trips to the museum, and there will be enhanced programs for students and seniors and bus subsidies for visits by seniors and students.
Making this resource available to residents of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties for no admission fee will broaden the ability of the DIA to reach out and enrich the lives of the people living here. Additionally, it will put the DIA on sound financial footing, helping to offset the losses in other funding sources that have occurred over many years.
I also see the DIA as a resource that can help lead the Detroit region out of a recession.
Detroit is already attracting young people, and it has particularly seen a surge of young adults under 35 years old with technology-based backgrounds. The writings of economic development adviser Richard Florida and others have documented how young people are seeking "place" over the highest-paying job. A world-class art museum and the other cultural resources in Detroit will help to fuel the growth in young professionals living in the City.
The overall value of the arts in a community is well-documented. Adrian Ellis, a cultural planning consultant, wrote and spoke in 2003 about four sets of partially overlapping arguments that have been particularly influential:
• Economic: Investment in certain arts has a high "multiplier effect," generating direct and indirect expenditure, through the first round of construction or other investment related activity and subsequently by attracting inward investment and tourism, and thereby creating jobs.
• Social: Investment in the arts can ease social divisions by creating a context in which otherwise socially disempowered groups can participate in society on a more equal basis; and it creates ‘social capital’.
• Psychological and personal: Participation in the arts can accelerate intellectual and motor skills.
• Civic: The civic argument, an amalgam of the above, is that a city with a vibrant cultural infrastructure, in which a range of different forms of public and private sector investment in the arts are undertaken, can create a virtuous circle of high economic performance, high inward investment, high educational attainment and high levels of civic engagement.
I believe the case for the DIA millage is compelling. Its failure would be disastrous for the region’s economy, its culture, and its people.
By approving the millage, the DIA not only maintains the treasures of the past, it enables the museum and the region to leverage these resources for future growth in the arts and the economy.
That is pretty good return for about $15 per year.
ExTroyGal
1:02 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
I've been very fortunate to have visited many of the top museums around the world and I can tell you our DIA ranks right up there with the best in terms of collection, education, conservation and accessibility. The DIA has a much-envied collection and many pieces are specially requested to be part of traveling exhibitions around the world. Because of the DIA's respected standing, we are privileged to enjoy special exhibitions that travel only to select museums. Over the years I have enjoyed seeing Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus; Magnificenza! The Medici, Michelangelo and The Art of Late Renaissance Florence; Degas and the Dance; Ansel Adams; Splendors of Ancient Egypt; Angels form the Vatican; Van Gogh: Face to Face; and many others.
I suspect that those who may be opposed to the millage have not been to the DIA in a very long time or at all. It is more than just art. It is also houses the wonderful Detroit Film Theater, offers Brunch with Bach and other concerts, Friday Night Live (open till 10 pm!), Family Sundays (family performances, storytelling, art-making workshops), enrichment classes, and much more. I invite you to experience these events at our beautiful DIA. Bring your family and make a day of it by exploring the galleries, having lunch at the wonderful cafe and shopping in the treasure-filled gift shop. I think you will be pleasantly surprised, and hopefully you will join me in VOTING YES FOR THE DIA MILLAGE on August 7.
Alan Stamm
9:03 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
This reinforces a compelling case, as does a Detroit Free Press editorial about the value of "accepting the shared responsibility of this legacy and accepting that taxpayer money, then and now, is needed to keep the artwork available to the people who were meant to benefit from it. The DIA request of metro Detroiters is a small price to keep operations going in a place with huge cultural and economic significance for the entire region."
-- 'Don't let the DIA shut down,' July 22 [http://on.freep.com/MFhDxT]
Nearly 1,900 readers so far have responded to an online poll with that editorial. The tally is 71% to 25% in favor of the Aug. 7 millage, with 4% undecided.
Sue Ann Douglas
11:15 pm on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
If the DIA really wants to 'stay open', why doesn't it dedicate every penny of millage money to an endowment for operations? Then I could see a beginning and end to this millage. Instead, the entire $23 million is being dedicated to every day operations and the DIA says that it will then raise funds for an endowment for Operations.
Why should I believe them now when for 130 years the museum, under various management, has chosen to ignore the future and spend when the cash flowed and hold out their hand to taxpayers when times get tough? There is nothing in the service agreement between the county and the DIA that requires the DIA to raise operating endowment funds. I fear that once they have taxpayer money in hand, they will once again forget about the future.
