 Muy buenas tardes a todos y bienvenidos a la Bicameteria Center for the Arts. Good afternoon and welcome to the Bicameteria Center for the Arts. My name is Vanessa Calderón-Fustado. I am the chief executive officer of IBA, Inquilinos Bodicuas en Acción, which translated to English with me for a recognition of interaction. And I want to briefly welcome you to the space by giving you a brief history of what IBA is and why you're here today and why arts is such an important part of the work part of the work that we do. So in 1968, 45 years ago, a group of Puerto Ricans that lived here in the south end organized to fight the plans of the Boston Pre-Development Authority, the R.A., to remove them from the neighborhood. So rallying to the cry of Nono Polaremos, the Varsalagia Simueve, which had not been moved from parcel 19, they organized IBA. They're only to develop housing in the neighborhood, affordable housing, but to provide programs, educational programs, and arts programs to serve the community. So as we pass forward 45 years, and in fact, in this same space, last Friday we celebrated our 45th anniversary with one movement. So as we pass forward to today, IBA empowers individuals through education, workforce development, and arts programs, and develops and serves affordable housing. So today we have 510 housing units in our portfolio, all affordable units. Most of them right here in our backyard in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, Victoria, and some others in all the parts of the city of Boston. And on the education, workforce development, and arts programs, we have a bilingual preschool program, afterschool programs, youth development programs, a strong partnership with Bumpy Hill Community College, providing adult education, GED, ESL, and college courses, computer and technology programs, and last but not least, last artist, the arts. So you're here today because 45 years ago that group of Americans understood very well the power of arts and culture in building communities, in bringing people together that will consent language and that will consent time. And how important the arts are, not only for expression, artistic and cultural expression, but also to build community and to take pride on history, on culture, on our roots. So it is with great pleasure that I welcome you on behalf of the Board of IBA, the media, the auditorium, and the staff of IBA to this space today to have this very important conversation. Before I turn the microphone over, I want to also introduce to you all the face of the arts for IBA. Elisabeth Alonzevita, who's here in the back of the room, let me know Elie, as we call her, with lots of love, and she is the person that many of you interact the most with as far as I'm representative for the arts. So once again, I very much appreciate the opportunity for you all to come here this afternoon. Thank you, and once again welcome. And now, let me introduce the next person who will take it over and have this important conversation with you all coming this afternoon. It is a pleasure to introduce this person because for many years we have had a great partnership with the Boston Children's Corps. In fact, the first neighborhood choir is hiding right here in the other area in this space. So please help me welcome David House. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you. See, I come from the back of tradition, and when we say hello late in the morning and a good afternoon, I like the call and response, so we're going to start over. Good afternoon, everyone. Now I go home. And thank you Vanessa for that warm introduction. I am David House Executive Director of the Boston Children's Corps and I'm also a proud parent of a BCC singer. We've been proud members of Mass Created for many years and have been thrilled with the momentum and the direction of the organization, particularly with the Create the Vote campaign. Thanks to Matt Wilson and his team for connecting and energizing our arts and culture community. In the same spirit that Mass Created aims to convene and mobilize our arts and culture community, BCC was founded to convene, connect, and engage Boston's many diverse communities. At the Boston Children's Corps, we believe in the power of music to connect us more deeply to each other, particularly through song. BCC brings kids together from all over, greater Boston, kids from urban communities, kids who never have a chance to meet and we create the conditions for them to harmonize both socially and through a shared love of music. Now many of you know us for the great music that we make around the city but what you may not know is that there's a social justice engine that drives our music. We were founded a little over 10 years ago by Cubie Jones with a pilot of 20 kids in one choir and today we're over 450 singers in 12 choirs in five locations and as Vanessa said, our first neighborhood location started right here in this very room with just a few kids several years ago and when our kids walk on stage they really do show Boston what it can become. In many ways the same sense of connectivity is integral in the way that Mass Created approaches its work. Mass Created is a statewide advocacy organization that seeks to build support for the cultural arts and creative communities across the Commonwealth. We believe that cultural prowess is essential to a vibrant economy, an effective education system, and a healthy and safe community. Create the Vote was established to ensure that the arts and culture community, its people, its institutions, and its issues are not ignored in upcoming elections. In this case, the election for the next mayor of Boston. The election represents a unique and long-awaited opportunity to engage with candidates to listen, learn, and assess their position and platform. Each of the candidates received a questionnaire from Create the Vote to generate thoughtful responses on a range of arts issues. There were meetings with individual candidates and my colleagues from more than 20 different cultural organizations represented