Logan Pledges Allegiance To The Arts

George Logan is prepared to shred — in a rousing guitar solo kind of way — when it comes to providing state financial support for local artists and performance venues that have been slammed by the Covid-19-induced economic downturn.

Logan, an avid guitarist, Jimi Hendrix cover band frontman, and Republican state senator, made that promise Thursday afternoon during an online Create the Vote candidate forum hosted by the Connecticut Arts Alliance.

The regional water company executive is running for a third term representing the State Senate’s 17th District, which includes Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Derby, Hamden, Naugatuck and Woodbridge. The race is a rematch from 2018, with Logan facing off again against Democratic challenger and grocery store worker union organizer Jorge Cabrera.

Thursday’s virtual event gave Logan and three other state legislative hopefuls — West Hartford Democrat Kate Farrar, Madison Democrat John-Michael Parker, and Bloomfield independent Danielle Wong — a chance to wax poetic about what the arts mean to them personally. They also spoke about the role they think state government should play in supporting Connecticut’s creative economy during the ongoing pandemic.

When Long Wharf Theatre’s Betty Monz asked the digitally assembled group of candidates if they would back ​“emergency funding to the arts in Connecticut” to help venues like hers survive after being closed for so many months, Logan responded with enthusiasm.

“I know that the recovery here in Connecticut in all sectors is going to be a long process,” he said. ​“I will not approve any budget that does not have some funding, some plan for the arts in our community and in our state.”

That aid may come in the form of tax breaks, he said. Or it may come in the form of direct financial assistance.

“We definitely need to do all we can to ensure that post-pandemic, we still have a vibrant arts, culture and community here in Connecticut.”

When reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Cabrera said that he had planned on attending the forum; he missed it due to a scheduling snafu. He was out knocking doors in Ansonia when he took this reporter’s call.

Cabrera said that he too would advocate for state funding for the arts if he wins in November’s general election. He said he would support everything from funding for affordable artist housing — for example, in abandoned and converted factory buildings — to direct financial aid to individual artists and venues.

“Artists are the truthtellers of our society,” he said. ​“They use their talent and their art to speak truth to power. Anything we can do to get them back on their feet” is worth pursuing.

“A Hard Time Surviving”

During the hour-and-a-half-long forum, Logan and the three fellow candidate participants spoke at length about their personal relationship to the arts and about the intersection of creativity, politics, economics, and community.

Logan described playing guitar and his love of music more broadly as helping him maintain balance between his work at the Aquarion Water Company, his duties as a state senator, and his personal needs to be creative.

He said that he and his band — which consists of him on guitar, his brother on bass, and an old college friend on drums — played a number of free outdoor concerts during the summer. They did that in part ​“to get people used to seeing artists performing” at a time when so many creatives have been largely out of work since March, when the governor shuttered performance venues across the state as a precautionary measure to stem the spread of Covid-19.

“Artists are having a hard time surviving,” he said. ​“Many venues have been shut down and are slowly trying to reopen” now that Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan — which allows for indoor performance venues to open at half capacity, so long as they follow a variety of other social distancing and sanitation rules — started as of Thursday.

Monz (pictured) put some numbers to that economic hardship when she had her chance to ask the group a question.

She said that the creative sector in Connecticut has ​“suffered $400 million in economic losses” since the start of the pandemic. She said 62 percent of artists statewide are unemployed, and most organizations are still unable to reopen, even with Phase 3 guidelines now in place. ​“The industry needs emergency support.”

She said that Long Wharf along with five other ​“flagship theaters” in the state collectively provide 1,700 jobs for artists, designers, administrators, and technicians. ​“Sometimes I feel like that gets lost,” she said. ​“Every dollar invested in these institutions going right back into our local economies.”

Monz added that Long Wharf alone has lost 45 jobs during the pandemic, and is down to a staff of 20.

“I certainly will commit to supporting the arts and making sure they’re part of our financial recovery here in Connecticut,” Logan replied. He said he does not know right now how much money is needed or how much he would support in financial assistance for artists and venues. Nor would he commit to any particular source of funding for such assistance.

He said one key task ahead for legislators like himself, if reelected, is to quantify and try to understand exactly how hard hit certain parts of the economy have been. That includes the arts, and that means having artists and creatives from throughout the state consistently reaching out to legislators to let them know their stories and what they need to survive.

“I always have the arts in my heart and in my mind,” he said. ​“You are not out of the room as long as I am there.”

$1B Arts ​“New Deal”?

While Logan was the only state legislative candidate from the New Haven-Hamden region to participate in Thursday’s forum, three other local candidates for state office have filled out Create the Vote written questionnaires about their thoughts on art, politics and the pandemic.

Alex Taubes, a New Haven civil rights attorney and independent challenger running for the 11th State Senate district seat, said he would support a ​“Billion Dollar Arts ​‘New Deal’ for Connecticut” if elected.

“A committed socialist, I will support more funding for the arts industry than any other candidate in Connecticut,” he wrote.

Longtime Democratic State Sen. and Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, who is the incumbent in this year’s 11th District race, said he has found solace during the pandemic by reading ​“classically artistic poetry, fiction and drama; Shakespeare, Shaw, O’Casey, Yeats, Heaney, Camus, Sartre.”

“I will propose both increased direct state appropriations to sustain employment in the arts and to meet production costs and also will propose enhanced bonding grants to improve and renovate arts and cultural facilities where needed,” he pledged. ​“Presentations at public hearings will establish appropriate levels in both categories of funding.”

And Hamden State Rep. Josh Elliott, the Democratic incumbent running for reelection representing the 88th district in the state House of Representatives, wrote that he’s gotten back into playing the guitar during the pandemic.

He proposed taxing AirBnBs and hotels as one potential source of revenue that could be redirected to funding the arts.

Local Democratic state legislators Al Paolillo, Gary Winfield, Juan Candelaria, Michael DiMassa, Pat Dillon, Robyn Porter, Roland Lemar, Mike D’Agostino and Toni Walker, as well as local Republican state legislative hopefuls Carlos Alvarado, Eric Michael Mastroianni, Erin Reilly, Jameson White, and Kathy Hoyt, had not filled out Create the Vote questionnaires by the publication time of this article.

Click on the Facebook Live video above to watch most of Thursday’s Create the Vote forum.