DEPARTMENT: Culture and Creative Development
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Felix Padrón
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
SUBJECT:
Texas Commission on the Arts project funding for FY 2014
SUMMARY:
Awarding $32,000 from the State's Texas Commission on the Arts to local arts and cultural projects.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Department for Culture and Creative Development (DCCD) applies annually to the state's Texas Commission on the Arts to seek funding that helps leverage the city's local arts investment. The TCA's application process is competitive and awarded to statewide local art agencies such as DCCD. As a result, this fiscal year DCCD was awarded $32,000 to support local non-profit arts and cultural organizations and awarded through the city's adopted arts policy and procedures. This process is competitive and governed by the Esperanza Consent Decree that was approved by City Council on October 18, 2001. The consent decree requires that all arts funding guidelines that relate to the distribution of these funds through a public review process and approved in a public forum before going to City Council for final approval. The organizations that apply for these grants and get awarded are subject to furthering artistic excellence and diverse public awareness of the role the arts play in San Antonio.
Furthermore, on June 6th, City Council approved an ordinance that extended the city's Arts Funding Operational Awards for 42 agencies for one additional year in order to help stabilize the arts and cultural environment and to enable the department to begin an extensive process to review all arts funding guidelines and procedures for FY 2015. No funding process for the city's adopted arts funds was implemented. In September of 2013, however, the Texas Commission on the Arts awarded San Antonio $32,000 to sub-grant to local non-profit arts organizations. As a result, DCCD issued an application process and received eighteen (18) applications requesting total funding of $159,100. On November 9th, DCCD held a public panel meeting where all applications were reviewed. The scoring results were reviewed by the Cultural Arts Board (CAB) grants sub-committee and recommended applications were forwarded to the entire CAB. A public meeting with the full CAB was held on November 23rd to deliver preliminary funding recommendations. The CAB met again on Monday, November 25th where the final funding recommendations were approved.
ISSUE:
The City of San Antonio was awarded and is in receipt of $32,000 from the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) to sub-grant to local arts agencies. These funds must be distributed and used before August 31, 2014 or be returned to the state. To comply with the Esperanza Consent Decree, DCCD followed the City's approved and adopted policy and guidelines that governs the review process. The process yielded recommending funding the attached projects for the total award amount of $32,000.
ALTERNATIVES:
Should City Council not approve the project awards or offer an alternative competitive funding scenario for the $32,000 to be spent by August 31, 2014, the funds would have to be returned to the state of Texas and no additional awards will be made in FY 2014.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact to General fund or the Cultural Arts Fund.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff and the Cultural Arts Board recommend approval