Arts Commission’S New Plan Deserves Your Support

During this winter holiday season, many of you attended a play, listened to a concert, strolled through a gallery of fine arts and crafts or watched a ballet. Imagine a holiday season without the sights and sounds of our artists of all ages! Certainly, the arts enrich our lives, in Spokane and this region, throughout the year.

Arts events attract tourists, enhance neighborhoods, and contribute to the individual character of cities and towns. A fine example is the Spokane Symphony’s recent purchase of the Fox Theater in Spokane. This purchase and the renovation funding campaign is touching people from all walks of life who see it as a must have for the arts, for architectural preservation and for the excitement generated by a downtown arts district.

The arts mean business. The arts contribute $599 million in Washington state business activity; provide $253 million in labor; and sustain 18,472 jobs. Arts visitors spend nearly $200 more per trip than other travelers, take longer trips and visit multiple destinations. Think how true that is for us in Eastern Washington.

And yet, the sad statistic is that Washington state ranks 48th, no kidding, in state funding of the arts.

The Washington State Arts Commission’s new five-year strategic plan, The Arts Work for Washington, addresses the needs and concerns of the state’s residents. WSAC is a state agency charged with growth and development of the arts throughout the state. The commission accomplishes its mission well within a limited budget. However, with enough legislative funding beginning this biennium, WSAC could implement the new plan.

WSAC’s new strategies include important steps in developing traditional and folk arts as part of Washington’s cultural heritage; sustaining equity and diversity in funding; and strengthening the arts as part of Washington students’ K-12 education. Spokane School District 81 is a leader in statewide initiatives to define new ways of testing and evaluating the arts curriculum, because District 81 understands the importance of the arts as an academic discipline and as a way to integrate students into the community. The steel drum band at Spokane’s Rogers High School not only teaches music theory, it also teaches on-the-job discipline, since its performances are in hot demand in the community.

WSAC’s five-year strategies also support the needs of local (that’s us in Eastern Washington) artists and arts organizations through grants and other resources. A sample of recipients includes the Cutter Theatre in Metaline Falls, a town of 230 northeast of Spokane; Mt. Spokane High School, for installation of the Harold Balazs sculptures, “The Circle of Friends;” and Walla Walla High School, for arts curriculum development.

Being an artist or an arts organization in less densely populated Eastern Washington is challenging. The ticket price we pay for the performing arts only covers about 60 percent of production costs. Arts organizations and galleries must pay for rent, heat, hauling, artists’ salaries, a small administrative staff and some form of advertising to draw people to an event.

The gap between earned income and operating expenses rests on contributed income from generous individual donors and corporate sponsors. At least, that’s how it works in our larger communities throughout the state. But what about the arts organizations in Twisp, Colville, or Republic? Many large corporations with headquarters outside the state don’t support these smaller communities. WSAC supports them through grants. However, stretching grant money over 260 organizations, from the Adefua Cultural Education Workshop to Zephyr, means serving more with less. These grants help but they don’t fill these organizations’ widening funding gap.

While current funding is not adequate, careful planning will maximize the state’s ability to provide access to the arts and to continue our state’s cultural legacy. This is why we need to support WSAC’s plan to distribute our state’s funding equitably. The plan was developed from opinions and ideas expressed by arts supporters and friends in 20 community town hall meetings held throughout the state last year, from January through March.

Now it is time to let your legislators know you want the arts supported in Washington state through WSAC’s plan, which gives Eastern Washington its fair share and creates access to the arts for everyone.

The commission’s plan calls for exceeding the national average for state arts funding by 2007.

Join me in working to ensure that the arts strengthen our communities, impact education, reflect Washington’s cultural diversity and are accessible to all residents.