arts, artists, and institutions from all over the city. These meetings allowed for a far more in-depth discussion of what arts meant to each candidate. Now we all agree that Boston is rich and vibrant with dynamic cultural arts traditions, and those traditions extend beyond the avenue for the arts from the large and mid-sized organizations to the amazing art and culture that lives within Boston's many diverse communities, and we're proud of that. And we need a mayor who is equally proud, one who can build upon what we already have in Boston and better integrate arts and culture initiatives with other city priorities, including education, public policy, economic development, housing, and transportation. As an arts and culture community, we are looking for vision that we can buy into, and we as a community are here and ready to work with the next mayor of Boston. So I welcome you, I look forward to our conversations this afternoon, and now I'd like to hand over the mic to any award-winning arts and entertainment critic Joyce Cohewin, who is currently the president of the Boston Theater Critics Association and runs one of the leading Boston websites, Joyce's Choices.com. I believe in conversation, and this is a great opportunity to have more really informally and get the questions asked that we want to have answered. We are thrilled to have two candidates for mayor. John Connelly and Marty Walsh, who have certainly raised the bar on what we can expect from this city in terms of its commitment to arts and culture. To date, the work of the Create the Vote Coalition has earned unprecedented commitments from both candidates to do the following. Appoints a cabinet-level position for the city of Boston dedicated to arts and culture. To integrate arts and cultural policy plans into city planning and development. To invest in arts and cultural initiatives. To develop a city-wide strategic cultural policy. And to lead by example by convening community leaders and actually attending events. We want to see these guys at the theater, at concerts, strolling through our museums. We are certainly delighted by these commitments and we are holding these forums really to dig a little bit deeper, to dig a little deeper to get some detailed specifics about exactly how these candidates want to take their ideas and turn them into reality. That's the key. In addition, we have also been working to have Boston residents pledge to be arts rotors. I'm wearing my kid right here. We are not enforcing any particular candidate. We are endorsing the arts, which means that we want every voter in the city of Boston to think about the candidates' arts platform before they go to the polls and once they're in that rolling group. Who is going to do the best job in terms of the creative and the cultural community here? There in fact has been a major uptick in pledgers this week as a result of various groups like the Boston Center for the Arts who have set out dedicated emails to their supporters. We find out 70 pledgers in one day, so if you have a constituency and an interest in this election is really ramping up right now. This is the time to get to your supporters and send out a dedicated email or revenue support to be arts voters. And if you're looking for suggestions of how to do that, just see Tracy and Dan at the registration table there. Now finally, to talk more about what he's actually going to do here as the mayor of Boston. We have with us Boston City Councilor and candidate from the area of Boston, John Connolly. We want to first of all thank you John for being here today. We know you've got tons of things to do. You're going to be busy till after midnight I assume. We want to thank you for making the time of your schedule to talk directly to us. We are certainly amazed by the kind of determination and tenacity it takes to run for elected office and we are very grateful that you are willing to serve the people of Boston. So thank you to all of you here at EVA's Via Victoria, a very historic setting and hopefully make some more history here today. So without further ado, John, I'm going to return the floor over to you. I appreciate it. Is that working? Yes. Thanks. I appreciate it. I have to say that the toughest part of this campaign is being away from my family a lot and my children. But my wife really is a superstar and manages through all of that and keeps our family going. But the thing to her as part of this campaign is that I met Joyce Lohan with the same name. That is a true story. So thank you, Chris, for allowing that to happen. Thank you, Joyce. I wanted to say to begin that what you have done in this campaign is amazing. And we thank you for it. I thank you for it individually. I think every candidate would thank you for what you have done. And really among all of the groups across Boston and all of the people who care so much about this city, you have asserted your voice in an amazing way and really brought people together and educated me. And I think educated all of the candidates. And I think whatever the mayor is, you're going to see real results. And it's one of the arming parts of running here is to watch what creative vote has done. So I thank you for that. And I will see clearly over the course of this campaign that we are a city rimming with talent when it comes to the arts in all corners of the city and in all corners of the arts world, visual and performing and throughout this whole city from the doing-it-yourself rock scene. You know, that's the very uncool way to say that. But I've met some of those artists, you know, to the children's chorus and everything in between. We are rimming with talent, but I think there is no doubt that we are not making full use of that talent. We are not letting that talent shine. And we are not letting all of that talent put a defining signature on Boston that will make Boston an even better place to live and brought people here from around the world. And I think the mayor needs to take all of that talent, take this amazing community, and open the doors of City Hall and say, show