"America Needs You!" Available from LuLu.com! Free download!

Years in the making! No kidding, this slim volume (48 pages) represents over 15 years work in the arts and activism arena. "America Needs You! Why You Should Become a Creativity Champion" lays out the argument for creativity as a national value. And, if you're reading this - you're a leader! Really. The printed book is only $10.49 (plus shipping). But you can download the text FOR FREE!



"Tom Tresser's America Needs You! Why You Should Become a Creativity Champion is the catalyst this nation needs to stop talking about creative change and start voting for it. There are fifty ideas in these pages that can take an artist who is passionate about changing our society but clueless about how to do that in our governmental systems and turn that artist into a change-agent. I especially admire the way Tom works from and with the strengths of artists rather than urging us to become something we are not to find influential roles inside governance. Read it, live it."
- Eric Booth, national consultant in arts learning and author of "The Everyday Work of Art" and "The Music Teaching Artist's Bible"

"Creatives as Civic Leaders" Presentation for Artists Alliance

Tom gave a keynote presentation to the Alliance of Artists Communities annual conference in Seattle on November 15. The topic was "Creatives as Civic Leaders" and drew heavily on audience input and participation. Here is the presentation deck:

"Creatives As Leaders"

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Should Artists, Arts managers (Any One) Be Fired If They Support An Unpopular Cause?

The artistic director of the California Musical Theater, a major nonprofit producing company here in the state’s capital, resigned on Wednesday in the face of growing outrage over his support for a ballot measure this month that outlawed same-sex marriage in California. Read the whole story in The New York Times.

It would one thing if the theater produced anti-gay work. It would be another thing if the theater discriminated in hiring or selling tickets. But is it anyone's business who the artists or other cultural workers of the theater support or who they give money to? Does this mean that cultural organizations in liberal areas must be extra careful in hiring their artists and administrators? Or, in another context, does this mean that cultural organizations in liberal areas should shy away from hiring folks whose progressive views and political life might anger people in that community?

Power of Song to Help Change Nations

Creative technology Helped Obama Win

From Chris Hughes:

"Over the past 21 months, millions of individuals have used My.BarackObama to organize their local communities on behalf of Barack Obama. The scale and size of this community and its work is unprecedented. Individuals in all 50 states have created more than 35,000 local organizing groups, hosted over 200,000 events, and made millions upon millions of calls to neighbors about this campaign. There can be no question that these local, grassroots organizations played a critical role in Tuesday's victory.

What has made My.BarackObama unique hasn't been the technology itself, but the people who used the online tools to coordinate offline action. My.BarackObama has always been focused on using online tools to make real-world connections between people who are hungry to change our politics in this country.

And the site isn't going anywhere. The online tools in My.BarackObama will live on. Barack Obama supporters will continue to use the tools to collaborate and interact. Our victory on Tuesday night has opened the door to change, but it's up to all of us to seize this opportunity to bring it about.

In the coming days and weeks, there will be a great deal more information about where this community will head. For the moment, let's celebrate this victory and know that the community we've built together is just the beginning."

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

Whose Values Count?

Election eve thought on the role of artists in public life...

There's a lot of talk in the press about "value" and "values." Value in the sense of "what is something worth" in economic terms and "whose values guides the politics and policies that decide what something is worth?" It seems that the financial and general press is learning something that we knew all along - that not everything with a big price tag is"worth" a lot of money and things that seemingly have no value on the stock market really do have tremendous value and meaning. What drives creative people to create and what is the "value" of what they create is worthy of study here. Lewis Hyde wrote "The Gift - Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World" in 1979 and he was on to something when quotes Joseph Conrad - "The artist appeals to that part of our being...which is a gift and not an acquisition - and, therefore, more permanently enduring." and then goes on to say "The art that matters to us - which moves the heart, or revives the soul, or delights the senses, or offers courage for living, however we choose to describe the experience - that work is received by us as a gift is received....The spirit of an artist's gifts can wake our own. The work appeals, as Joseph Conrad says, to a part of our being which is itself a gift and not an acquisition." This resonates with arts marketing studies by large foundations and hard-working consultants who endeavor to guide the arts industry in making a stronger case for itself with the public and politicians. These studies discount the economic impact of the arts and revive a conversation about the intrinsic value of the arts and creativity that, while hard to measure, is the real distinctive power of the creative process. But the market place says we only measure what matters and that Wall Street experts and Blackberry punching M.B.A.s RALLY know how to assign value in this society. How's that been working? But this conversation about who gets to value what is a prelude to my real concern around "values" - namely that people who live and practice the creation and exchange of intrinsic value, America's artists and cultural workers, have been absent from the political discourse and so have been unable to transfer their values into governance. So if we are cringing that taxpayers will spend $750 billion to bail out Wall Street firms, banks and potentially General Motors. If we are livid if taxpayers spend $123 billion to bail out AIG and then it spent $440,000 on a lavish executive retreat. And if we just shrug our shoulders when we see that the National Endowment for the Arts is budgeted for a pathetic $145 million for 2008. (Don't even mention the estimated $3 trillion cost of the Iraq War). If these facts - these expressions of what America "values" don't jive with yours, then, “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings.”

