County Wants Public Input On How To Fund The Arts

Bradley Symphony Center. Photo taken September 26, 2021 by Dave Reid.

After a fracas last year over arts funding, Milwaukee County is turning to the public for ideas.

A new public survey asks how the county should apportion funding, after an attempt to distribute funds equally was criticized.

Last year, when Milwaukee County decided to split its small pool of arts funding evenly among local arts groups, not everyone was happy. With just over $300,000 to spend and 48 arts groups approved for grants, the funding amounted to only $6,413 for each group.

One large local arts group, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, pushed back. The theater was going to see its county arts funding drop from $19,865 in 2023 to $6,413 in 2025. Milwaukee County supervisors had actually approved the equal grant formula a few years earlier. But, facing public criticism, they delayed the release of the funds and asked the Cultural, Artistic and Musical Programming Advisory Council (CAMPAC) for a new formula.

During a November 2025 meeting of CAMPAC, one member lamented the board’s inability to satisfy every organization with a new funding formula when the real problem is a lack of funding.

“It’s such a small amount of money,” Carol Voss said. “There were a lot of organizations making a point by saying this is not adequate funding. But we have no control of what that funding is.”

Ultimately, CAMPAC decided to turn to county residents. The survey recently released by Milwaukee County Parks asks respondents to consider six options for distributing arts grants.

Options include equal distribution of funding, a model that sets up two tiers of funding, prioritizing funding based on the size of the organization (big or small), funding based on a racial equity formula, or scaling funding to “match their impact.”

Deputy Parks Director Jim Tarantino and some county supervisors have expressed concern about reducing funding for small groups with a low community impact, because they rely on county funding for a large share, or nearly all, of their budgets.

CAMPAC will use the survey results to develop a recommendation for the board.

Arts organizations in Milwaukee have faced a long, steady decline in funding for the arts. Wisconsin has long ranked near the bottom for arts funding, but in 2023, it ranked dead last, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Milwaukee County has little funding to provide arts organizations, and has reduced the budget in recent years in response to growing budget deficits. Arts funding comes from the general tax levy and has to compete with funding for parks, transit and human services.

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