This report comes from WFPL arts and humanities reporter Elizabeth Kramer

WFPL aired two reports this week that showed how the recession has hit artists and arts organizations. The feature that aired Monday told the story of how the costume shop at Stage One, the Louisville children’s theatre, was shut down and its employees laid off. It also had the voice of a painter from Lexington who has seen the sale of his work plummet and, therefore, his own earnings. In the midst of reporting on this story, the Kentucky Arts Council announced that it would be cutting several grant programs for the coming fiscal year because of the precarious state of Kentucky’s budget. This report told how council officials don’t want to have these programs, which had approaching application deadlines, be shut down from lack of funds in the midst of the granting process.

The next two graphs here give a closer look at the programs the council has temporarily suspended, so you can see how their funding levels have diminished since the economy began to deteriorate. The grants in this first graph show previous funds for programs that benefited nonprofit arts and community organizations statewide and required those organizations to put up matching funds in their applications.

The feature that aired Monday focused, in part, on a study by a nonprofit called Leveraging Investments in Creativity. It showed how artists are faring in the recession. The group’s executive director, Judilee Reed, talked about how among all artists, it’s often visual artists who work independently, that have a harder time in general but especially when the economy nosedives. Reed said, “The impact of this is, of course, less income, barriers to affordable health insurance and health care, and a lack of resources to obtain a professional development and training that artists require.” Well, that point become a bit more salient when I looked at one of the area’s the arts council is putting on hiatus. It’s the individual artist professional development grant, which provides artists up to 50 percent of funding needed to attend a seminar, take a class, or what have you, to boost their skills. This graph shows how that program has been funded in recent years, but unfortunately, it doesn’t illustrate how the development participating artists got have helped them continue to make their art and contribute to communities throughout Kentucky.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky Arts Council is keeping in place one of its largest programs — and one that benefits individual artists. That’s the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship Awards, which isn’t a grant but an award program. In 2008, eight artists received the award, which included $7,500, and an additional 15 received $1000. But that program, too, has fallen off sharply with the recession.

Another program provides artists with employment — and furthers arts education. The Teacher Initiated Grant Program once had strong funding, but, like other areas, has fallen. To qualify, its teachers and their schools that apply for the grant, must also put up matching funds, to have an artist in residence at the school for one to four weeks. Less funding in this program means less for artists and students.

By far, the largest grant program is now knows as Kentucky Arts Partnership Grants. This is the first year for these grants, which replaced a mix of grant programs (Challenge and General Operating Support grants) for nonprofits that provide arts programs and services throughout the year. Last year, it provided 90 organizations with operational funding. This included groups from as far and wide and VSA Arts of Kentucky to the Montgomery County Council for the Arts. (The grantees getting the most funding in FY 2009 were, in order, Actors Theatre of Louisville with $157,690; the Speed Art Museum with $144,465; and The Louisville Orchestra with $86,166). Five years ago, the funding level of grants got a significant boost. Now, the recession has that level falling back toward the 2004 level.

Advertisement