us everything you've got and make this happen and tell me how I can help make it happen because it will be for the benefit of the whole city. So what I want to see is a robust art, social, and cultural agenda that flows through the city. I think the way that we'll do that is by having an arts and culture level cabinet. But here you just have a cabinet and an office. I want to have an artist running it. And I want to have an arts commission that supports it, that's made up of artists from the whole arts community in Boston. I don't want it to be just a downtown scene or just one aspect. I want to have a representative of the entire arts community, and I want that cabinet to go up and come up with the agenda of what we're going to do. I don't want it to come from my office. I don't want it to be my agenda. I want it to be the agenda of the arts community because I believe if you fully empower it you will put your own unique signature on it and it will help define Boston in an even better way. So how do we do that? Well, I think it's about not just supporting the arts, but supporting artists. And I think about how we can support artists in a few different ways. Art is involved into the housing crunch that we have in Boston in the same way everyone else does. We know how to build affordable. We just don't build enough of it. And we know how to build luxury condos. Everything in between, we're not so good at it. And so you start $1 above qualifying for affordable moving to the heart of middle class and we don't have a housing plan. We can't get you there. A recent college graduate, a professional, an artist, a senior, an empty nester. We can't get you from rental to ownership. We can't get you from one bedroom to three when you need it. And so what I want to have is an aggressive plan and I want to make sure we are thinking about every community in Boston and I want to make sure that part of that plan is aggressively promoting, building and being bold and experimental when it comes to live workspace for artists. And make sure that you can have that pathway to home and a workspace in Boston. And we've seen some amazing examples in Boston, but they are fleeting and they are not supportive of the long haul. And I want to make sure we change that. I think the second way we can support artists is to ease our permitting process. And I have heard from you countless stories about what a nightmare it is. And I think the one that just really hammers it home to me, the folks at Partly Yards are going to put on a show and ultimately are going to put on, you know, a show and ultimately a festival and ultimately it hangs out there forever. If you want to be planning a year out or hang out there forever, only to be told at the end that you just can't do it because of the generator and the electrical source in your plug-ins and then we're real sorry that we're shutting down a week out. Then you go to Cambridge and they have to fill out one form and then they walk in a back room and they bring out their own generator and hand it to you. And I think that says everything. And I'm not going to be a mayor of Boston because we've got to act more like Cambridge. You know, we can learn a lot from our neighbors. And so I think he's impermitting as a key piece. I think there's a third piece or fourth piece here about how we can support artists. And the third piece is we can build more public performance space and create more affordable ways for artists to perform and to display their work. We can look to Seattle as an example on how you can do that. And I think we ought to get creative about how we can finance more performance space across the city but we want to empower the whole arts community. You shouldn't have to have massive funding behind you to access space. You should be able to access space no matter what. And I think it's everything from capital budget commitments to more performance space to programs that will support storefront theater and pop-up art galleries. I think there's many ways to leverage that. And the final piece is the funding and I know that's the tough question that I had down off of the past because I never liked answering it. But I think that we look at the 1% piece and we make that happen. And I'll be the first to say that Mike Ross was one of the champion of that preliminary. But he's right. We've got to find that permanent source of funding in the city and it's not lost on me that we spend about a million dollars a year in arts in the city but really if you cut it down to what it's all about it's about $150,000. I think that's the fourth piece on how we support artists but there's so much more here about why I think this matters and why we need to do this. We need to make this city more fun. We need to make this city a place where we retain the talent that comes here and where those who grow up here feel pathways of opportunity that are going to lead them to be able to succeed in this city. And part of that is having a vibrant arts, cultural and social life that is welcoming, inclusive and celebrates all parts of Boston. I think it's so often it's the arts community that allows that to happen and fosters that in happening. And so I want to see a great arts agenda again driven by artists that still allow us in this city to bridge some of the divides we have to bring people together and to see it flow everywhere. In East Boston and Hyde Park where we have great arts communities but also as well as in the downtown to see it in our museums but also when you're in our parks I want to see it just flow everywhere and I want a real public arts agenda and I want us not to be afraid to have public art flow throughout the city and I always think about our one controversial display of public art in the city down on the green light and that's what's supposed to happen. It's supposed to provoke thought and it's supposed to some people should love it but that's what we want. We shouldn't view that as a bad thing and I want to flow throughout the city and be part of this city recognizing everything that's great