Government Says Educated Folk Work More, Earn More

The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration says that the more you go to school, the more you earn and the more likely to you will work (providing the entire global financial system doesn't slide into the sea along with the polar ice cap). So we need a smart and well-educated nation. People need the motivation and means to go to college and, especially, access to the sciences and engineering schools. I'd also argue we need a nation of creative and innovative thinkers.

"First Vote" - an Irreverent Celebration Honoring First Time Voters

ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!
Epic Theatre Ensemble in partnership with John Jay College of Criminal Justice present
Kathleen Chalfant, David Strathairn, Nilaja Sun, and many more in

FIRST VOTE '08

Are you prepared?

An Irreverent and Celebratory Event Honoring First Time Voters

ELECTION EVE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd, 7:30pm-8:30pm

THE GERALD W. LYNCH THEATER
at JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: 899 Tenth Avenue (between 58th and 59th), New York, N.Y. 10019

On the night before they vote in their first election, a remarkable collection of 25 FIRST TIME VOTERS are honored by some of today's TOP WRITERS & PERFORMERS - including Tanya Barfield, Mia Barron, Stephen Belber, Leila Buck, Julia Cho, Kathleen Chalfant, Colman Domingo, Melissa Friedman, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, Rachael Holmes, Teri Lamm, Craig Lucas, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Nilaja Sun, David Strathairn, James Wallert, Sarah Winkler, and David Zellnik -- with an evening of satirical, scandalous, and inspiring short plays, songs, sketches, spoken op-eds, and toasts. Gordon Elliott will be the non-partisan Master of Ceremonies!

This event is a Benefit for Epic Theatre Ensemble's innovative, civic-minded in-school and after-school education programs.

REGULAR TICKETS: $50/$25 - STUDENT TICKETS: $10

Every year Epic Theatre Ensemble stages a multi-partisan election-eve event honoring student alumnae from Epic's innovative, civic-minded education programs voting for the first time the next day. This one-hour benefit weaves together a collection of short plays, spoken op-eds, music, comedy sketches, and toasts that take a satiric, passionate, and most often personal perspective on citizenship, democracy, and the experience of voting. Many extraordinary artists have contributed to previous First-Time Voter Nights including Eve Ensler, Tony Kushner, Warren Leight, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Emily Mann, The Petersons, Tamara Tunie, Chris Durang, Austin Pendleton, Ariel Dorfman, Amy Redford, and many more.

This year we are expanding this event in many directions. For the first time our honorees will be working with Epic's artists to register voters and increase awareness of the election throughout the fall. They will also be contributing writing that will be performed alongside the professional contributions. In addition, we are partnering with John Jay College of Criminal Justice to identify honorees, contributors, and present the culminating election-eve event at their Gerald Lynch Theater.

TO PURCHASE REGULAR & STUDENT TKTS: go to www.TicketCentral.com or call 212-279-4200 - TO PURCHASE VIP* TICKETS: email SarahWinklerEpic@aol.com or call 212-239-1770

*VIP tickets includes a special pre-show reception with the artists and honorees from 6:00-7:15pm, as well as priority seating and recognition in program (for inclusion in the official program VIP tickets must be purchased by October 12, 2008)

Brit Artists Form Coalition "to have a strong collective voice"

A new organization, the Featured Artists’ Coalition launched last week in Manchester, UK to campaign for the protection of performers’ and musicians’ rights. Formed by some of the best-known names in music, the Coalition will give artists the voice they need to argue for greater control over their music.

Brian Message, co-manager of Radiohead and Kate Nash said: “It is time for artists to have a strong collective voice to stand up for their interests. The digital landscape is changing fast and new deals are being struck all the time, but all too often without reference to the people who actually make the music. Just look at the recent print MoU (Memo of Understanding) on file-sharing between labels, government and the Internet Service Providers. Artists were not involved. The Featured Artists’ Coalition will help all artists, young and old, well-known or not, drive overdue change through the industry in their interests and those of fans.”