AMENDMENT #5

Please support local artists!

If Amendment #5 doesn't pass this Tuesday, all artists who show in galleries must pay inventory tax on their unsold work at the end of every year.

This not only effects struggling artists, who will now have to bear the tax burden of their unsold works, but also the galleries contending with the lack of tourism in Post-Katrina society. This amendment would be a nail in the coffin of the already fledging art community. Once again, it would be an attempt to "Mc Manufacture" our diverse and culturally expressive city. The only artists who could afford to show in our city would be internationally-known "name" artists, and even then why would they? Why pay the extra tax when they can show somewhere else? As an unknown artist, why take a chance to show your work in a city where you will be punished for it not selling.

I keep thinking back to those wonderful exhibits all over the city dealing with Katrina. Professional and amateur alike. They allowed such a wide variety of expression and interpretation. A majority of these artists who showed their Katrina-specific art were not concerned with compensation; they only wanted a chance convey their experience. The art was not only healing but also bonding. But would any of these occurred under the threat of taxation for merely hanging unsold in a gallery? I doubt it.

It's difficult enough to be an artist. Let's not make it more difficult.




ART IS NOT A MIRROR TO REFLECT THE WORLD, BUT A HAMMER WITH WHICH TO SHAPE IT - Vladmir Mayakovsky

This is a message from Steve Martin, President of the New Orleans Arts Association

AMENDMENT # 5
Vote Yes for the Artist Consignment Tax Exemption

We strongly endorse Amendment # 5 to exempt consignment art from the inventory tax. The Louisiana constitution states that only those items specifically enumerated are exempt from what has suddenly become a somewhat onerous inventory tax on artists. Consignment art is not among the enumerated items and this tax is now being unevenly and arbitrarily applied by only two assessors in the city of New Orleans and is applied nowhere else in the state of Louisiana or for that matter anywhere else in the United States. One of the assessors that is applying the tax, Darren Mire, has endorsed amendment #5, as he does not want to impose this tax to the detriment of the industry.

This tax if evenly applied to all businesses that consign art across Louisiana it would turn our wonderful State into a pariah of the art world rather than an incubator of creative talent. As we seek to grow the Cultural Economy, it is important for Louisiana to both encourage local artists and to continue to provide a welcome for international artists to exhibit their works in Louisiana galleries. The sales taxes from these works benefit state and local governments much more than the vague and uncertain application of an inventory tax which would be nearly impossible to ascertain.

The Artist Consignment Tax deters the growth of the Cultural Economy


The Artist Consignment Tax conflicts with the IRS's value of unsold art

The Artist Consignment Tax discourages both Louisiana artists and those from outside of the state to exhibit here.

It is proven that the Artist Consignment Tax is less profitable than the tax collected when a work of art sells; therefore counterproductive

Louisiana is the only state that has an Artist Consignment Tax and only two assessors currently enforce it.

Let's stop killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, Vote YES for the Artist Consignment Tax Exemption.


Steve Martin


The object of art is to give life a shape - Jean Anouilh

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known - Oscar Wilde

Art is the only thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting - Elizabeth Bowen

All art deals with the absurd and aims at the simple. Good art speaks truth, indeed is truth, perhaps the only truth - Iris Murdoch.

Art is not a special sauce applied to ordinary cooking; it is the cooking itself if it is good - W.R. Lethaby

Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality - John Ruskin