Chris P.
7:05 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
The risk-reward analysis of this takes about a nano second. Vote yes. If this region can't rally around this amazing cultural entity, it's a lost cause. (I see now that Troy Councilman Doug Tietz is joining the vote no paranoia. I was keeping an open mind about him, but the fact that he's right in there with good ole Oak Co. Commissioner Bob Gosselin and that awful Tom McMillin from Rochester working for "no" votes tells me everything I need to know.)
Randy Jasky
7:20 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
If I want to support the DIA, I will visit it and/or donate to it directly. THAT is how the DIA should be funded: voluntarily, rather than by mandate.
Sharon
10:50 am on Sunday, July 29, 2012
Randy, you just don't care about the common good of the region or the people. You greedy, for-profit folks are going to turn this city, state and country into a garbagey Dark Ages cesspool.
Sharon
10:54 am on Sunday, July 29, 2012
And don't cry to me about how the recession has been rough on you and yours. My family has taken a huge hit in this technological economic reset. And duh! It's these times when we all need to pull together and chip in a little to gain a lot. Your ridiculous "solution" would doom the DIA and all other treasures like it. Get a clue.
ExTroyGal
1:03 pm on Sunday, July 29, 2012
Amen, Sharon, you hit the nail on the head!
Dan
9:41 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
If the DIA has to come to the "public" for money, why are they only coming to Oakland and Macomb counties? Why not Monroe and Washtenaw too?
If they want my money then they need to move out of Detroit! If I am suppose to support it then I want the revenue to come to my county, not Detroit.
Also, the fact that the head of the DIA only gets compensated $433K is a sickening one. I make less than 1/4 of that yet they want me to fund them? I'm sure they could get someone to do the same job for half that.
Quit the comparision to other cities! Sounds like you are a CORPORATE CEO justifying your big pay raise when you have sunk the company.
The DIA has financial problems of its own doing, CUT the SALARY of the EXECUTIVES FIRST before you ask me to bail out something I had no part of.
If it can not stand without public support, let it die! Do not force people to support that which they do not want to.
Finally, history has shown us that once a TAX has started, it usually does not end, they will just come up with another excuse to keep it going.
Russ Matika
6:44 pm on Thursday, July 26, 2012
I don't see how the DIA, with $100 million of unrestricted funds and a total fund balance of $175 million, can claim they they'll fail (close their doors) without these millages. Part of their operating plan is to increase their fund balance to $400 million by the time the millages expire in 10 years. Doesn't sound like they're going broke to me. It just looks like they want the tri-county taxpayers to bail them out from the tax cuts they received from the state. If this was such a good plan why don't the ballot proposals mention that the County Art Institute Authorities will be turning over the monies they collect to the DIA? Why do they say an Institute Services Provider instead? Was this done to confuse voters into thinking the millages were going to support Art in their own county? Very shady.
Sue Ann Douglas
12:13 pm on Friday, July 27, 2012
Sue Ann Douglas · Retired County Commissioner at Oakland County
I've found three sets of numbers for who visits the DIA. The orginal list was sent out by the DIA to the media and said that 19% of the visits were from Oakland County, then I found numbers based on paid admission that said that 28% or the payers were from Oakland, and now, they say that it's always been 34%? Come on DIA people, I know that you've tried to clean your old numbers off the web but you weren't successful. Now you have the nerve to basically call the one brave writer who hasn't sided with the DIA and me liars?
Remember the old adage: Figures never lie, but liars figure. And, here's another one: If the shoe fits, wear it!
Sue Ann Douglas
12:18 pm on Friday, July 27, 2012
Representative McMillin is exonerated - the DIA is crying wolf. Furthermore, if the tax passes, the DIA will NOT use the tax revenue for an endowment for operations. The fund that they currently refer to an an endowment for operations is just a voluntary DIA Board-restricted budget set-aside and what the Board restricts, it can use for anything with a simple vote of the Board.
The DIA's plan is to use the requested tax revenue for operations while they raise funds for an operating endowment. Through various management, over almost 130 years, they have not seen fit to drive money into a real endowment for operations so why should we trust them to do it now? The DIA seems to like to play word and number games during this election and the money that Rep. McMillin has referred to - they called an endowment when it really isn't a legal endowment. A real endowment takes permission from the heirs and the court to use for another purposes - a much trickier process than a simple vote of the DIA Board.
Debate on DIA's finances heats up
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120727/METRO01/207270393