There were 19 of us in Washington DC for National Arts Advocacy Day on March 12-13. We spent Monday learning about the issues--from funding for the National Endowment on the Arts to tax law affecting artists and charitable contributions, to the reauthorization of NCLB or ESEA (No Child Left Behind aka the Elementary & Secondary Education Act). Monday night we heard Robert MacNeil deliver an...

Governor Corzine's budget contains a 10% increase in funding for arts and history for FY08. Arts funding for cultural projects through the NJ State Council on the Arts is proposed at $21 million, which is $1.7 million shy of the 2006 level prescribed by legislation that established the Hotel/Motel Occupancy Tax. History funding is proposed to increase $346,000 bringing it to the 2006 level. The NJ...