#Artisapublicgood Call To Action Meeting

This is the opportunity for any creative and lover of creativity to organize to make the City of Dallas a better place for creatives to live, work, and flourish. We are organizing to make improving cultural policy an issue in the upcoming May 9, 2015 Dallas City Council elections. Invite everyone you know - learn what you need to do to help - this is where we take a stand and start a movement! Creating Our Future Petition to the City of Dallas: 1. We affirm that art is a public good – that the creative output of artists benefits the entire City of Dallas. 2. We believe that art and culture should be accessible to all citizens of Dallas. 3. We believe that by shifting resources, the City of Dallas can make culture more beneficial and more accessible to the citizens of Dallas. 4. We believe that you cannot support the arts without supporting those who create the art. 5. We believe that supporting artists helps achieve the economic, public safety, vibrancy, public health, and education outcomes we all desire. Because of our affirmations and beliefs we petition: 1. The Dallas City Council double the budget of the Office of Cultural Affairs by allocating an additional $16 million dollars to the OCA for FY16 to bring city support for the arts closer to the national average. 2. The Dallas City Council to specifically allocate this additional funding to support creative projects initiated by individual artists, collectives, ensembles, writers, coders, playwrights, galleries, and nonprofits; maintenance of the city’s public art collection; and proper staffing to successfully implement, support, and manage these creative projects. 3. The Dallas City Council approves the use of unused or underutilized city owned buildings for creative purposes free of charge. 4. The City of Dallas public radio station devotes at least one hour per day to playing local music of all genres