{"id":271,"date":"2014-10-31T09:44:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T13:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=271"},"modified":"2017-11-26T20:01:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T01:01:37","slug":"mass-governor-arts-coakley-baker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2014\/10\/31\/mass-governor-arts-coakley-baker\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Mass. Governor Candidates Care About The Arts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it a sign that arts and culture are afterthoughts in the campaign for Massachusetts governor if one candidate waits until less than two weeks before the election to announce an arts platform\u2014and then doesn\u2019t include it on the issues page of her website\u2014and the other candidate doesn\u2019t seem to have any arts platform at all?<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out this timeline I\u2019ve assembled of major statements from Martha Coakley and Charlie Baker on the arts:<\/p>\n

October 24<\/strong>
\nOn Oct. 24, just 11 days before the election, Martha Coakley announced her arts and cultural platform<\/a>, MassCreative<\/a> and the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re excited to be here at the Victory Theater on Arts Matters Day. It’s been an issue in this campaign, it’s an important one for me,” Coakley said during a stop in Holyoke that day, according MassLive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coakley reiterated these statements in an Oct. 30 guest post at the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition website<\/a>. Though as of today (Oct. 31) arts, culture and creative don\u2019t seem to be mentioned anywhere on the \u201cIssues\u201d page of Coakley\u2019s campaign website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baker responded to MassCreative\u2019s arts and culture questionnaire<\/a> “late in the day on Thursday, October 23,”\u00a0and the arts advocacy group posted it the following morning, the group tells me.\u00a0But searches for the words \u201cart\u201d and \u201cculture\u201d on Baker\u2019s campaign website charliebaker2014.com turn up nothing. Baker calls for \u201cA state government that is as thrifty, creative and hard-working as its people<\/a>,\u201d but doesn\u2019t talk about creativity in an arts context.<\/p>\n

September 29<\/strong>
\nDuring Martha Coakley\u2019s primary night remarks<\/a> on Sept. 29, she apparently mentioned the arts once:
\n\u201cWe will learn from successful pilot, charter and innovation schools, and move from just teaching to the test to teaching children to love learning, and include music and art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coakley touched on the arts as part of a plan to support the \u201cinnovation economy\u201d<\/a> that she presented at another event on Sept. 29:
\n\u201cSupport Growth in the Creative Economy: There are tens of thousands of jobs that are part of the Commonwealth\u2019s creative economy, and it has served to particularly help revitalize many of our gateway cities in Merrimack Valley, Berkshire County, and others. The intersection between technology and the arts is stronger than ever before, with innovative digital games companies, theatre and special effects firms, printers, technology-based art firms, and more across the Commonwealth. The Coakley-Kerrigan Administration will recognize and support this industry\u2019s impact, and support strategic investments which support its growth, such as makerspaces. For instance, the MassRISE regional investment initiative will support investments such as the revitalization of the Victory Theater in Holyoke which will serve as a key part of a revitalization of the downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

August 29<\/strong>
\nOn Aug. 29, the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition reported<\/a> that neither Coakley nor Baker had announced arts and culture platforms:
\n\u201cAt the time of this post, none of the two Republicans and only one of the three Democratic candidates competing in the September primaries for Governor had platforms\/issues papers regarding our sector posted on their campaign websites. \u2026 We urge you to take the time to read the policy platform that has been posted\u00a0this week by Candidate Grossman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update:\u00a0July 15<\/strong>
\nCoakley is one of six candidates who speak at the \u201cGubernatorial Candidates Forum on Arts, Culture and Creativity in Massachusetts\u201d on July 15 at Worcester\u2019s Hanover Theatre. Baker doesn\u2019t attend.\u00a0MassLive.com reports<\/a>:
\n\u201cDemocratic candidate and Attorney General Martha Coakley said that she would create an undersecretary position who would work with state agencies as well as local arts councils. Increasing the budget to the Massachusetts Cultural Council would also be important, she said, as would increasing public transportation and affordable housing opportunities that artists could make use of. She stressed that adding art into the current Science, Technology, Engineering and Math curriculum currently in place would add an additional opportunity for creativity. \u2018Having art and music and maybe a little recess is where we need to go,\u2019 said Coakley. \u201cI think we need to continue letting people learn about what they care about.\u2019”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it a sign that arts and culture are afterthoughts in the campaign for Massachusetts governor if one candidate waits until less than two weeks before the election to announce an arts platform\u2014and then doesn\u2019t include it on the issues page of her website\u2014and the other candidate doesn\u2019t seem to have any arts platform at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}