Matt Entenza

ENTENZA INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

1. Minnesota’s nearly 1600 non-profit arts organizations provide access to the arts and support quality of life in every corner of the state. While providing over 22,000 jobs, arts organizations served nearly 4.5 million people in 2004. How do you and your family participate in the arts?

Well, we participate in a variety of different arts things. We’re members of the Walker and of the Guthrie and of the MIA. I’m a big fan of the visual arts and enjoy those.  I have a son who is particularly involved in the arts through St. Paul Central High School – he just graduated – in band, choir and in theater. So as a result, with him we’re constantly going to the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber and getting the opportunities to work with exciting people cause he’s doing an internship this summer with Phillip Brunelle. So we’ve gotten the chance to meet Phillip, and of course the incredible choral tradition we’ve had here in Minnesota. So we’re blessed to have lots of arts in Minnesota. But I grew up with a mom who was very active in the Nobles County, which is in Worthington, where I’m from, arts board. I was always involved in the Arts in the Park every year, helping her out just as her kid, and I understand the importance of arts in rural Minnesota too.

(Do you paint or draw or sing or dance?)

I don’t think anyone would pay to see me sing or dance or anything like that.  But my kids are very talented and my wife is a pretty talented singer. So I enjoy watching them and enjoy being a dad, going to lots of performances.

2. What’s on your iPod?

My I pod. I’ve got local artists on my iPod like Brother Ali and Atmosphere. I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen every time he’s been in Minnesota since 1981. So I’ve got a lot of Bruce on the iPod. And REM, and Green Day, which, of course, has a good Minnesota connection as well. So those would be some of the artists I listen to.

3. What work have you done to support the arts as an elected official in the past?

I’m really proud that I worked really closely with Senator Dick Cohen, who is probably the foremost advocate for the arts in Minnesota. In my 12 years in the State House I worked closely with him in supporting arts groups.  But among those things, I helped to get a million dollars for the MIA and the Walker, so they could digitize their collections, so they could be put out on the web and be made available to educators and everyone with a lot of educational content and that was a real specific and important initiative that we did. To make sure that we were expanding access to the arts with more funding, not only to the State Arts Board, but to our regional arts boards, because it’s important to me that arts is in all the regions.  And then to support in the Legacy Amendment that arts be included in the Legacy Amendment, because I think that was very important and is helping to make Minnesota a leader to make sure that we do have arts in the Legacy Amendment and as governor, to make sure that those appropriations are supplemental in building on the arts and are not taking away from our existing arts appropriations.

4. What will your legacy be in the arts from your term as Governor?

Well, I’m running with Robyne Robinson, who, of course, is a leader in the arts. Someone who ran a picture gallery selling original art, made here in Minnesota, and who now runs a very exciting jewelry business. In my administration, Robyne Robinson will be the cultural ambassador. We have put forward an aggressive arts agenda. We’re going to create a Minnesota partnership for the arts, to raise additional private sector money, and then to work in cooperation with the State Arts Board, to make sure we’re helping the 19,000 artists that are around the state of Minnesota. To promote art, we’re going to bring art into the Governor’s Mansion and have performances of local artists at the governor’s mansion, so we have those opportunities. We want, Robyne and I, to make sure that artists know that they will have no better friends in Minnesota than the Robinson and Entenza ticket.

5. The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, passed by 56% of the voters in November 2008, created the new Arts and Culture Fund. The constitutional amendment stated that these funds “may be spent only for arts, arts education, and arts access and to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage.” It also states that “The dedicated money under this section must supplement traditional sources of funding for these purposes and may not be used as a substitute.”  MCA led the arts community campaign to pass the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment so that all Minnesotans would get access to the arts via the grants and services of the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Council system, which ensures that people in all 87 counties get access to the arts.

Question: Will you support at least 50% of the Arts and Culture Fund being dedicated to the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Council system, to ensure that all Minnesotans have access to the arts, regardless of their geographic location, through grants that reach all 87 Minnesota counties?

Yeah, we need to make sure that we have that 50% allocation of funds.  Growing up in rural Minnesota, I understand that it doesn’t matter if you’re down near the Iowa border, which is where I grew up, our arts community was a thriving one and it’s a very important part of all of our communities. Communities that don’t have arts are communities that are not going to survive. And so it is very, very important to me to make sure that in rural Minnesota, and in the metro area, that we have an even distribution of funds, and that’s why we have our State Arts Board and then the Regional Arts Boards, and I’ve got lots of friends on all of them, and we want to make sure that, as governor, there are people there that are going to be parts of that community, helping to make sure it all thrives.

6. Nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations provide social services, health services, education and arts to the public.  Under Minnesota law, nonprofit organizations have been free from paying sales or property taxes because their services benefit the public.  Do you agree or disagree that nonprofit organizations should continue to be free    from paying taxes?

I’m proud that I’ve worked closely with the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits over the years. With John Pratt and Marcia Avner and others. We need to make sure that our non-profits that help us, that provide cultural and religious and artistic and educational support to our community don’t pay taxes. That’s why we call them non-profits. So I will work hard to make sure that not only does the state not tax them, but we can’t have local units of government taxing them.  And the reason why many local units of government now want to tax non-profits is because we’ve had a state government that’s been hostile to our cities and we’ve forced ourselves between good people fighting with one another.  And as governor, Robyne and I intend to make sure that doesn’t happen.

7. Research shows that students with high levels of arts participation outperform other students on virtually every measure from standardized tests to community participation, and that learning through the arts has a significant effect on learning in other areas, particularly in the early years. The arts are required both by No Child Left Behind and also by Minnesota’s student academic standards, but our schools are not required to report how they are meeting those standards. Would you support policies to increase accountability for school standards in the arts?

I’m concerned that one of the things that’s happened with No Child Left Behind is it’s actually dumbing down standards, and that teachers are spending a lot of time teaching on tests that are what they consider core curriculum.  I consider arts and music and other areas to be important parts of our curriculum. And so we need accountability that those are there. The first teachers that get fired are the arts teachers and students that don’t have access to the arts are students that are going to be less engaged.  My son, Will, got his aspiration for his academics because of his love of musical theater and if that hadn’t been there I don’t think he would have had the same wonderful experience he had and he’s now going on to college to major in Theater. I think that those are the extraordinary opportunities that we have when we make sure the arts is in our curriculum and, as governor, we’ll make sure that happens.

8. We welcome any additional comments you would like to make with regards to the arts in Minnesota.

Minnesota has 19,000 artists. We have over 300 million dollars a year that spent in the arts community. It’s an important part of our economy. And I have picked Robyne Robinson, who is someone who has had a lifetime commitment to the arts, to be my lieutenant governor cause she will be our ambassador of arts and culture.  We are going to make sure that we have someone, as one of her main focuses, and who is one of the highest-ranking officials in the state, is making art a top priority. Bringing national artists to Minnesota, linking our Minnesota artists up, and as someone who is an artist herself and had created her own jewelry line, she gets it. And as someone who loves the arts, and has participated in the arts as long as I have as someone who just enjoys seeing wonderful art, we’re going to make sure that every corner of this state has a governor and lieutenant governor who is supportive and that art is available to everybody.