(April 1, but NOT an April Fool’s story)
Sometimes when bad news is leavened by good news, the tendency is to shrug, say “all’s well,” and move on.
Louisianans should not just move on, though, from the news that the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Assistance Foundation has ended its quarter-century of affiliation with the LSU Health Network. Those bad tidings are made much more palatable when combined with the report that CrescentCare, a community health center, will begin operating the clinic in the 2500 block of Canal Street.
Kudos to CrescentCare for stepping up to the plate, and kudos to the Musicians’ Clinic board for finding a way to keep the program alive.
Still, there’s cause for concern.
The clinic is one of the best examples I know of how a community acts to preserve a prize asset. The clinic provides medical care and support services to the city’s musicians (and other “culture bearers”). When one thinks about this need, it makes sense: Live music is largely a “gig” economy. It often involves one-night contracts, or perhaps regular weekly appearances but hardly an ordinary 40-hour workweek.
Or, rather, all the work that musicians put in doesn’t get reimbursed hourly by regular employers; the payment comes per performance only. Even if the musicians have agents, the former essentially are contract employees without a regular employer to pay health insurance premiums — and, as is often the case, struggling to use their art to make ends meet.
New Orleans thrives with, teems with, such artisans of sound. Indeed, if there are any two groups who make New Orleans distinct from every other city on the globe, they are the musicians and the restaurateurs. As a city — and to a lesser extent, but still in large part, as a whole state — the very identity of New Orleans and of much of Louisiana is quintessentially interwoven with its status as a unique musical Mecca.
It therefore makes sense for the broader community to try to make it as realistic as possible for people here to make their musicianship a livelihood. And, as the private sector often does — or as private-public partnerships sometimes do — in this case, this wonderful organization sprang up in 1998 to help make it possible for musicians to stay healthy here while practicing their crafts and pursuing their dreams. This is a community, on its own initiative, taking care of its own.
For at least 16 years my email inbox has received notices about and fundraising solicitations from the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. For 16 years I’ve smiled and thought “what a great organization.” But I don’t remember ever donating.
And now we learn that the Musicians’ Clinic’s latest fundraising drive raised a reasonably impressive $220,000, but that is less than half the $450,000 needed to keep it running in conjunction with LSU. Hence the breaking of that affiliation.
For the board and CrescentCare to have reached agreement to keep the clinic operating is tremendously reassuring. It should not, however, be the end of the story. The fundraising needs will continue. Gig musicians still will need access to health care.
I offer no solutions or even concrete suggestions here. The first step towards solutions, though, requires attention. Herewith, some attention, and warm wishes for good fortune.
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[That is the full column. If you for some reason want to see the original link, it is here.]
