The Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition has completed its third year of operations, July 31, 2010 to July 31, 2011. It has once again been a busy and fruitful year. The MALC blog is now two years old! A huge thank you to all those connected to MALC as we are an ALL volunteer coalition.

Below are some highlights of MALC’s activities:

MALC continued to weigh in on national issues that would impact our community.

The key issues MALC weighed in on:

• MALC sent in public comments to the IRS to urge the repeal of the the new IRS 1099 reporting requirements that were created by the new Federal Health Care Reform Law/The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

• MALC members also had key phone conversations with the IRS on this issue. (This new regulation was repealed this spring 2011!)

• In October 2010 MALC steering committee members spoke directly with Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the NEA, about the need for organizations that receive public money to play a part in protecting all artists, to recognize Fair Trade issues and respect the Intellectual Property of all artists. Chairman Landesman accepted a letter from MALC summarizing the issues.

MALC continues to keep engaged on a state-wide level:

• MALC was a co-presenter for the forth annual Artists Under the Dome Event at the Massachusetts State House on Nov. 18th, 2010.

• MALC members attended the annual Labor Day Breakfast sponsored by the Boston Central Labor Council. They were able to speak directly with legislators and policy makers, as well as office holders like Attorney General Martha Coakley, about critical issues surrounding the Independent Contractors’ Law, for instance.

• In June MALC members testified at a State House hearing in favor of several piece of legislation: An Act Establishing a Disaster and Emergency Aid Fund for Massachusetts Artists- Senate Bill S 01705, An Act Relative to the Right to Publicity Senate Bill S01713, An Act Relative to Establish Pilot Artist Enterprise Zones Senate Bill S01703, An Act Establishing the Massachusetts Cultural Trust Fund Senate Bill 01714, and An Act to Create the position of poet laureate for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts House Bill H00891 & House Bill H02627.

• Also in June, MALC members also testified at a State House hearing in opposition to An Act Relative to Eligibility for Cooperative Housing S00593.

• MALC continued to work closely with the Governor’s Creative Economy Council and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development to represent the interests and concerns of artists of all disciplines. MALC is the artist working group for the Creative Economy Council.

• MALC continued to work closely with State House Cultural Caucus and was invited to attend several Cultural Caucus events and briefings.

• MALC members attended several of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts & Cultural Developments Listen Tour events around the Commonwealth.

MALC will continue in our next year of operations to contribute to the following ongoing efforts:

• MALC for will be a co-presenter for the fifth annual Artists Under the Dome Event at the Massachusetts State House on Nov. 17th, 2011.
http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/annualevent.html

• attend public hearings and public meetings by state agencies and public hearings on issues that impact the artists community;

• testify on legislation and regulatory matters that impact our community;

• continue to be the artists working group for the Creative Economy Council and work diligently to ensure the CEC to implement artist-sensitive solutions;

• use the MALC blog to continue to report on these and other public meeting/hearings to keep our community informed.

This has been another successful year for MALC. We are working to ensure that Massachusetts artists of all disciplines are at the policy making table on a state and national level.

We invite you to join MALC to be part of our important work.

Please join our free listserv! And if you have the time please consider joining MALC:

http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/contact.html

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The Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition completed its second year of operations, July 31, 2009 to July 31, 2010. It has once again been a busy and fruitful year. The MALC blog is now one year old! A huge thank you to all those connected to MALC as we are an ALL volunteer coalition.

MALC goes national

In 2010 MALC decided it was key to weigh in on national issues that would impact our community. Some of the key issues MALC weighed in on were:

• MALC sent in public comments for the White House Community Jobs Forum (of note: the White House  gathering did not have anyone attending from the cultural community!).
• MALC sent in public comments for the White House Call for Public Comments on U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Joint Strategic Plan: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/intellectualproperty/frn_comments/

MALC continues to keep engaged on a state-wide level

On July 28th, 2010 the State House Cultural Caucus held a legislative briefing on Artists Labor Issues. MALC members were involved in the planning and also presented at the briefing. The Massachusetts Cultural Council was also involved. This was the Commonwealth’s first legislative briefing on Artists Labor Issues.

MALC encouraged the passage of numerous pieces of State legislation that support the creative economy and the vitality of artists communities:

• MALC members testified at the State House hearing in January 2010 on the independent contractor legislation that is negatively impacting artists of all disciplines and also attended several State House meetings with legislators and state policy makers on the problem.
• MALC members testified in favor of an ACT Relative to the Right to Publicity Senate Bill 1800 at a State House hearing in January 2010.
• MALC members also testified in favor of An Act to Clarify Seasonal Employment HB 1808,

Read more on this legislation here.

We continue to work closely with the Governor’s Creative Economy Council to represent the interests and concerns of artists of all disciplines. MALC is the artist working group for the Creative Economy Council and offers key recommendations for the Council to consider that would be feasible in the current economic downturn. MALC gave important input into the CEC’s yet to be released 2010 report to the Legislature.

MALC members have made it a key goal to attend public hearings and public meetings by agencies on issues that impact the artists community. Over this past year, MALC members attended:

• all the Creative Economy Council meetings;
• 85% of the Commonwealth Health Connector Board monthly meetings and related regulatory health care reform meetings (and,
• Many of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Board meetings.

MALC worked to make sure our policy makers knew artists of all disciplines were interested in their work.

We will continue in our next year of operations to contribute to the following ongoing efforts:

• attend public hearings and public meetings by state agencies and public hearing on issues that impact the artists community;
• testify on legislation and regulatory matters that impact our community;
• continue to be the artists working group for the Creative Economy Council and work diligently to ensure the CEC implements artist-sensitive solutions;
• use the MALC blog to continue to report on these and other public meeting/hearings to keep our community informed.

We expect to be involved in the following upcoming efforts in the coming year:

• MALC will co-host ”Live Art Speak”at the Boston Public Library on Saturday, November 6th 2010http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/program.html
• MALC for will be a co-presenter for the forth annual Artists Under the Dome Event at the Massachusetts State House on Nov. 18th 2010http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/annualevent.html
• MALC will hold its second state-wide Artists Congress in March 2011 at the Boston Public Library

This has been another successful year for MALC. We are working to ensure that Massachusetts artists of all disciplines are at the policy making table on a state and national level. We invite you to join MALC to be part of our important work.

Please join our free listserv! And if you have the time please consider joining MALC:

http://www.artistsunderthedome.org/contact.html