For five years, performing arts organizations have been attempting to change a rather glaring imbalance in FEMA crisis policy. Now, after continued pressure on members of Congress by a group of performing arts organizations, a new bill means that FEMA will finally include non-profit performing arts centers in its disaster relief funding.
FEMA, of course, is the acronym for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Despite the continued controversy surrounding the agency, FEMA remains responsible for providing necessary accommodations to citizens following a federal emergency and is also integral to the survival of affected not-for-profits. But up until recently, not all non-profit organizations were treated equally.
Previously, FEMA policy stated that “performing arts facilities [were] not eligible to receive FEMA relief as a private non-profit (PNP) facility. Eligible PNP facilities [included] educational facilities, community centers, museums, libraries and zoos.”
But “after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, artists, arts administrators, educators and donors were dislocated and left without the space or equipment needed to work. Facilities such as theaters, concert halls and studios were severely damaged or destroyed.”
Thus, in the wake of the firing of Michael Brown, the former Undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response, the American Arts Alliance (AAA), a group of performing arts organizations comprised of the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance/USA, OPERA America, and the Theatre Communications Group, stepped up pressure on Congressional representatives to support “an amendment to [a] Federal Emergency Management Agency statute to specify that America’s non-profit performing arts organizations are eligible to receive FEMA support,” according to the organization’s web site.
On September 29, 2006, Congress listened to the pleas of The American Arts Alliance and “approved a provision to make performing arts organizations eligible for Federal Emergency Management Association assistance as part of the FY 2007 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations bill (HR 5441).”
Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), a popular representative who lost his re-election bid on November 7 to Sheldon Whitehouse by a margin of 47% to 53%, included a provision that added non-profit performing arts facilities to the list of organizations eligible for future FEMA disaster relief. But “when it became clear that overall FEMA reform would not be completed this year, Congress deemed the performing arts provision important enough to lift it from the reform bill and add it to the must-pass Department of Homeland Security funding bill.”
According to the AAA, “Congress has recognized the public value of performing arts organizations by addressing a significant inequity in FEMA disaster relief policy. This is an important first step towards securing federal disaster recovery assistance for performing arts organizations.”
Specific not-for-profit performing arts organizations affected by Katrina include: The Columbia Theatre/FANFARE (Hammond, LA); The Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra (Biloxi, MS); New Orleans Ballet Association (New Orleans, LA); Southern Rep (New Orleans, LA); and The New Orleans Opera Association (New Orleans, LA). While almost every one of these organizations suffered the loss of their theatres, instruments, costumes, etc. (to say nothing of the loss of homes by the organization’s employees and subscriber bases), all have managed to continue presenting performances of some sort. Quite often, however, these performances have occurred outdoors amid rubble and rubbish, and in many cases, seasons have been reduced to just one or two shows.
It bears noting that as shown in South Florida’s Sun Sentinel‘s ongoing exposé of FEMA waste, not all arts funding is necessarily a wise spend. At the Pinitos Learning Center in Boca Raton, for example, disaster workers dressed as “Windy Biggie” and “Sunny” teach 30 preschoolers a song about how the wind is good, even during a hurricane.
“Windy Biggie is our friend; Windy Biggie is strong wind; She turns, turns, turns, turns around; She’s knocking things to the ground.”
This, as the Sun-Sentinel points out, is FEMA tax money at work.
Other FEMA dollars have supported “Hurricane Harry and the Three Little Mice, a game developed for teens that describes Hurricane awareness through questions (based on Jeopardy Game),” and collages in which “survivors create a beautiful image for their personal well being through shapes, colors and images that mimic who they are, what they are going through and what makes them feel good.”
As one artist said, “Families continue to live in trailers a year and a half following Katrina. New Orleans is a shadow of its former self. The levee system is inexplicably being rebuilt to once again withstand only a Category 3 storm. Still, legitimate performing arts organizations are attempting, like the rest of the Gulf Coast, to move on with their lives. But why did it take so long to fix this inequity and why is there still so much waste at FEMA? It seems to me that for New Orleans to rebuild, we need to know the answer to that question—and many others.”
So while the move to include the arts as a disaster aid-worthy recipient is without doubt a sound one, it seems there are still crises afoot.
