Displaying items by tag: Arts Funding

Last spring, some heavy lifting in the California Legislature produced a budget bill that gave state arts funding its first legislated boost in more than a decade, albeit a modest one.

California taxpayers’ investment in the California Arts Council, the state’s grantmaking agency for nonprofit arts organizations and public school arts education, rose from $1 million to $6 million.

But Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for the coming 2015-16 year puts advocates of arts spending back at the bottom of the hill. His spending plan gives the arts council just $1.1 million from the tax-fed general fund.

After taking a second look at Los Angeles County government's spending capacity for the 2014-15 fiscal year, the Board of Supervisors has added $54 million to the $84.7 million in arts and culture spending it had authorized in June when the board OK'd the main county budget.

The arts funding was part of a larger "supplemental budget" process that allocated hundreds of millions of dollars, including money that went unspent in the 2013-14 fiscal year that ended June 30, and revenues that weren't certain when the Board of Supervisors passed the primary budget in June.

President Barack Obama has nominated Jane Chu as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Chu is the president and chief executive of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. Chu, who was born in Oklahoma to Chinese immigrant parents, spearheaded a $414 million campaign to build the center, which opened in 2011.

After earning an associate’s degree in visual arts at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Chu focused on piano studies as an undergraduate at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. She earned a master’s degree in music from Dallas’ Southern Methodist University, a master’s degree in business administration from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, and a doctorate in philanthropic studies from Indiana University.

The NEA, an independent federal agency that funds and promotes artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation, has dropped its funding from $167.5 million in 2010, to $138.4 million in 2013. Chu’s considerable experience in arts funding and administration would greatly benefit the NEA. The agency’s former chairman, Rocco Landesman, retired in 2012. The NEA’s senior deputy director, Joan Shikegawa has been the acting chairman since then.

Chu’s appointment will have to be approved by the Senate.

Billions of dollars in arts funding is serving a mostly wealthy, white audience that is shrinking while only a small chunk of money goes to emerging art groups that serve poorer communities that are more ethnically diverse, according to a report being released Monday.

The report from the Washington-based National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group, shows foundation giving has fallen out of balance with the nation's increasingly diverse demographics. The report was provided to The Associated Press before its release.

A large portion of funding goes to more traditional institutions such as major museums, operas and symphonies. But recent surveys show attendance at those institutions is declining, while more people are interested in community-based arts groups.

"We've got the vast majority of resources going to a very small number of institutions," said Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. "That's not healthy for the arts in America."

According to the study, the largest arts organizations with budgets exceeding $5 million represent only 2 percent of the nonprofit arts and culture sector. Yet those groups received 55 percent of foundation funding for the arts in 2009. Only 10 percent of arts funding was explicitly meant to benefit underserved populations. However, the study's author acknowledged the report may not account for every dollar granted to help reach diverse audiences at larger institutions.

The study is meant to encourage funders to provide grants for a broader range of groups so programs can be more relevant and effective.

Otherwise, the "pronounced imbalance restricts the expressive life of millions of people," the study said.

The study cites 2010 census data that shows non-white populations have grown in every region of the country since 2000, adding that "our population never has been so diverse." More than a third of the country is comprised of people of color. In four states, white people are no longer the majority.

But philanthropy hasn't kept pace with the change.