By Robert Bettmann
Arts support in the District is disappearing. Local artists and arts organizations in the District are like the character in the movie Hustle and Flow who says, “I’m sitting here trying to squeeze a dollar out of a dime and I ain’t got a cent.”
Funding for DC’s arts agency, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) has been gutted in the last three years, from over $14 million in FY 09 to under $5 million in FY 11, and the proposed FY 12 budget contains further cuts. The current proposal is $3.92 million for the DCCAH to support all of the arts organizations, artists, and arts education providers in the District. As a recent report from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies argues, “The arts comprise a very small portion of state spending, less than one tenth of one percent. Reducing expenditures that modest won’t appreciably affect state budgets, but will damage the cultural sector’s ability to provide jobs, goods and services to communities.” DC arts support is now just $3.92 million within a total District FY 12 budget of $10.8 billion. Increased funding for the DCCAH is necessary to maintain access to the arts for all DC residents.
The DC Chamber of Commerce 2011 Policy Agenda states, “The past year has proven to be a test for many of our members as they work to survive the economic downturn. And over the past year, the Chamber has been able to stave off legislative and regulatory initiatives that could harm our members’ ability to operate successfully and help grow our economy, create more jobs, and improve the District’s competitiveness regionally.” And that is where the DC Advocates for the Arts find ourselves as we prepare for Arts Advocacy Day – April 27, 2011. We are fighting to ensure that the District will restore a basic level of support so that artists and arts businesses in every ward have a fighting chance.
To support WALA and the artists and organizations it serves, on Wednesday April 27, 2011 – Arts Advocacy Day – please take a minute to tell policy-makers to support the arts in the District’s FY 12 budget. Contact Mayor Gray via email at eom@dc.gov or by phone at (202) 727-6300, and Council Chair Kwame Brown at kbrown@dccouncil.us or (202) 724-8032. Please ask the Mayor and the Council Chair to support the arts in the DC budget by restoring funding for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to the FY 2010 level of $5.16 million.
After you’ve done that, please consider becoming a member of the DC Advocates for the Arts (please link our org name to http://www.dcadvocatesforthearts.org), and donating to support WALA’s ongoing service to the District (link to wala donate page).
Robert Bettmann is the Board Chair of the DC Advocates for the Arts. Incorporated as a non-profit in 2010, the DC Advocates for the Arts provide informational and administrative resources facilitating advocacy and public policy solutions for the District of Columbia. He is also Artistic Director of the dance company Bettmann Dances (http://quis.bettmanndances.com), managing editor for Bourgeon, a DC arts magazine written by artists (http://www.bourgeononline.com), and a consultant. You can contact him at rob@dayeight.org.
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