When he was a kid in Rogers Park, Matthew-Lee Erlbach says trips to theaters like Lifeline and TimeLine and excursions to downtown museums were just “part of the vocabulary of growing up in a city that is so rich in its arts and culture and that appreciates arts and culture workers.”
Those twin loves of art and labor activism are now combined in his work for the DAWN (Defend Arts Workers Now) Act, created with his friends and colleagues at Be An Arts Hero, a grassroots organization formed to advocate for federal relief for the arts. Erlbach, along with co-organizers and theater and film artists Brooke Ishibashi, Carson Elrod, and Jenny Grace Makholm, see Be An Arts Hero as a crucial lobbying tool that combines the power of individual artists and arts lovers with unions and cultural institutions to advocate for policies creating more equitable funding and support for the arts across the entire nation.
In Erlbach’s view, part of the challenge facing the arts is breaking through the old narratives that present them as the province of the culturally elite in big cities, despite occupying a “massive” 4.5 percent of the GDP. “Arts and culture has a story problem,” says Erlbach, who adds, “The Bureau of Economic Analysis, a nonpartisan institution, is saying, ‘You are an outsized performer economically, nationally, and locally.’” And while the letter he wrote leads off by pointing out the role of the arts in big states like New York and Florida (the arts are the largest job creator for the latter), it also highlights the economic role of the arts in less-populated red states, such as Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, and Iowa.
Speaking of honoring the arts sector: the Equity Jeff Awards will be livestreamed Monday, November 9 at 7 PM. Actor-singer Michelle Lauto will host. The Equity Jeffs normally honor shows that run from August 1 through July 31, but the season was obviously cut short by COVID-19 this year. Among the productions scoring multiple nominations are Drury Lane Theater’s An American in Paris and The Color Purple, Porchlight Music Theatre’s Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, Windy City Playhouse’s The Boys in the Band, Steppenwolf’s Bug, A Red Orchid Theatre’s Grey House, and Court Theatre’s King Hedley II. You can watch the virtual ceremony free through the Jeff Awards YouTube channel, either live or afterward. v
