The UPoR has a fascinating story out about Big Art in Charlotte. Seems that the money just isn’t coming in like it use to. And there’s much more to it than just the recession; the Foundation for the Carolinas has concluded that workplace giving just isn’t going to return to to previous levels even when the economy comes back. Indeed, the Arts & Science Council raised $6.5 million in 2012, down 36 percent from a decade earlier.
“It was clear to us that the wind of change was upon us and workplace giving would never be what it was,” said Pat Riley, president of Allen Tate Co and co-chair of a new group that’s looking for a solution to the found problem.
Which brings us to another quote from Riley in the story:
Another setback has been the decline in government money, driven by budget cuts during the economic downturn, Riley said. City-county combined funding for cultural items was $6.2 million in 2012, a 25?percent decrease from a decade earlier.
“We have to figure out a new model,” said Riley. “This path we’re on is not headed in the right direction.”
All this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Many of the community’s arts groups weren’t in great shape when the ASC decided not that long ago that Charlotte’s greatest arts need was to build more buildings. And the resulting arts bundle deal placed a greater burden on local groups to cover their operating costs while public dollars from increased taxes were used to pay for arts infrastructure. (Funny how the ASC and friends are ignoring that part of the equation.) So now, inevitably, the other shoe drops: many arts groups are suffering exactly because they can’t raise enough money and the reduced public money they’re getting isn’t helping matters.
But there’s more to it than that. Charlotte’s power structure — and let’s be clear, the ASC was effectively operated as an extension of Bank of Wachovia when it pushed the arts bundle through — has never been a huge fan of the arts for the arts sake. Rather they see the arts as an economic development tool, a means of showing that Charlotte is an OK place for a banker from Boston, Philadelphia, or San Francisco to spend a couple of years as they climb the corporate ladder.
So this new push suggests that some powerful people Uptown feel that Charlotte’s arts scene is failing to adequately demonstrate that Charlotte isn’t a backwater. And that’s also exactly why this story ended up on the front page of today’s Charlotte Observer.
And a prediction: The new model that Riley’s group comes up with will include more public money for the arts.
