DEPARTMENT: Culture and Creative Development
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Felix Padrón
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
SUBJECT:
Arts Funding Guidelines for FY 2015
SUMMARY:
This is a briefing on revisions to the Arts Funding Guidelines, which were last adopted in September of 2011 by City Council. The proposed guidelines provide increased access to artistic and cultural activities in San Antonio by aligning with the vision of SA2020 and investing in arts and cultural organizations, festivals and community celebrations, neighborhood-based arts activities, artist re-granting programs and individual artists. It is expected that the increase of programs will expand community and visitor access to artistic and cultural excellence and awareness.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
One of the traditional functions of the Department for Culture and Creative Development (DCCD) has been the distribution of funds to local non-profit arts organizations through a competitive funding process in order to further artistic excellence and diverse public awareness of the role the arts play in San Antonio. The funding distributed through this process comes from Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT). As required by the Esperanza Consent Decree that was approved by City Council on October 18, 2001, all arts funding guidelines that relate to the distribution of these funds through a public process must be reviewed in a public forum, adopted by City Council and thereafter adhered to. By state law, up to 15% of the local HOT collections can be utilized to fund arts and cultural activities. However, this 15% allocation to the arts, per the Financial Policies adopted by City Council in September 2012, takes place after debt service payment from the overall HOT collections occurs from the Convention Center Expansion Project.
On January 6, 2014, DCCD presented the first draft of the proposed FY 2015 guidelines to the Cultural Arts Board (CAB), which was followed by four public hearings to allow for community input. There were a total of 161 attendees in the four public hearings during the course of three months. Throughout this timeframe, the CAB and CAB Sub-Committees continued to meet to discuss community input and revisions to the guidelines. On April 7, 2014, CAB made their final recommendations with a unanimous vote which included several revisions that responded to community input. All activities and revisions were publically shared and posted. Staff presented the attached Arts Funding Guidelines to the Quality of Life Committee on Tuesday, April 15. Council will consider adopting the revisions to the Arts Funding Guidelines at the May 1, 2014 City Council "A" Session.
If adopted by City Council, DCCD is scheduled to implement the FY 2015 funding process in May 2014, following and adhering to the adopted guidelines. It is anticipated that final funding recommendations will be presented to City Council in August or September of 2014.
ISSUE:
In order to institute best funding procedures, DCCD periodically evaluated and researched best practices from around the country as well as assessing the state of the local arts and cultural environment. During this evaluation process, DCCD and CAB concluded that the current arts funding guidelines needed updating to better align with an arts and cultural environment that has experienced a shift in the past four years. This includes a greater interest by the community to attend more arts and cultural activities, which was an outcome of the SA2020 Arts & Culture Community Survey (January 2013).
The new recommended guidelines continue to invest in the arts and cultural programs that deliver excellence, innovation and engage audiences in the unique experience of San Antonio. To achieve this goal, DCCD has designed six distinctive programs that support a wide range of arts and cultural organizations, individual artists, artist collectives and neighborhood groups to collectively animate the economic vitality of the arts for our diverse community. The six programs that will govern the proposed guidelines are the Cultural Arts Operational Support Program, Festivals and Community Celebrations, stART Place program, Artist Regranting Program, Technical and Economic Development Program and the City Owned Facility Deferred Maintenance program. Each program is guided by its own set of eligibility and review criteria as well as funding requirements that promotes equitable distribution. All proposed funding programs will be required to adhere to a competitive process that is established by an application, reviewed and scored by an independent panel of national and local art experts, as well as staff and CAB members.
DCCD and CAB believe that these new programs will significantly impact the outreach, understanding, participation and quality of arts and cultural activities in San Antonio.
ALTERNATIVES:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
RECOMMENDATION:
This item is for briefing purposes only.