Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

"Please Don't Take My Arts Away": Send a postcard to your PA legislators!

You've made calls, sent letters, and "faxed the facts".  What's next? Time to get creative! Decorate and send a postcard to your legislator - using crayons, paint, markers, colored pencils - anything you can imagine. We want to flood mailboxes in Harrisburg with colorful artistic expressions from Pennsylvanians of all ages.

What's at stake here?  The state is still without a final operating budget.  As it stands, we're at risk to lose all cultural funding in Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  Grants disbursed through these agencies support countless museums, theaters, community art projects, after school educational programs, and historical sites.  The state's ballooning deficit and Republican opposition to tax increases have put the General Assembly in a deadlock over different budget proposals, and the negotiations have now begun in a six-member bipartisan conference committee in order to solve the crisis.  Unfortunately, arts and culture are often first on the chopping block, and we must make our voices heard!

Printing instructions are below, and please feel free to forward this template.  The .pdf files for the postcards are also below and ready to download.

PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Use 67 pound white or ivory cardstock (8.5" X 11") for this project.
2. For adults, open "2009 ARTS MATTERS ADULT POSTCARD.pdf" or for a child, open "2009 PENNSYLVANIA KIDS FOR THE ARTS POSTCARD.pdf".  Both files are below.
3. Insert cardstock in printer and print one side of the postcard at a time (unless your printer will print both sides at a time.) It's a good idea to run a few copies to make sure it prints correctly on your printer. Please make sure the print instructions say print at 100%.
4. When both sides are printed, cut cards at 5.5" on the 11" length to yield 2 cards per sheet.
5. Stamp your organization's/personal return address in the upper left corner of the back side of the card.

Addresses of your state legislators can be found at http://philaculture.org/action/legislator.

Please let April Williamson, Community Engagement Manager, know how many postcards you send and if you take pictures or scans of any cards, please send them to aprilw@philaculture.org – we'll add them to our Flickr gallery!
 

Pennsylvania's budget wrangling continues and it is important to keep the message in legislators' minds:  Please Don't Take Our Arts Away!  To help you, we have  post card templates for adults and kids to use. Decorate and send a postcard to your legislator – using crayons, paint, markers, colored pencils – anything you can imagine. We want to flood mailboxes in Harrisburg with colorful artistic expressions from Pennsylvanians of all ages. Need inspiration? Check out recently-created postcards on our Flickr page.