Arts groups organizing to oppose funding cuts
The nation’s arts community is girding for a potentially fierce funding battle now that the White House budget office has recommended that Donald Trump’s first spending plan eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and other perennial conservative targets.
Also on the list are the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Legal Services Corp. and AmeriCorps — all of which for years have had conservative bullseyes on their backs. Also listed are the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the ExportImport Bank.
Estimated annual savings for all programs would be $2.5
billion, relatively small for a government that is projected to spend $4 trillion this year, but the Trump administration is reportedly planning to highlight the NEA and others as examples of misuse of taxpayer funding. Arts organizations vehemently deny the accusation while noting what the arts mean to the quality of life and the nation’s economy.
They’re asking advocates to sign a petition opposing the cuts, to contact congressmen and senators, and to participate in National Arts Advocacy Day on March 20-21 in Washington, D.C. Locally, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council will hold a March 2 public briefing on federal policy issues on the arts.
“I assure you the arts community is organizing itself at this moment.” said Mitch Swain, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and chair of Citizens for the Arts In Pennsylvania. “I think one thing in our favor is the arts and cultural community has had an ongoing relationship with our elected officials. I’m very confident of the bipartisan support we’ve seen in the past and in the information that we have available to make a solid case.”
Last year, 21 grants totaling a little more than $3.2 million in NEA funding were awarded in Allegheny County, supporting such organizations as Pittsburgh Opera, Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, City of Asylum and City Theatre.
Mr. Swain noted that for every $1 in NEA funding, there is a return of up to $9 in jobs, tourism and economic development. The arts make up 4.2 percent of the nation’s GDP, more than the medical and legal industries combined. Cultural organizations in Allegheny County account for $74 million in tax revenues and the equivalent of 20,550 jobs. In fact, Pittsburgh ranks seventh highest nationally for jobs created through arts and culture.
Mr. Swain said opponents to arts funding mistakenly view arts and culture as “elitist” and do not understand “this money is going for programs to help make theaters and venues more accessible, for art appreciation programs for senior citizen centers, for art for veterans.” Locally, a $35,000 NEA grant will make the region’s theaters, museums and libraries more accessible to everyone and in doing so will leverage other funding that will pay construction workers and hire staff, he said.
“It’s hard to imagine how reducing the federal budget by [the NEA’s budget of] $148 million is somehow going to help the deficit,” Mr. Swain said. “What does it say about our country if we don’t make at least a minor investment in arts and culture?”
Renee Piechocki, director of the Office of Public Art, a partnership between the city and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, agreed: “I think anyone who doesn’t realize that the NEA, through its funding, creates jobs is not really doing their homework. This administration wants to create jobs. To eliminate a federal agency that creates jobs does not make any sense.”
She offered as a local example a grant to restore a piece of public art in the Steel Plaza T Station that provided work for electricians and other trades.
Additionally, her office received a $200,000 NEA “Our Town” grant to place four artists-in-residence — essentially creating four jobs — with organizations that serve immigrants and refugees.
James McNeel said Pittsburgh’s City Theatre, where he is managing director, annually receives $10,000 to $20,000 in direct NEA grants and another $30,000 as a pass-through from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. While elimination of the NEA wouldn’t wipe out the theater’s $2.75 million budget, it would severely affect it because many donations are made by those who view an NEA grant as the honor it is, he said.
Mr. McNeel said that because he worked as a literature specialist at the NEA from 2001-2005. he can speak from both sides of the grant process, which he described as “rigorous, thorough, transparent. When you’re stamped with NEA approval, others in the funding community know you’ve been vetted. NEA has always had two tenets for funding — artistic merit and artistic excellence.”
While being interviewed Monday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about her upcoming show at the Benedum Center next month, comedienne Kathy Griffin also weighed in: “In times like these, it is not a cliche to say the arts are a vital, vital atmosphere to have around us at all times.”
Michael A. Fuoco: mfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1968. Twitter: @michaelafuoco. Staff writer Maria Sciullo contributed.