Money makes the arts go 'round … and maybe some jobs

Next to the billion-dollar bailouts for various financial institutions, $50 million for the nation’s arts groups seems like a mere snack. 

But since most cultural organizations survive by wit and wiles, that one-time payout of federal stimulus money being administered by the National Endowment for the Arts is highly prized. It is, after all, about saving jobs and restoring positions lost because of the economic crisis.

Because 11:59 p.m. Thursday is the deadline for groups to apply directly to the NEA for grants, it seemed like a good time to look at how some of that federal money can trickle down to Colorado.

Four agencies here are accepting applications for stimulus funds, and although arts groups can apply to all four, it’s only one grant per customer. 

So, in four parts:

*First is the money that will come to the state’s arts groups as part of the $30 million in direct NEA grants. (The other $20 million is earmarked for state and regional arts agencies.) An NEA spokeswoman said Wednesday that 3,400 groups in the United States and its territories are eligible to apply, and that of about 1 p.m. Wednesday, the endowment had received paperwork from 1,945 of them.  

In Colorado, 42 groups are eligible, by dint of having received a grant from the endowment in the past four years. Two of those are the Colorado Council on the Arts and the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, though a few notable ones — think the Denver Art Museum — are not on the list.

A quick poll of three eligible groups — the Arvada Center, the Clyfford Still Museum and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center — showed that all three already had applied, and all for the higher category of grants, or $50,000, rather than $25,000.

Still Museum director Dean Sobel said his organization’s request was to address personnel, though he declined to be specific. The Arvada Center’s executive director, Gene Sobczak, said he was eyeing funding to support the center’s gallery division. Sobczak has been de facto visual arts chief since the March 2008 departure of Jerry Gilmore, shifting art money to other parts of the center’s budget.  

Information: www.arts.gov

*Then there is the Colorado Council on the Arts, which has received $314,000 in federal money from the NEA. Of that, $14,000 will be used for administration. 

Director Elaine Mariner, just back from the 22nd annual Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that she expects the council’s application guidelines to be posted by mid-May and to carry a mid-July deadline. The maximum amount granted will be $10,000. 

To be eligible to apply, Colorado groups must have received an award from the council during the 2007 to 2010 grant cycles, thus including those who receive funding through this year’s Grants to Artists and Organizations process. Those grants carry a deadline of April 23, since the whole process was pushed back more than a month when legislators began to propose cutting the council’s funding (applicants should know by late June whether their application has paid off in a grant). 

Mariner said the council’s guidelines for NEA funds will mirror those of the endowment in their focus on saving or restoring jobs. 

“We hope to learn from the NEA’s experience” in terms of terminology and guidelines, said Mariner, who in February released a study showing that more than 186,000 Colorado residents made their livings through a creative enterprise.

“That was exactly the right time for it to happen,” she said, adding that during her stay in D.C. she met with staffs of all members of Colorado’s congressional delegation — and gave them all a copy of the report.

Information: coloarts.org

*Third is the Western States Arts Federation, which is based in Denver but serves a 13-state region. 

WESTAF has $543,000 in federal money to give in grants of up to $50,000. But rather than divvy it up among more than a dozen states, executive director Anthony Radich said, the plan is to address applications with a more narrow focus.

That includes organizations of color or rooted in racial or ethnic programming, those involved in creative work that involves art and technology, or people “of great promise” who have been laid off or are about to be laid off. 

Radich expects the process to result in from 13 to 18 grants. And to cut down on duplication, applicants in Colorado can bid for grants from WESTAF and the state arts council on the same form. 

Information: westaf.org

*Finally, there is the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, which is among the 42 Colorado organizations eligible to apply to the NEA for funds.

Director Erin Trapp said her office had applied for $250,000 (the other category for such large-scale organizations was $100,000). She said about $25,000 would go to fund a contractor to administer the grants and begin a program offering last-minute ticket promotions being discussed by cultural groups in the area. (Their goal: to help culturals address the economic situation and its impact on funding and attendance.)  

Trapp said that if the office receives an award, “we’ll likely know by the end of June, and anticipate posting an application by mid-July” for Denver groups to tackle. 

Information: denvergov.org/doca