NEA & NEH Increase

Good news . . . for those of you who are paying attention to the 2010 process, and are focused on more than just healthcare (as important as that is), we have good news for you . . . Congress just passed a $12.5 million increase in funding as part of the FY 2010 Interior Appropriations bill for both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The FY 2010 Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 2996) was passed in the Senate by a vote of 72-28 and in the House by a vote of 247­­-178.

Pave the Way

On Thursday, Secretary R. James “Jim” Nicholson received the “Defender of the Faith” award from the Pave the Way Foundation. To name a few in attendance were, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Apostolic nuncio to the United States, John R. Drexel IV, KStJ, H.Em. William Cardinal Keeler, the Archbishop Emeritus of Baltimore, Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi of the Church of the Little Flower, and others.

Jim is the Senior Counsel for the law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, is the past Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was sworn into that office in February 2005 and served through September 2007. As Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Nicholson was the principal advocate for veterans in the U.S. government, ensuring that they received the care, support, recognition and dignity they deserve for their service to our country. As VA Secretary, Nicholson also directed the federal government’s second largest Cabinet Department, responsible for a nationwide system of hospitals, health care clinics, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for America’s twenty-five millions veterans. The VA employs over 240,000 people with a budget of approximately 100 billion dollars. Prior to serving in the Cabinet, Mr. Nicholson served as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See from 2001 to 2005. In January 1986, Mr. Nicholson was elected to be the Republican National Committeeman from Colorado. In 1993 he was elected vice-chairman of the RNC, and in January 1997 he was elected chairman of the RNC, where he served for four years, overseeing the elections of 2000, including the election of President George W. Bush.

The Pave the Way Foundation is dedicated to achieving peace by closing the gap in tolerance, education and the practical relations between religions, through cultural, technological and intellectual exchanges. They strive to eliminate the use of religion as a tool which, historically has been used, by some, to achieve personal agendas and to cause conflicts.

Our hats are off to Secretary Nicholson for receiving this award. Jim truly has been a defender of the faith throughout his entire life.

The arts . . . all rowing together . . .

On Thursday, The Counterpoint Group along with Washington National Opera hosted and moderated a roundtable discussion on local government funding in DC and how in these tough economic times the city could better work with the DC arts community. More than 27 different groups were in attendance, including the Washington Ballet, Washington National Opera, Film Fest DC, the DC Jazz Festival, the Duke Ellington School for the Arts, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the National Geographic Museum, the Textile Museum and more.

The focus was two fold, a) how to look at the arts as an economic driver in the city and b) how the local government could really refine their processes to help the arts. Councilmember Kwame Brown, the Chairman of the Committee on Economic Development was the guest speaker and pledged to help. The Councilmember opened the discussion by stating, “It’s time to think of the arts as an economic catalyst in Washington”. His sentiments were echoed by Michael Sonnenreich, former President of Washington National Opera: "When the economy is doing well support for the arts is easy, but when it turns south it is much harder. I appreciate the Councilmember's leadership in this issue, both as a DC resident and as a commissioner of the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities. One of the reasons for the growth our city has seen is due to the growth of our arts community."‪

When the arts community joins together and speaks in one voice, it truly can be a formidable force. The Counterpoint Group has been tasked with putting together several recommendations from this meeting. Please stay tuned for these.

Busy rainy nights in DC. . .

Most evenings in DC are busy. The nation’s capital is a city full of events, and one need simply look through Washington Life or any of the other society magazines to see that there is always something going on, but October 27th was a particularly busy evening. Senator Lisa Murkowski (a wonderful senator) was having a fundraiser, Bill & Melinda Gates were in town to talk about their Living Proof Project and the DC Jazz Festival (formerly known as the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival) was hosting its annual dinner fundraiser.

Turning down an invitation to meet and listen to Bill Gates is not easy, but the Jazz Festival had Paquito D’Rivera (a nine time Grammy winner), Freddy Cole (the brother of Nat Cole) and Edmar Castaneda, an amazing jazz harpist, yes harpist, performing together at the Madison Hotel. Any music lover would have found the decision an easy one, and so, on a rainy Wednesday night, The Counterpoint Group split up, and one member of the team was a lucky beneficiary of amazing jazz while another team member went to hear Bill Gates.

The Living Proof Project is a multimedia initiative intended to highlight successes of U.S.-funded global health initiatives. By reporting success stories back to the people who funded them - American taxpayers and their representatives - the Project hopes to reframe the current global health conversation. Millions of lives have already been transformed and saved with effective, affordable solutions.