about it our diversity chiefly among them we are more diverse than most cities but we don't celebrate and the needs of the arts community can help us get there. The second piece for me on this is education and that's my passion I want to make sure every child can have access to their arts to the arts in school and not once or twice a week for half a school year I want it to be a regular piece of their entire education and essential as we call it and I think that's incumbent on us to lean on partnerships to get that done and certainly the community music center provides a great example David always gets upset when I talk about it but he is the music program for the Boston Public Schools and there are so many other arts organizations and so many foundations like Ed Vasters who've done so much to grow the arts in our Boston Public Schools but we're not where we need to be yet and I want that to be a bridge for the arts community and young people in Boston and I get excited about that and we spent so much time I said this at the create the vote forum but I mean it to my core we spent so much time talking about STEM and STEM is important but I'm going to be a mayor to make sure that it's steaming and not STEM and that we are recognizing that we have to create a whole education for every student and I also think there's career pathways there there's so many more career pathways and that link to the creative economy and so we need to be plugging our children into the arts in every way, shape and form from the minute they enter school to the minute they graduate and I want to reach out to you and talk to you about how we can get that done and turn it into action and to close just on personal note one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about this and this will be a priority for me and I want you to look at me and say I want you to talk about me someday the way library advocates talk about Mayor Menino the way park advocates talk about Mayor Menino and you said you got to show up and I want to be there with my family for the performance in every corner of this city and I want you to say that we champion the arts I want to do that, I want to tell you why not just because I'm a politician with a huge ego I may do that it's for two reasons I didn't get to the arts when I was in school I went into about seventh grade before I had any real arts program when I was in school and I always thought that it was a whole for me in my development in my education and I felt like it was missing and so I'm very deeply committed to making sure every child can get to the arts in a way that I wasn't able to get the second is my daughter I've got three but my five year old is an artist and I don't ever want her to lose that and I can tell you how it happened definitely not for me her grandmother my mother in law is an avid painter and my daughter spent four days a week with my mother in law from age zero to about four and they just painted and painted and painted so if you came to my house right now you would see that we have converted a room into my daughter's art studio and she's amazing and she just loves it and she loves the different types of paints and she loves the different textures and she loves the different canvases and she loves just playing and experimenting with all of it and we have transformed part of our house into her art studio by accident but now it's sacred space just to watch my daughter and her passion for this her grandmother will pick her up a five year old and take her to an art studio and take her to the MFA I know you're all going to come tell me about all the other museums I have to go to and the other displays and I totally agree with you she goes to watch her take a five year old to the MFA and my daughter is psyched about it and she is on cloud nine I don't ever want her to lose that I want every child to have the ability to have that and that's why I am going to be your champion when I'm married I love that story about your daughter that's fantastic I'm just going to start by asking you about the cabinet level position you mentioned that you wanted that position to be filled by an artist can you tell us a little bit more about the hiring and recruiting process for that and how involved will the community be in that process so you don't want me to pick that person I can assure you so I'm going to come to you and you're going to help me find this person and I think we're going to have a lot of fun trying to figure that out because you got to have that one side of the brain going to be the artist but you got to have the other side of the brain going to run the city department so I'm very excited to meet this crazy person but I will come to you we will have a search committee and we will find the right person but that's not going to be internal that's going to be me coming to the arts community to find the right person for it and I'm sure we're definitely not all going to agree in that but we're all going to listen to each other we're going to work real closely we'll find the right person and we'll make it happen okay, questions, let's open it up we've got a question I'm standing at Arts in Boston, China a specific question is about visual arts in Boston I think there's a general feeling of frustration among emerged artists specifically in the city that they are not able to show their work in some of our finer institutions of visual arts so I'm just curious as to where do you think there's anything you can do or that you plan to do to help solve that issue so I think part of having that part of this agenda is that we're going to have a commitment to the entire arts community so that's visual and performing but also within that context again I don't want it to be in arts in arts in culture agenda that only benefits artists with big financial backing or whatever the case may be I want it to flow through every corner and say so I'll come back to a few points I'd like to see us tap into an industry's program or community development corporations but tapping to that ability to leverage a lot