Legislative committee recommends cuts to WI Arts Board

The Joint Finance Committee voted today to end the independent agency status of the Wisconsin Arts Board, moving the oversight of arts to the Tourism Board. The proposal will now go before the State Assembly and Senate for final approval as part of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 biennial budget.

The vote was along party lines with 14 Republicans voting in favor and four Democrats voting against.

The committee did restore some of the cuts Walker proposed, returning over $350,000 to the agency over the next two years. The Board was facing a drop from $3 million to $750,000; now it will have just over $1 million in the next budget period.

The JFC also reversed Walker by allowing the Arts Board the autonomy to select its own executive director in the future.

JFC Co-Chair Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said she wishes the committee could have done more for the arts.

“I used to be the marketing director at the arts museum,” she said in a phone interview after Thursday’s session concluded. “I understand the importance of the arts. But we are facing a $3.6 billion deficit hole that we need to fill. It’s not that I didn’t want to give them more, but we are facing real challenges.”

Democratic members of the JFC howled at the deep cuts and shifting of the agency into tourism. Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) called the moves “a cynical attack on the arts.”

While the JFC agreed with the overall will of Walker on the Arts Board, it deadlocked on a motion to reduce the cap on the state’s film tax credits, with four Assembly Republicans voting with the committee Democrats to reject the proposal.

The film tax cap would have been reduced from $500,000 to $324,000 each year, with the difference being moved into state aid for the Arts Board. Instead, the increase in the Arts Board funding mentioned above will come from matching federal NEA dollars and leave the film tax credit as is for the next two years.

What Walker proposed

Early in his campaign for governor, Walker told me he supported the arts. But this past March, he proposed moving theWisconsin Arts Board under the oversight of the Board of Tourism and cut its funding by 73 percent. With the JFC action on Thursday, the cut is only 66 percent.

He also proposed cutting WAB personnel from 10 to 4. That was approved by the JFC.

Walker has said moving the Arts Board to Tourism will help focus support for the arts and grow the economy.

Currently Wisconsin’s funding of the arts 38th in the nation and cuts of this magnitude will drop us lower still.

What is the WAB

WAB was created by state statute to nurture creativity, cultivate expression, promote the arts, support arts in education, stimulate community and economic development and serves as a resource for people of every culture and heritage. Its vision is encapsulated in a quote by the late Robert E. Gard, Professor Emeritus of Community Theatre at the University of Wisconsin.

“If we are seeking in America, let it be for the reality of democracy in the arts. Let art begin at home and let it spread through the children and the parents, and through the schools and the institutions, and through government. And let us start by acceptance, not negation; acceptance  that the arts are important everywhere, and that they can exist and flourish in small places as well as large, with money or without it, according to the will of the people. Let us put firmly and permanently aside the cliché that the arts are a frill. Let us accept the goodness of art where we are now, and expand its worth in the places where people live.”

WAB President Barbara Lawton acknowledged the partnership the Arts Board and Department of Tourism have enjoyed over the past 38 years, but explained each agency has a unique mission and focus.

“Each agency is focused on its unique mission but lending expertise and leveraging strength for the other,” Lawton said. “Our work is not redundant.  Wisconsin, now more than ever, needs a state agency specifically focused on the arts and the cultural infrastructure of its communities large and small, an agency that also provides a point of investment for that infrastructure.  The state actually needs to invest in the arts to ensure the context and conditions that will make our economy robust and prosperous.”

At issue is the idea of the Arts Board, which supports and develops art communities and activities versus Tourism, which markets activities. Without an independent Arts Board, there are fears that arts education and creative development will end up on the sidelines.

Anne Katz, executive director of Arts Wisconsin, said that at particular risk from the proposed cuts are arts education programs in schools and consulting services to entrepreneurial artists. The WAB also oversees the Percent for Art program, which encourages public art installations throughout the state.  She added that the cuts seem counter-productive to developing a vibrant arts economy in Wisconsin.

“This proposal says Wisconsin is closed for business,” Katz said. “Involvement with arts provides skilled workers needed to create jobs.”

In a study completed by the Arts Board in 2005, Wisconsin’s non-profit arts organizations and their audiences generated over $418 million in economic activity and created more than 15,000 full-time equivalent jobs. In the mostly rural, northwestern quadrant of the state, the direct economic impact of artists and craftspeople was more than $32 million.

In larger terms, the creative economy including the arts and design, is one of the fastest growing in the world, with a 14 percent growth rate. In Wisconsin alone, arts and creative industries represent at least 3.6  percent of the total employment.

Katz said the board and Arts Wisconsin will be working to reduce the cuts to a more equitable 10 percent. She also asked that voters contact members of the Joint Finance Committee and their representatives to urge them to restore the agency to independent status.

In the Milwaukee-area, WAB provides grants to many arts groups, from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Peck School of the Arts and the Skylight Opera,  to some of the smallest, including African American Children’s Theater and the Riverwest Artists Association. The awards range from a few thousand dollars to $40,000 per grant.

“This money is used for outreach and access in the community,” Katz said about the Milwaukee grants. “People are being exposed to the arts through these funds. We provide technical assistance for arts festivals and help small artists grow their businesses.”

It is those entrepreneurial artists that Katz worries about, since they are working artists who are trying to make a living and contribute to the economy.

Growing the economy and attracting businesses to Wisconsin is exactly why the arts are important, according to Jonathan Jackson, Artistic and Executive Director at Milwaukee Film. While not a recipient of WAB funds (the organization hasn’t been in existence long enough to qualify), Jackson sees the benefit.

He said many of the corporate sponsors of the Milwaukee Film Festival see the arts as a factor to attracting and retaining skilled, vibrant workers within the community. In Eau Claire, high tech companies Genesis 10 and RAI Stone Group located in the community because their owners were confident they could attract the workforce needed based on the city’s cultural offerings.

“Arts are our soul, a lifeblood that brings together society,” Jackson said. “If a community doesn’t have a cultural life, who would want to live in that kind of world?”