The arts and artists often play major roles in the revitalization of older city neighborhoods, so there's much to be said for asking taxpayers to contribute to keeping arts programs alive.
In San Francisco, for example, taxpayers use a coupon accompanying their tax bills to add $5 or more to contribute to the Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund, or write a separate check. Renters can send a contribution directly to the fund, which was established by the city Board of Supervisors more than 20 years ago.
The fund is administered by the Grants for the Arts program, which distributes money to about 200 groups each year. Some money comes from the Hotel Tax Fund. Grants range from $1,100 to $4,000, and are use to improve lighting, sound, and recording equipment; buy computer software, and security and telephone systems; repair leaky windows, purchase fire-resistant curtains for theater spaces, dance studio mirrors, and pay for other technical and safety needs.
Awards are recommended by a citizens' advisory committee, and guided primarily by the fund's priorities: The need for safety-code related work and the impact these funds will have on the ability of a group to present its work, as well as enhance audience comfort and accessibility to arts facilities.
Funding is based on reimbursement, but when an organization does not have funds available to purchase equipment or make improvements, the fund provides short-term, low-interest loans for the full amount of the grant.
Why do San Franciscans add extra money to their tax payments?
The city has long considered itself the artistic and cultural capital of the West, and the supervisors saw a critical need for alternative support, especially in times when the economy is slow and tax money has to be devoted to providing basic needs for the population.
But San Francisco has benefited not just from major artistic organizations such as the city opera. Artists and small organizations have turned formerly empty sections of the city, such as the warehouse area south of Market Street, into a thriving and bustling neighborhood.
Artists move in, galleries and restaurants follow, then developers and real estate agents. The end result is usually not good for the artists, who are often priced out of the neighborhood, and arts organizations are forced to relocate to pricier locations but without accompanying increases in their budgets.
Ben Cameron, executive director of the Theater Communications Group of New York, said, "The movement to neighborhoods in every stage of development has a profound impact on the social and economic health of those areas, as well as helping to confer an identity to them."
The power of the arts and artists to influence the revitalization is often underestimated, he said, as is the importance of bringing artists into the planning process.
"For every $1 spent on a ticket, $3 to $5 more is added to the local economy. We are not simply talking about the actors and the production people, but the piano tuners and the printers and the kids hired as ushers for productions," he said.
Cameron cited New York's Times Square as an example of what can be achieved when artists and developers work together.
"Ten years ago, 42nd Street was a place you couldn't visit without an armed guard," he said. "But as the plans for the new Times Square were being made, artists were at the table at every stage. Without the arts, the buildings would just be hollow."
Although the arts are flourishing in cities, corporate and government funding has been declining for the last 15 years.
According to Cameron, "Foundation giving to the arts has fallen in the wake of a stagnant stock market. Corporation giving has fallen 48 percent in the last 15 years."
It's obvious that a new model has to be found, because arts groups just can't rely on the government any more.
"Local government arts support has declined 49 percent" in the years between 2001 and 2005, adjusted for inflation," Cameron said. "Yet facilities costs have risen 23 percent above the rate of inflation in the last five years."
"Arts are on the table," he said. "Arts hold the future before you."
San Francisco's program is just one new step in keeping the arts flourishing.
This year, over $100,000 will be distributed by the fund to 40 arts groups.
"It is rewarding to see how creatively these small arts groups use funding to improve their work," said Kary Schulman, director of Grants for the Arts. "The fund helps the San Francisco arts community both artistically and administratively."