of that vaping space we see throughout the city for arts and for the ability to do that pop-up art gallery or that storefront theater for that matter and I'd like to bring that kind of you know, vibrancy throughout our neighborhoods but the other piece is the investment in public space to display or perform and I think we can do that there's places out there and I think when you look at it it can be a modest expense for the city to get that so I'd like to work with the arts community again to the arts and culture department to look at how we can develop space that would be open and accessible for all artists that was one of the big pieces I learned with the do-it-yourself crowd is that you know, a lot of them I think there's a little something that they love the aspect of it but a lot of the musicians said to me look, you know, if we had a permitting process in space that we could easily access without having a front money we don't have we wouldn't have to be in a basement and all that and I take that apart, you know I want those artists to feel like they've got a place they can go and perform without having without having to worry about it Yeah, I think the main part of the question is that the bar institutions have already existed as far as highlighting local art So I'm happy to I'm happy as the mayor to leverage pressure on the institutions to respond to the whole arts community I'm happy to do that, that sort of for me goes without saying but I hear you, I should say so I'm happy to do that but at the same time I'm going to try and find avenues for everybody to express themselves Yeah I want to thank you I want to thank you for not only for your comments today but also for the fact that you have made your commitment to arts and culture apparent when you talked last week in one of the chamber of commerce and also Tuesday night at the UGBH when you addressed the entire city of Boston so it's not just what you say when you're here talking to us, it's very clear One of the things that you talked about on Tuesday night was how you might use your bullet moment and I'd love the fact that you recognize the opportunity that is available for the city department with the arts and cultural community to utilize different space opportunities it's something we haven't had the opportunity to do as much as we would have liked and we are so thrilled that you are willing to be our partner and champion with that and the other part of that is the Mass Culture Facilities Fund which has been an integral part of getting capital investment in our infrastructure in Boston for our arts organizations including if I'm not mistaken perhaps this one here and part of that comes from us making a voice on the state capital but we also would ask for your support and would like to know if you also use your bullet moment to be our advocate at the state capital for cultural facilities funding and for funding through the Mass Culture Council I've had the opportunity as a council to attend a couple of interviews I guess with Mass Cultural Council when they're looking at possible awarding for some grants and I absolutely want to go up there and be your champion at the legislature as well so I just give you that straight answer yes, we'll be working hand in hand in this arts department and we'll focus on these pieces and making sure that when I need to be up at the state house planning for that I'll be up there planning for that I think the other exciting piece here is that I think as we go up that budget and figure out a way to get from one million to two to five in a short period of time is if we give the city signal that we're going to be serious about investing in the arts I think the philanthropic community will come in behind that in ways that we may not have seen before I've certainly had members say that and Ron you're not going to talk about that before but I've certainly had some members of the philanthropic community say look I support the arts right now and I do a lot for it but if you show me that you're serious about getting behind this I will bring more to the table so I guess that's another aspect we've got to go up to the state without it though I'll just mention that Thank you very much I think right there Hi I'm Rick Burber I'm Director of the Boston Dance Alliance Arts Service supporting every form of dance and greater Boston area I'm going to bring you back to the funding you've got a question you'd like to pass on but bring it back a little bit you just mentioned about trying to bring in and I just want to do you want me to expand on what other 1% and this philanthropic community what other avenues you're looking at to leverage resources because the second part knowing that that doesn't happen you know the day after you're elected and you're in office will you commit to raising the funds for the arts directly from the city budget while you're seeking to expand the leveraging I think obviously if we're going to do this part of this is going to have to come out of the general fund in the city budget I'll just say that I recognize that as a reality right now I don't want to make promises you know I shouldn't stone them but I'm serious about the creation of this department I think it's going to mean that some other departments are going to have to change and you know will look different or won't exist and I think we're going to have to shift funds within the city budget to get this off the ground my hope is we can roll it from there through one percent and then hopefully you know begin that process as we do in most city departments looking for the grants and looking for the philanthropic piece to really get someone behind it and go lobby at the state the other piece I'll just say is I suspect many of you may have a lot of ideas that I don't have so I'm really sure that we're listening and everything's on the table as far as I'm concerned so I'll be open on that same reference to that and to the prior question these days I sleep about four hours and spend all day campaigning and late at night I don't even know what I'm