Classical Music

Washington arts lobbyist Anne Murphy brought her evangelical pitch for government support of the arts to the delegates of Opera Guilds International, who convened last week at the Westgate Hotel.

“Everybody who is elected to office should make a statement about the arts,” said the executive director of the Washington-based American Arts Alliance.

Murphy, one of America’s premier advocates of federal subsidies for the arts, stated that she would not rest until the arts were mentioned--favorably, of course--in a President’s inaugural address. She urged her audience to lobby Congress to rewrite the 1986 tax reform laws, which she described as a disaster for private giving to arts organizations.

“The tax reform of ’86 negated the volunteerist spirit, which is a basic premise of the American system,” Murphy said, adding that tax laws need to be written to reinstate deductions for contributions to the arts, even if donors don’t itemize.

Murphy said American Arts Alliance is also working to protect the endowment income of arts organizations from the covetous eyes of the Internal Revenue Service.

To encourage her audience, she recounted several anecdotes about legislators who underwent what she called conversion experiences in their attitudes toward governmental arts funding.

“I know one congressman on the Hill who now says, ‘I’ll do anything--just keep those symphony ladies away from me!’ ”