Logs or Log Cabins? It depends on your vision.

President’s Day and African-American History Month mark February as a time to celebrate our cultural heritage. While DC has always been a cultural city, over the past decade we have seen exponential growth in creative industries that not only commemorate our nation’s heritage, they lay the foundation for our future cultural development. For over 25 years, WALA has had a part in building DC’s reputation as a creative center. To build upon our legacy, WALA’s board and many volunteers have spent several months developing a strategic vision to encourage growth in the creative sector in a way that supports the economic development of our community.

While WALA staff and supporters have toiled on developing collaborative strategies to ensure a viable infrastructure for creative industries in our region, 2011 has born witness to some significant setbacks on the national front. This week alone we have witnessed Borders go into bankruptcy and political volleyball over funding for key cultural programs, especially the National Endowment for the Arts. Since economic analysts have announced that the recession is over and we are staring at a mound of public debt, it seems that policy makers have lost a cohesive vision of what is needed for consistent long-range economic growth.

Wait! - you say - why all the talk about economic policy? We still can't seem to get across to legislators that the arts is an integral part of the equation. For nearly five years we have grappled with ongoing struggles in the film, television, music and publishing industries to simultaneously address the impact of economic recession and to find viable business models in the midst of a technology revolution that has literally turned all media arts industries on their heads. The risk to our country is not only a decline of creative industries in which the United States has historically been an innovator and leader, but a depletion of our cultural identity and heritage.

We need a shared political vision about the importance of the arts to our society and our economy. There is needless debate about the value of arts in our communities, our schools and our economy. Perhaps instead of celebrating the holiday weekend with flowering oratory about log cabins, we should reflect about the log in our eyes.