Donors Forum recently held a Policy Roundtable discussion with leaders from the arts and culture community including Terry Scrogum, Director of the Illinois Arts Council; Ra Joy, Executive Director of Arts Alliance Illinois; Suzy Connor, Program Officer for Arts and Culture with Chicago Community Trust; and Justine Nagan, Executive Director of Kartemquin Films.  The program was called Arts, Culture, and the State Budget Crisis and was held on December 13th from 12-1:15pm. 

Here are the notes from the program and an info sheet from the Illinois Arts Council.

Ra Joy opened the meeting with his 3 goals for the program:

•  Shed light on impact of state budget crisis on arts and culture organizations;
• Describe the various ways organizations are responding;
• Equip audience with some ideas for coping

Terry Scrogum opened the discussion with an overview of the drastic cuts the Illinois Art Council has experienced over the past several years.  Since 2007, the state agency’s budget has decreased more than 60%.  The budget for the current fiscal year has not been finalized but Director Scrogum warned that prospects are not good.  Arts are often looked at as a luxury in difficult economic times and in the current political environment, it is the easiest place to cut without dealing too much public backlash.

The Governor has asked each agency head to develop a memo describing their priorities.  This obviously has a lot of agencies that anything they do not list as a top priority will get cut. Dir. Scrogum said he will be working with his staff and agencies to determine which programs have most impact and demonstrate the positive ripple effects art has on all aspects of a community.

Justine Nagan, Executive Director of Kartemquin Films was asked how her organization had dealt with budget cuts.  Her organization has cut staff, gotten rid of all programs not deemed essential to their mission, scaled back long-standing programs.  They have been long-time recipients of funding from the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois Humanities Council and those two streams have been drying up over the past few years.   In response, they have ramped up their fundraising efforts.  Traditionally, Kartemquin has not courted individual donors, but in this environment, the organization decided it was necessary and they brought on a full time Development Manager to build relationships with individuals and foundations.  They have also been getting creative with staffing, using interns where they previously used staff, sharing staff with other organizations, etc.

Suzy Connor led off by noting that unlike other foundations, the Chicago Community Trust has continued to grow its arts and culture portfolio and increased grant amounts over the past 10 years.  Because they are a registered public charity, they are allowed to raise new money (unlike family foundations).  Her main point was that arts organizations will not win over the hearts and minds of the public or of policymakers by simply bemoaning lost funding.  With funding as tights as it is, all businesses, governments, and organizations are talking about developing innovative and creative solutions.  It is important for arts organizations to leverage that, demonstrating that having a society that makes the arts a priority will naturally be more creative and innovative.   

Advocating for the arts and the arts alone will not work.  Organizations need to quantify and qualify the benefit that arts has on economic development, education, health of communities, etc.

Some strategies for coping:

-Advocate (Sheila Simon, David Vaught, Jerry Stermer will be key players); join RBC; focus on individual giving; care about the Estate Tax (related to individual giving point); work on developing a passion for the arts in the next generation of leaders; be transparent.

State Funds for the Arts

The Illinois Arts Council budget has decreased more than 60% since Fiscal Year 2007*.

• From $19.8 in FY2007 to $7.6 in FY2010
• Cuts made specifically to Grant lines.
• Current year budget (FY11) not finalized.

All IAC Programs Reduced/Suspended
Funds below reflect GRF only. Federal funds are also received by the IAC annually which are distributed through these grant areas.
Reduced                                             FY07                          FY10

1. Program Grants                           $5,623,200               $2,326,900
2. Partners-in-Excellence            $2,646,650                $831,800
3. *Individual Artist                           $361,200               $155,000
4. Arts-in-Education                          $224,570                  $138,960
5. Community Arts Access              $515,800             $163,400
6. Quick Start                                       $24,555               $7,635

Suspended
1. ArtsResource Grants
2. ArtsTour
3. Ethnic and Folk Arts Master/Apprentice Program
4. STAR: Short Term Artist Residency
5. Literary Awards Program
6. Youth Employment in the Arts
7. Arts-in-Literacy
8. Partners in Excellence
9. Program Grants
10. Governors\' International Arts Exchange Program

*The Individual Artist Support Initiative: Introduced in FY10 to partially bridge the gap left by the suspension of the Artists Fellowship and Ethnic & Folk Arts Master/Apprenticeship Programs, the Individual Artist Support initiative represents the IAC’s continuing commitment to support the work of individual artists.

Program Grant applications reduced nearly 20% from FY10-11
-Researching reasons, implications.

Fiscal Year 2011
“The good news is that the comptroller’s office say the state will pay off last fiscal year’s late bills in the coming days. The bad news is there’s $5 billion in unpaid bills from the current fiscal year.” – Capitol Fax, Wednesday, Dec 8, 2010

Fiscal Year 2012: Governor Quinn’s Prioritized Budget Outcomes
“The FY12 Budget will be shaped by these outcomes.”
1. Quality education and opportunities for growth and learning for all Illinois students
2. Enhanced economic well-being of citizens
3. Protection of citizen’s lives & property
4. Protection of the most vulnerable of our citizens
5. Improved quality of life of citizens
6. Improved efficiency and stability of state government