[April 1, 2012] Last week, an asteroid passed over Sarasota depositing a silver glowing dust across the county along the way. Researchers analyzing the dust reported what scientists have long theorized, but had never been able to prove—that the dust particles contain unknown elements that when consumed by humans give them more common sense.
Coincidentally, the day after the fly by of the asteroid, the city commission held an emergency meeting to discuss supporting and further funding the visual arts in an effort to improve the cultural landscape of Sarasota.
In the meeting lasting only 5 minutes, The commission voted unanimously 5-0 to provide $500 million towards the operating support to a wide variety of nonprofit visual art organizations, public art, artist relocation programs, and art in school programs.
“All of a sudden, it just seemed like the right thing to do.” Economically, culturally, and socially, we felt like it was something needed to not only create shared cultural experiences, but also to foster the talent and creativity that already exists in our community,” said one of the commissioners. “When the impact of all of the city’s cultural activities is considered, the outstanding return on the public dollar the arts industry generates make it an excellent investment in Sarasota’s prosperity.”
When asked about who will oversee the regulation and distribution of the grant monies, a commissioner replied, “Well, the commissioners are gonna step aside and let the community elect a group of experts with deep roots in our visual art community to handle this.” “We consider this a big step in the right direction and now we need to focus our attention on cleaning up Newtown.”