A discussion about how important access to creativity and history is for a healthy community, and the unsatisfactory state of funding for the arts and culture in America as a growing concern impacting our lives.

Recognizing how important access to creativity and history is for a healthy community, the unsatisfactory state of funding for the arts and culture in America is a growing concern impacting our lives. Leading flagship institutions such as the Metropolitan Opera, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and major museums and libraries throughout the United States are suffering from declining support and revenue streams all the while striving to remain relevant and vibrant as they overcome significant financial challenges.

All too often, we read in the national media of the crushing financial problems facing arts and history organizations and how these implications impacting larger arts and culture funding agencies trickle down to affect institutions of all sizes. As culture consumers of these venerated institutions, we all become stakeholders in supporting these eminent institutions, which serve as the caretakers of our history and culture.

We will consider the total budget for the National Endowment of Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts and public television and take a look at how the United States arts funding picture compares to other countries. What is the funding level for arts and culture across the country compared to the overall federal budget and how are people’s lives improved in communities where the arts and culture are sufficiently supported?

After sharing in thoughtful discussion about the condition of arts funding, participants will leave inspired and prepared to change the minds of those who may still question about the need to fund arts and culture programs. Anyone who is already involved in supporting the arts and culture in our community will leave with a greater understanding of how important their support is to sustaining the arts in our complex society today.

This course will be especially valuable for anyone who participates as board members, volunteers, and/or general patrons of arts and culture events and programs. This course will culminate with a visit to the Morgan Library and Museum in NYC for a guided tour of current art and rare book exhibitions.

STEPHANIE J. COAKLEY is the director of the Pequot Library in Southport, Conn. Since 1998, she has devoted her career to working with diverse communities to improve lives through the power and wonder of the arts and culture. She served as the director of Education and Community Partnerships with the Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona where she co-founded the Museum School for the Visual Arts, a public high school for artistically talented teenagers on the campus of the art museum and the first of its kind in the U.S. Stephanie has also worked as an art museum educator with the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, and with the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT. Stephanie earned her BA in art history and English from the University of Connecticut and her MA in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford.