As contradictory as it may seem, the anarchists are on the verge of uniting.
Representatives of arts and other community organizations on St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix agreed on several key matters Saturday at a symposium held to determine whether they wanted to come together again later to develop plans to work collectively on addressing common concerns.
One was that the arts cannot at present look to the territorial government for financial support.
Another was that, in approaching private-sector funding sources, the emphasis should be on the "big bucks" available from corporations and foundations as opposed to small donations from local businesses that face a daily barrage of not-for-profit beggars. The recent gift of $100,000 to the St. Thomas Swimming Association from Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises was noted.
Another was the need to form partnerships with other public and private entities for the benefit of all.
Yet another was frustration over the painstaking processes of applying for federal funds through local granting organizations.
And the last was a resounding "yes" to having a more extensive mini-arts summit in the fall to work out plans for a united arts agency — and for the St. Thomas-St. John Arts Council, which hosted Saturday's symposium, to seek a major grant from the V.I. Council on the Arts to bring the new entity into being.
Mina Orenstein, vice president of the St. Thomas-St. John Arts Council, struck a common chord in articulating a fundamental philosophical conflict between artists or arts groups and public funding agencies.
"Artists are by definition anarchists," she said. "To be creative means going outside the lines. But bureaucrats are by definition people who want to stay inside the lines, to go strictly by the rules." Thus, she said, funding agencies appear to be more concerned with how you fill out their forms than with what your agency does or aspires to do.
There are alternatives.
"The top 25 U.S. foundations have assets of about $1 billion," Roger Dewey, executive director of the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development, said. "They have to give away 5 percent of their net assets value — that's $5 billion — each year to stay clean with the feds."
He noted that his foundation, which recently purchased and plans to rehabilitate the derelict buildings of Times Square in Christiansted, has received more than half a million dollars in Ford Foundation grants over the last six years. That, in turn, he said, "has given us a track record of credibility in the eyes of other foundations."
Monty Thompson, founder and artistic director of Caribbean Dance Company and Caribbean Dance School, noted that United Way of St. Thomas-St. John rejected a bid by the school's St. Thomas branch for funding on the grounds that the school's headquarters is on St. Croix.
Especially in the area of cultural arts, another dynamic often determines the outcome of proposals, Dewey said: "Cultural preservation is more political than politics."
He added that for grant-writing purposes, "a dance school may not always be a dance school. Sometimes it may be a human services agency to build self-esteem among girls and prevent teen pregnancy." It was noted that the School of Visual Arts and Careers has for some years received federal Law Enforcement Planning Commission funding to prevent drug abuse among young people.
"We who represent the arts have got to become a political force to be reckoned with, just as the taxi drivers are," Clarence Cuthbertson, artistic director of St. John's Carabana Theatre, said.
In a discussion of venues, it was noted that the government was recently given the old V.I. Hotel property, which lies in ruins but could be restored for use as an arts school and exhibition/peformance facility — and perhaps a hospitality training school with a restaurant and guest rooms as well.
It was also noted that the government could take over the Ramada Yacht Haven property by eminent domain if funding were available, and that Tillett Gardens is up for sale.
"Someone needs to inventory the property the government owns," Dewey said. "The government itself doesn't know. . . Now is an excellent time to be approaching the government to talk about taking property off their hands."
He also noted that the city of St. Louis imposed a one-half percent sales tax that goes to support the arts. One way to make the idea of a head tax on ship passengers palatable to the cruise lines, he suggested, might be to earmark a part of the money to go directly to support the arts in the territory.
St. John artist Janet Cook-Rutnik, addressing the idea of partnering with the tourism sector, said, "The art lover is the world's most desirable client." Art is used to sell everything from vodka to Mercedez Benz to financial investment funds, she noted. "Why should it not be used to sell the Virgin Islands as a tourism destination?"
New ways of looking at old problems became the day's theme. Near the end of the symposium it was Cook-Rutnik who shared this quote: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
The idea isn't exactly new, though. The words are those of Albert Einstein.
