Preserving The American Political Philosophy

TWEET THIS  http://goo.gl/D8m3J2 In 2009 I attended a competition for what I thought was a small business grant, but later I found was "an investment". I made this mistake in part because I learned of it through the Maine Art Commission which had been sending announcements all year about the availability of stimulus grants - but when one opened the link, it was inevitably and exclusively for non-profits. When The Maine Arts Commission announced a competition for small business investment from "an anonymous donor" I assumed it was a grant for a variety of reasons, including that it was for a very modest amount and that the source was anonymous. I wasn't paying much attention to those details as I had never entered such a competition before and there was a lot to processing taking place in a short amount of time. As later became apparent the "anonymous donor" was F, an investment corporation chartered by the Maine legislature to serve as...

This editorial ‘Conservation Priorities’ response makes some important points that are not often discussed in our Maine main stream media. It describes the land trust interests which have been acquiring land on a tax exempt status as a united network of corporatons, and ties the effect of the tax exempt status to the economic burden of rural communities. Quote: For the past 30 years, preservationists have aggressively pursued land acquisition — sometimes at the expense of the taxpayer, sometimes with the support of private funding. The $126 million borrowed by Maine taxpayers, to be repaid by future generations, has been used to acquire 530,000 acres of the total 1.8 million, or roughly 30 percent. The remaining 70 percent was acquired through collaborative efforts with Maine’s land trust community. With Governor LePage's veto of the research & development  bonds and refusal to sign off on the other bonds, igniting a debate between those who claim that the bonds...

In 2007 I was browsing the Internet, when much to my surprise I found a database for New England Arts, about which I had not previously been aware. I thought that I had already entered our business information in all the Maine and New England directories. I proceeded to add our information but soon found out that this database was different from all the others, it required agreeing to terms created by The New England Foundation For The Arts. Upon reading the terms, I found them completely unacceptable as it virtually required giving the New England Foundations For the Arts unlimited rights over any information submitted to the database or “deep linked” to the data base- with the term “deep link” left undefined. In 2011 I am growing our business through another arts database, which is popularly known as Etsy . It is for all things handcrafted including paintings and other art works. The work that one can find in this database runs the gambit form the young artisan starting out and cre...

The Email from The Maine Arts Commission says it all: The Maine Arts Commission Presents Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative There are only 70 seats left for this free event, sign up today. Michael M. Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, will visit Portland, ME, on July 1 as part of “Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative,” an arts management symposium. Kaiser will provide counsel and encouragement to nonprofit arts organizations in need. Kaiser will be at the Portland Museum of Art between 9:15 and 11:30 am on July 1 for this invaluable symposium where he will provide counsel and encouragement to nonprofit arts organizations in need. During this free symposium Kaiser will address the key challenges facing nonprofit arts organizations through such areas as fundraising, building more effective boards of trustees, budgeting and marketing. Tickets for this event are free and must be reserved online at http://artcrisis.eventbrite.com. Sea...