Lisa Sirkin and her company, Gracie Communications, started the web blog "SaveIndyArts" and the resulting hysteria from the arts community of well meaning good people who deeply care about the quality of life in Marion county.
Both Lisa and her company reside in Hamilton county. Lisa Sirkin does not pay Marion county taxes, she pays Hamilton county taxes.
However, Lisa Sirkin gets paid herself by the big well funded arts institutions who are getting Marion county tax dollars. They are clients of her communcations firm.
Lisa Sirkin has absolutely no say in what happens in Marion county government. If she wants to have a say in our city, she needs to pack up and move here and start to pay her share of our tax bills.
You don’t see Marion county folks at Hamilton county city council meetings nor do you see them launching blogs to tell Hamilton county how to spend its tax revenue, do you?
You will see Marion county taxpayers at the city council budget hearing in front of the full council on Monday September 8th. And we will prepare statements in support of tax cuts for the arts and present the facts regarding where our money was spent in the past.
By googling Lisa Sirkin or Gracie Communications, you will easily learn for yourself that some of her clients are the same big well-funded arts institutions that get Marion county tax dollars. You will also learn from her social networking page on Small Indiana that she is quite cozy with the Children's Museum, an institution that received the largest Marion county taxpayer funded grant in 2006...$239,000.
The Children's Museum is an incredible asset to our city, but it is not an arts organization, nor is it struggling to stay afloat.
Don’t fall for the hysteria Lisa Sirkin started. And don't hire her PR firm, Gracie Communications. As a public relations specialist, she should be savvy enough not to create a massive public relations campaign to dictate how people outside her taxing district spend their tax revenue. She should be smart enough to avoid the PR blunder she did, afterall, her stock and trade is to be a supposed communication expert.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Who is Lisa Sirkin and her PR firm, Gracie Communications?
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7 comments:
Figures. Just another self-serving do-gooder. I wonder why Lisa doesn't live in Marion county since she cares so much. Typical.
There are 42 grants given for 2009 by the IAC. Only 13 from Marion County, meaning about 75% of our money is given to artists outside Indy having nothing to do with Indianapolis. Why is the Indianapolis City Council appropriating money to the IAC which then uses our tax dollars to support the majority of recipients outside Indianapolis with Indy citizens' hard earned tax dollars? Marion County money should be pegged strictly to Marion County artists; not assigning 75% of it to prop up other artists throughout Indiana. Granted, it's called the Indiana Arts Commission; not the Indianapolis Arts Commission, and granted that they receive funding from other sources, but who audits these grants to ensure Marion County $ stay in Marion County? I bet the CCC. doesn't police this, so how can they appropriate annual funding without a status report from the previous year to satisfy themselves their money is well spent? This begs accountability.
Melyssa, she has to be looking out for her own interests. I checked and everything you say is right there. What is funny is that when I goggled her name and her business name this site came up first.
Paul, I think you are confused and it is easy to do. There are two organizations.
Arts Council of Indianapolis
Indiana Arts Commission (IAC)
Our local Marion county dollars (controlled by our council and mayor) are going to the Arts Council. That's about $1.5 million.
They also get money from the CIB and other sources...all of which can be traced to tax dollars.
I have not looked into how the IAC is funded.
I recognized these three big arts funding winners on Gracie Communication client list.
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Eiteljorg Museum
Indianapolis Cultural Development Initiative (aka arts council)
How many employees of the arts council don't live in Marion county? Someone should check into that. Our tax dollars should at all cost pay salaries of the people who live in our county.
I wonder if Lisa can overcome the PR disaster that is looming by the news I have about her. She thinks she is on top of what's happening in the city, but I happen to have a lot of information that will expose these people as frauds and a disgrace in our community. I am curious how Lisa and her PR firm will recover from what I'm about to expose. Stay tuned!
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