We need your help to save the Detroit Institute of ArtsThe Art is for Everyone campaign for the August 7 millage is moving into high gear and campaign coordinators are looking for volunteers.
Campaign Manager, Eddie McDonald, has hired campaign coordinators to run campaign operations in each county. Their contact information is listed below.Macomb County
Office: Will be open week of July 9 in Mt. Clemens
These are the individuals who will work with you on volunteer efforts, provide you with materials and keep the effort moving in each county.
Our immediate needs:
Senior Center Outreach
If you can connect us with a senior residence or organization in your county, please contact the appropriate county coordinator. The effort targeting seniors and absentee ballot voters will be our primary focus through July 20.
Business Placard Distribution
Beginning July 7 we will expand our activities to businesses by distributing millage placards to businesses for placement in their windows. If you can help place placards, please contact your county coordinator. Also, we will ramp up speaking engagements to chambers of commerce and other business groups. If you can help us make a connection with a business group, please contact your county coordinator.
Join the Friend to Friend Campaign
Your county coordinator can provide you with friend-to-friend postcards or e-letters that we would like you to send to your friends, family and professional networks. This is a simple, personal way of letting your contacts know that you support the DIA and you hope they will do the same. If you prefer the phone, we will provide you with a short script that can be used as you call your friends to encourage their support. If you are comfortable canvassing your neighborhood, we encourage you to pick up some “kicker” cards at your campaign office. These can be handed to your neighbors as you talk to them for a friendly reminder to vote on August 7. They can also be tucked in doors but NOT in mailboxes. That is a violation of federal law. If you are the social type, invite your neighbors over for an informational “friend-raiser.” These are not designed to make money but to provide information about the millage. Your county coordinator will work with you to provide materials and a speaker for your event.
Join a Phone Bank
We will likely be setting up some phone-bank events at the campaign offices in mid- and late July. Bring your cell-phone and we’ll provide a call list and script. If you can volunteer for one of these events, please let your county coordinator know.
Arrange a Speaking Opportunity
If you belong to a community, church, social or professional group and you think they should hear about the millage, contact the group’s leadership and suggest a speaker. Your campaign coordinator will provide literature, buttons and a speaker for a brief talk on the DIA and the millage. We can tailor the talks to the interests of the group and they will always include a millage message.
Lawn Signs
Thanks to a generous campaign by our museum volunteers, we have raised a dedicated fund to print lawn signs. The signs will feature our Picasso character from the DIA brand campaign. Signs will be sold for $5 each and all proceeds will be used to replenish the lawn sign fund so that we can continue to print and provide signs. Stop in a campaign office to purchase your signs (cash only, please) and cover your neighborhood in DIA blue!
GOTV – Get Out the Vote
Activity will ramp up yet again immediately before the election. We may canvass some polling places, do last-minute phone banks and we are hoping to hold a GOTV rally downtown. Check the Art is for Everyone website or Facebook page for the latest information.
Finally, print this message and share it with friends, family and other volunteers who might like to join the campaign. This is among the most important efforts we have ever undertaken. This is no time to be standing on the sidelines! Join the campaign and support the DIA… it’s what we save for our kids.
Voter Registration Deadline is Monday, July 9The deadline to register to vote in the August 7 primary election is Monday, July 9. You can register at any Secretary of State office or at your city clerk’s office.
Send in your absentee ballots!If are not planning to vote in person on August 7, be sure to complete and mail your absentee ballot as soon as possible. Ballots began arriving in mailboxes last week. If you need to request an absentee ballot, you can request one from your city clerk, or complete the online form here and mail it in.
The Campaign to Save the DIA misses the point. The risk to the DIA is not the DIA’s lack of funds. The risk to the DIA is Detroit’s lack of funds. If Detroit goes bankrupt, the Art goes from being for Everyone to being for the Highest Bidder. Everyone can work to avoid this by calling on the DIA Founders to get innovative with their financing. The billions of dollars worth of DIA artworks could fund the arts and more for Detroit with art finance innovation, avoiding bankruptcy. With art finance innovation, the art could stay on the walls while the highest bidders walk away with its future capital appreciation rather than with the art itself. Detroit would have the income on the billions of dollars that the highest bidders invest to fund the arts and help fund other essential services, and the highest bidders will have their money in socially-responsible art assets instead of the usual stocks and bonds and gold and silver. Finance innovation can really save the DIA. A millage may just be a bump in the road on the way to bankruptcy.
The Campaign to Save the DIA misses the point. The risk to the DIA is not the DIA’s lack of funds. The risk to the DIA is Detroit’s lack of funds. If Detroit goes bankrupt, the Art goes from being for Everyone to being for the Highest Bidder. Everyone can work to avoid this by calling on the DIA Founders to get innovative with their financing. The billions of dollars worth of DIA artworks could fund the arts and more for Detroit with art finance innovation, avoiding bankruptcy. With art finance innovation, the art could stay on the walls while the highest bidders walk away with its future capital appreciation rather than with the art itself. Detroit would have the income on the billions of dollars that the highest bidders invest to fund the arts and help fund other essential services, and the highest bidders will have their money in socially-responsible art assets instead of the usual stocks and bonds and gold and silver. Finance innovation can really save the DIA. A millage may just be a bump in the road on the way to bankruptcy.