The DC Jazz Festival put together a wonderful evening of soup, salmon and chicken, and apple pie, but it all faded away as roughly 100 people listened to Paquito D’Rivera blow his clarinet. The room was full of patrons who were either bobbing their heads or tapping their feet. And while Paquito, a jazz master, is one of the best around, Edmar Casteneda blew everyone away (as Paquito said he would). If you have not heard of Edmar, his new CD is out and is one not to be missed.

DC, a town full of events, doesn’t slow down, even on a rainy Tuesday night, but when you can either attend more than one event, or split the staff and cover all of the events, then that is serendipitous. An evening of jazz and friends is not to be topped by many . . .

PTSD and the Armed Forces Foundation

On Monday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Erik Shinseki spoke out regarding the importance of treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among U.S. servicemen and women. Their speech was held at a first-of-its-kind national summit to address PTSD, held in DC by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

While the military is just beginning to talk about PTSD, one organization, The Armed Forces Foundation has been working to address it for years. The Armed Forces Foundation is dedicated to providing comfort and solace to members of the military community through financial support, career counseling, housing assistance and recreational therapy programs. They offer these vital programs to active-duty and retired personnel, National Guard, Reserve components, and their loved ones.

Most recently, Patricia Driscoll, the President of the Armed Forces Foundation released a book, Hidden Battles on Unseen Fronts which documents the increasing number of cases of physical and mental/brain trauma such as PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) among our veterans returning home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To order the book please click here.

Please think about supporting the foundation, and if you are going to be in Coral Gables, FL in November on the 19th, please visit the foundation’s website and consider participating in their annual Charity Casino night.

“I’m used to hosting politicians and diplomats, not beauty queens . . . ”

DC is a city full of politicians and diplomats, but just as there is only one current president, there is only one current Miss America, and on Sunday evening Katie Stam, the reigning Miss America was at a fundraiser for the Miss DC scholarship fund. Katie is an amazing young woman from Seymour, Indiana and whether she’s singing or simply speaking to folks, it is clear why she won Miss America. Miss America was joined by not one, not two, not three, not four, but five past Miss DC's, inlcuding Kate Marie Grinold, Shayna Rudd (who is also Miss Black USA), Kate Michael, Therese Lizardo, and Sonya Gavankar!

Tonight’s party, which Counterpoint coordinated and sponsored, was to help raise money for the scholarship portion of the Miss DC pageant. Overall the Miss America organization provides more than $45 million in annual scholarship assistance to the roughly 12,000 young women who compete in the pageant each year. As Kate Marie Grinold, Miss DC 2008 pointed out tonight, she came in in the top 10 in Miss America and she has a $250,000 George Washington University education and a total of $770 in school loans left, most because of the assistance she received not only from GW, but also from the pageant.

Counterpoint worked with the Miss DC organization to secure a venue and the host for the evening was Ambassador Kamilov of Uzbekistan, a model diplomat. His staff ensured that everything was just perfect for the roughly 150 guests that were entertained not only by the Embassy itself which is stunning, but by the remarkable voices of Katie Stam and Jen Corey (Miss DC 2009). Uzbek cuisine is a special treat, and their vodka is some of the best anywhere in the world.

Uzbekistan and Miss America make a winning team, but both can be looked at individually. Katie Stam would add glamour and poise to any function and the Embassy of Uzbekistan, which has a history all its own, is the perfect venue on Massachusetts Avenue for an event.

Washington National Opera steals the media spotlight

On Saturday, October 25th, Washington National Opera once again stole (and we mean stole in the most positive of ways) the spotlight in the press (and by press we mean, the Associated Press, the NY Times, the Boston Herald, the Baltimore Sun, the LA Times, the Washington Examiner, and more). Kudos to the opera for coming up with a creative way to spin the opening night performance of the Richard Strauss opera, Ariadne auf Naxos. During the second act, WNO invited some of Washington’s most recognizable (and some not so recognizable) faces up to the stage. Justice’s Scalia and Ginsburg as well as Professor Ginsburg sat at one table while Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and Kennedy Center Treasurer Adrienne Arsht sat at another table. These tables flanked the two sides of the stage, and their VIP supers were easily seen by those in the house. Probably the greatest laugh of the evening was when Zerbinetta (performed by Lyubov Petrova), jumped into Justice Scalia's lap.

There is no doubt that arts organizations not only fight for funders and audiences, but they also fight for column space in the news, and Washington National Opera should be commended for the clever ways in which it creates news instead of waiting for the news.

The reviews are yet to come out for this production, but if they follow the positive coverage that the opera has received for its opening night supers, then they should have a hit on their hands.

*The photograph is by Karin Cooper

Updated website!

The Counterpoint Group has revamped its website and added a new feature, the Counterpoint blog.

Take a look at the newly developed Counterpoint Group website!

www.cpgdc.com