doing but I only get four hours of sleep but so I don't remember anything I say anymore I don't remember what I said it's WGPA I'm glad I said it you can tell me a month from now that I made all sorts of wild promises and I'll be obligated to follow okay we're going to hold you to that anyway yeah let's try to get here so my question is and you don't have to remember this this is a great thing about this question so if the one percent of art can we do this through commercial real estate can we do it through state and public building city buildings I mean imagine that Boston with one percent of every building can work with the art in New Orleans for young garden communities so thank you I don't know if the real I don't know if the one percent through real estate can work because of the linkage one that we got set up right now just to be honest with you and that's all clear to its housing and jobs and that if there's an additional piece absolutely and I am open to rethinking how we invest in linkage because I think this stuff is all connected but I want us to have a real talk of conversation on how we get that done my name's Dean Hyde and electronic mix and I'm down I think one of the things that makes Boston really great on the world scene is our ability to do a lot of things today and I thank you for a week and a lot of what's going on in the business department that's all really really fantastic but I'd love to see the city sponsoring some of that a little bit more making it easy for people like us who are trying to enhance media to be able to back their story the MBTA has a contract with a single advertiser you can't get something on the walls of the MBTA because you aren't that one advertiser we can't have really simple LED displays that should be used on the train despite the fact that it costs like 200 bucks or 100 bucks each in a hardware these really really really small hardware installations enable people to continuously provide content for a location that's public for a location that can be easily maintained and I would really like to see if you have thought about that so you bring up the wanted MBTA and that I would love to see a lot of changes at the TV and I mentioned that but it's sort of my chief priority on the political side so it certainly will work on that but what I would say to you is the functional use of city space I would like to see be very different in many ways my general analogy is that I want you to feel like you're walking in the Apple Store when you walk into City Hall that 1010 masks out and part of that is I just want an individual with an iPad flying at you and the only thing they're going to say is how can I help you I want one stop shopping I want every city service available online I certainly want to make that part of streamlining and arts permitting process so you don't even have to go into City Hall and change that but also what we do with that space is very key because I think we can just make it so much more functional through the use of technology and obviously if you can blend and connect that with the arts one more question I can actually try to work with the Boston State Enhance Course and like the Children's Course we're standing at a great festival to have some outside the box how well mental economy this was and I think one of the things I'd like to link to technology development we're a pretty strong believer that we sort of get all the artists together and have a great festival and get the support of the community and not the engine from City of Boston it looks like there's a lot of problems coming up with this festival and a lot of obstacles that were in the way that were almost insurmountable on being for a month in the air so my question becomes are you going to help us or are you going to support us so we can use your ability to help enable us to be world class showcase our artists world class yes I want to see the festivals I want to see the festivals here big and small every type I want them here I want tourists walking through Boston and bumping into festivals that they didn't even know were going on I would be Boston residents going on bumping into festivals and there are cities where that is and again I want to emulate other cities in having that type of feel that happened but the great part here is I know Boston's art community will put its own unique signature on it that will make it unique in Boston and that's the part that excites me but yeah I want it to be global and I've sat with groups of artists multiple times during this campaign learned so much and it's always how hard it was to pull a festival together or a performance together and then I had the opportunity to have breakfast that was very interesting breakfast we have just one more question right here my question for you is actually not about the comments or anything you had said during this campaign process that you've been educated a lot about the work that we all collectively do my question to you is given where a community that often sees very creative with different types of connections with other fields, other industries what do you think that we can do better from your side of things about being able to reach our voices out to folks that might need education about the different types of work that we do I think you're doing it in this race to be honest it's a great question and I'm not trying to be just a candorer to you on this it's a great question that's the question but I thought it's partially because I just had wasn't engaging in the arts in any way I should have but I ran for city council four times before I ran for mayor and I don't think we ever talked about the arts what you've done in this race has been amazing so you're doing exactly what you need to be doing it's great you owe me six years but that's what you're doing right now is exactly what you're doing it's just been you've been like the signature advocacy group in this campaign so far Viva and get your constituents and supporters to the arts voters too because they are hearing our voices thank you so much