CALL FOR ARTISTS OF ALL DISCIPLINES

CSA: Community Supported Art

Submission Deadline: January 30, 2016

Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy seasonal food directly from local farms. With the same "buy local" spirit in mind, Community Supported Art is a similar endeavor to support local art, artists and collectors. It's been replicated in over thirty cities in North America over the past five years. We are seeking artists, of all disciplines, to a launch our inaugural Community Supported ART (CSA) program.

Local art advocates of multi-arts organizations are coming together to bring CSA to Dubuque. In an effort to encourage the growth of the local art scene, CSA aims to promote and motivate upcoming artists by connecting them with art buyers and local art institutions. In hopes to spark a passion for art collecting, CSA makes contemporary art easily reachable for all appreciators of creativity and inspiration.

Artists will be selected by a regional juror to receive a stipend of $1,000, connections to great local collectors and promotional support.

How the CSA works:

Selected artists will create 25  "shares". A typical share will consist of a work of art/object/reproduction (multiples are acceptable. For example, a limited edition of a vinyl 7" music record, a run of screen-prints, series of small tea cups, a series  of photographs, letterpress editions of a poem or short story, or even 25  small paintings. Collaborations between artists or work by collectives are also welcome. Creative ideas that translate your practice into this format or connect to themes like sustainability, farm, or food are also encouraged.

Interested consumers/collectors will purchase a share ("subscription"), and in return receive a  box of locally produced artwork. There will be a CSA preview event held at the Dubuque Museum of Art in April and a CSA pick-up event at the Dubuque Area Arts Collective in August.

ART SUBMISSIONS:

To apply for consideration in the CSA program please submit application via email to dubuquecsart@gmail.com by January 30, 2016. To download application, go to http://daartscollective.com/CSA, or contact us at dubuquecsart@gmail.com.

Selected artists will be notified by February 29, 2016.

Guidelines:

• Artist must live within 120 miles of Dubuque, IA.

• Proposed work must be completed by July 1.

• Please contact us if your work sample documentation does not fit the suggested formats.

• 50% of stipend and delivery arrangements will be available upon acceptance of contract. The remaining 50% will be awarded after completion of work. If artist needs special arrangements, they can contact us with  an appeal.

• The stipend award is intended to assist with the production costs of the pieces.

• Work should be easily transportable and fit into a 18" x 12" x 12" box.

For questions regarding the program or application process contact dubuquecsarts@gmail.com.

Senator Chuck Grassley made the following statement after the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the final rules on the actively engaged provisions of the 2014 farm bill.  Grassley led the effort to get passed in both the Senate and the House provisions that would have established a farm payment cap of $250,000 and tightened loopholes that have allowed some non-farmers to game the system.  Despite receiving a majority of support in both bodies of Congress, the conference committee tied the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture by including a watered down version that allowed loopholes to remain.

"The final rule issued by the Department of Agriculture to reduce abuses of the actively engaged loophole is a first step.  While this rule still isn't as stringent as the reforms approved by both bodies of Congress through my payment limit amendment, it represents a good faith effort by the department to make the farm bill more defensible, despite the indefensible loopholes left open by the conference committee.

"Meaningful and enforceable limits on farm subsidies are the right thing to do.  Taking steps to end farm payments to people who don't farm is good for agriculture going forward and helps begin to bring the program back to its original intent.

"If the farm bill is reopened in the omnibus appropriations bill by allowing unlimited subsidies to farmers by reviving commodity certificates, it creates long-term consequences for agriculture and puts at risk the positive step this final rule takes."

As Part of a Comprehensive, Bipartisan Report on the High Cost of Hep C Drugs, Senior Finance Members Collected Data on Drug Costs, Prescription Volume, and Patients Treated in All 50 States, D.C.

State Medicaid Programs Imposed Access Restrictions Due to Budget Constraints, Yet Sovaldi Still Dominated Drug Spending

WASHINGTON - An investigation released earlier this month by Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a senior member of the committee, demonstrated the significant financial impact that Gilead Sciences Inc.'s hepatitis C drug Sovaldi and its follow-on drug Harvoni had on state Medicaid programs during 2014, their first year on the market. As a part of the investigation, the senators assembled a comprehensive Medicaid data set based on state-reported data, which is highlighted in detail below. The senators also released today new data on the top 25 state-reported Medicaid drug expenditures, found in the table below.

The 18-month investigation found that because of Sovaldi's high price and Gilead's initial refusal to provide substantial discounts, Medicaid programs were only able treat 2.4% of some 700,000 enrollees infected with the disease, despite spending more than $1 billion on the drug during calendar year 2014, according to state-reported data.

Data provided by state Medicaid programs from all 50 states and the District of Columbia show that Sovaldi ranked among the top five pharmaceutical spending items for 33 different state Medicaid programs. Fourteen states reported that Sovaldi was the top pharmaceutical cost for their fee-for-service (FFS), managed care (MCO), or combined programs. Fifteen more reported Sovaldi was the second highest cost. Four more states reported that Sovaldi ranked third, fourth or fifth in their pharmaceutical spending in 2014. (page 84 of report)

The data provides a state-by-state breakdown of how much state Medicaid programs reported spending on Sovaldi and Harvoni, and where spending on the drugs ranked in comparison to spending on other medications. It also shows the reported prescription count and number of patients treated.

Appendix A of the report aggregated individual states' reported data on spending, prescription and patient recipients, as well as landmark state-reported estimates of Medicaid enrollees infected with Hepatitis C and whether states agreed to supplemental discounts with Gilead for Sovaldi. Appendix A is available in interactive spreadsheet form here. Details on how that data was collected and organized can be found here.

In addition, the senators highlighted letters from 10 states detailing how Sovaldi's high price affected their budgets, providing additional details in several instances, and explaining how their requests that Gilead offer more significant discounts were unsuccessful. Letters included in today's release are from Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Gilead's own documents show that nine months after Sovaldi's release, the company analyzed the impact Sovaldi was having on Medicaid programs, concluding that half of state Medicaid programs were "limiting coverage to the sickest patients" and that budget concerns were leading to "strict management" of the drugs availability to enrolled patients. (page 99)