Arts Funding: Who Should Pay? Your first look at the latest BSR panel

This year and beyond, look out for new ways to connect with Broad Street Review, starting with a special panel discussion on Monday, May 15, asking how we keep our arts institutions alive under the threat of major federal cuts.

In cooperation with the Corzo Center at the University of the Arts and with support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, BSR invites five local arts leaders to the mic for a discussion and audience Q&A moderated by editor-in-chief Wendy Rosenfield.

Arts Funding: Who Should Pay? will take a multifaceted look at the questions that have been on everyone’s minds since the new administration’s federal budget proposal went public. The answers may not be what you expect.

A taste of the conversation

“My starting point for the evening is different from other folks,” says PHIT Comedy founder Greg Maughan, who will speak on May 15. It’s the perfect moment to look to PHIT’s model, he says, because it’s part of our local theater community, as well as being “a for-profit business with extensive programming beyond our performances.”

In other words, PHIT doesn’t rely on grants and donations for its mission: it’s totally self-sustaining through its ticket and tuition revenues. “I’m looking forward to making the case for arts organizations forgoing nonprofit status,” he says.

Panelist Amy Smith, codirector of Headlong Dance Theater and a master lecturer at UArts whose company has received National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants in the past, says it’s not just about whether or not government should fund the arts but a growing conservative trend within the contemporary direction of that funding. She believes that the panels in charge of these grants have been growing more wary of envelope-pushing arts overall.

One year, after Headlong received an NEA grant, the program officer confided to Smith that it had been an extremely “contentious” conversation. Headlong does have a habit of testing the boundaries of things like bodies in performance, venues, and the audience/performer relationship.

“Half the panel reportedly thought, ‘This is the future of dance,’ and the other half thought, ‘This is not dance at all,’” she recalls.

It saddens her that “no amount of critical acclaim or other markers of success makes you immune from conservative funders questioning the very value of your work.”

“Whenever I think about the arts funding issue, I try to move the conversation beyond just the impact on arts organizations,” says panelist John Orr, executive director of Art-Reach in Philadelphia. If the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or the Institute for Museum and Library Services disappear, “it will be devastating for the audiences that those grants are designed to reach.”

For Orr, it’s important not only to maintain this funding but to increase it, “because without federal funding, Art-Reach loses the ability to create new, accessible programming for people with disabilities and individuals with low income.”

“I am curious about the potential lingering impact of historical arts funding in various communities throughout Philadelphia,” says panelist Valerie Gay, the executive director of Art Sanctuary.

“Given that we are ‘a city of neighborhoods,’ I wonder if there is any correlation between how art gets made in certain Philly neighborhoods today if they did or did not receive funding in the past.”

Composer, WRTI veteran, and BSR contributor Kile Smith has a different take, with his broad experience as an artist, nonprofit administrator, grant writer, grant recipient, and member of many grant and competition panels. He says those asking about arts funding “ought to look as broadly as possible — broader than they think — while putting responsibility for the future of their art solely on themselves.”

The conversation promises to be lively.

New ways to stay connected

Happening May 15 from 7 to 9pm at UArts’s Caplan Recital Hall, the evening begins with a half-hour welcome reception over wine and light fare. A panel discussion and debate follows from 7:30 to 8:30 pm, and an audience Q&A will round out the night. Space is limited and advance registration is required, but entrance is free, with donations encouraged (at the door or through our online donation portal).

If you can’t nab a seat at the discussion, be on the lookout for more BSR events coming soon, as well as our new Friends of BSR program.

You can join the Friends of BSR by making a donation today in any amount (give $100 or more and receive a T-shirt; give $200 or more and receive a tote bag; both are newly designed exclusively for BSR by our new illustrator, Hannah Kaplan). Friends support Philly’s independent professional arts and culture journalism, stay in the loop on our latest stories through our newsletter, enjoy free admission to our special events, and receive special offers from BSR partners.

For those who can’t attend on May 15 but want to catch the discussion, look out for coverage after the fact on our REP Radio podcast.

Arts Funding: Who Should Pay? is coming up on Monday, May 15, from 7-9 pm at Caplan Recital Hall, on the 17th floor of Terra Hall at UArts, 211 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia. You can reserve your free ticket online. Be sure to follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter.