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It does not, and should not, take seven employees to manage $540,000 of municipal funds.  I do not believe that’s an oversimplification.  It is really that simple.

Other Cities are far more efficient in managing overhead.   For example, Santa Monica uses a model that has an Arts Commission with 13 members, each appointed by members of the City Council.  These commissioners are all volunteers, and do most of the work.  There’s a 501c3 (non-profit) corporation, with a board made of the Arts Commission members, and no staff.  It exists primarily to receive grants.  There is a small municipal Cultural Affairs division with a full time staff of 4. 

Santa Monica, with a population of nearly 89,000, managed to commit $1,492,275 in direct arts funding for the coming fiscal year.  That’s an investment of nearly $17 per person.  In the last four years, their spending has nearly doubled.  Clearly, residents and leaders alike have recognized a significant value in investing in the arts, and found ways to fund it.

Under the leadership of the Arts Council for Long Beach, arts funding has plummeted from $1.2 million to $540,000, with deeper cuts expected in the next municipal budget.  At current funding levels, that’s a per capita commitment of about 91 cents. 

Despite tons of data that clearly demonstrate the practical value of investing in arts and culture, they’ve failed to convince municipal leaders that a stronger commitment to arts funding makes sense.  Clearly, advocacy is not one of their strong suits. 

It may be that municipal leaders might be more willing to commit more funds if they were spent more wisely.  It should be pointed out that, right now, $300,000 of the funding is earmarked for operational overhead, with $240,000 earmarked for grants.

There is a model that could direct a larger percentage, or nearly all, of those funds to grants.  With our newly formed Business Development and Cultural Affairs Bureau, I could imagine a model where, like Santa Monica, a small working Commission of volunteers decides how to allocate funds, and an existing staff person writes the checks.  The existing 501c3 could remain to receive grants, but have no staff of its own.  All of a sudden, nearly all the funds are now flowing into the community.

That’s just one idea to put more dollars into the hands of the creative community without increasing spending.

In Part 3, I’ll talk about three ways our elected municipal leaders can significantly support arts and culture without spending a single penny.

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