The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) surprised me, at least, on Friday when they announced that they'll be aiming to put a five-year $10 million bond measure on the Multnomah County ballot in November. I have to wonder how asking voters to pony up to save this cultural institution will affect the arts funding measure that's been building support for a run at the 2011 ballot.
The Creative Advocacy Network (CAN) has been working for years to craft a ballot measure asking voters to approve a dedicated funding pot of $15-20 million annually for supporting regional arts and culture. Guerilla artists took the streets at First Thursday this month to raise awareness of the plan, but that's just the tip of the iceberg: CAN decided to go after the 2011 bond after two round of polling, months of meeting that gathered input from 645 citizens as well as over 90 leaders in arts, business and politics. Their polling in 2009 (pdf) showed 70 percent of locals would support paying $1 a month to support the arts.
CAN made a calculated choice not to push for any arts tax on the 2010 ballot, but now OHS is heading to the ballot in a moment of crisis. While keeping the doors of the state history museum open is a very worthy cause, it's not going to be an easy sell to voters.