From the LA Times….
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti sharing some of his thinking about municipal arts policy for an audience of local arts leaders Tuesday at City Hall. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times / January 14, 2014)
Addressing about 100 Los Angeles arts leaders Tuesday at City Hall, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised a more cohesive arts policy in which a variety of city departments will be attuned to fostering cultural opportunities for Angelenos while his administration banners L.A. to the world as the city “where creativity lives.”
While describing his audience as “spark plugs that can ignite” cultural growth in L.A., the mayor pointedly did not promise to fuel the engine with increased city government funding of the arts. The current core budget of the Department of Cultural Affairs is $8.96 million, down 38.5% from where it stood a decade ago, adjusting for inflation.
One of Garcetti’s most important arts policy decisions will be hiring a new general manager for the cultural affairs department, after choosing not to reappoint Olga Garay-English, who had served 6 1/2 years under former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The department funnels about $3.4 million a year in grants to scores of nonprofit cultural groups and community festivals while overseeing the city’s public art program and a far-flung array of city-owned neighborhood arts centers and theaters.
“Los Angeles can do a better job promoting the arts than by subsidizing them,” Garcetti said during a 15-minute address that he followed with a 15-minute question and answer session. To that end, he said, he’ll try to make promoting and fostering L.A.’s arts and culture offerings “a value for the entire city government” instead of the sole domain of the Department of Cultural Affairs.
Garcetti said that a cohesive effort by city government and private arts organizations could inspire more of the private giving that’s crucial to the health of the nonprofit arts sector. “We have a tremendous amount of wealth in the city that’s waiting to be asked in the right way,” he said.
Among the ideas the mayor broached were bannering L.A.’s cultural attractions better at Los Angeles International Airport, and at Metro rail stops – something he said he’ll push for when he becomes chairman of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board in July.
He also pondered the possibility of turning city buses into “canvases” for L.A. artists’ work – acknowledging that the art would probably have to share space with revenue-generating advertising. “I know a lot of artists who would love to take a bus and have some fun with it,” Garcetti said.
Brazell said that more than $10 million in developers’ cash payments remains unused because of what she considers overly strict legal interpretations of where the money must be spent.
In addition to the core cultural affairs department budget of $8.96 million for salaries, grants, publications and supplies, the current city budget lists an additional $4.73 million for specific department costs including employee benefits and pensions, utilities, building maintenance and capital improvements, along with an additional $8.58 million in unspecified “related costs” and “other allocations.” The total comes to $22.85 million.
The core spending comes to about $2.30 per city resident, using the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent population estimate of about 3.86 million. Brazell said L.A. ranks low in per capita arts funding compared with San Diego, San Francisco and other major cities.
She noted that government grants carry special significance for grass-roots groups, because the cultural affairs department recruits panels of experts to vet and rank grant proposals. Because of the review process, municipal grants are thought to confer a special seal of approval on an organization, which it can use to reassure prospective private donors that its work is worth supporting.
Since taking office in late June, Garcetti has appointed four new members to the Cultural Affairs Commission, a volunteer board that advises the Cultural Affairs Department and reviews and votes on proposals for public artworks paid for by the city and private developers.
The new appointees are Mari Edelman, a clinical psychologist, cello teacher and maker of film documentaries about her husband, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman, and her cello teacher, renowned USC professor Eleonore Schoenfeld; Javier Gonzalez, a consultant to political campaigns, unions and community groups; Sonia Molina, an endodontist and founder of an organization devoted to expanding opportunities for Salvadoran Americans; and Eric Paquette, senior vice president of production for Screen Gems. Garcetti also reappointed actor-writer Richard Montoya, a member of the Culture Clash comedy troupe who was originally installed by Villaraigosa.
Villaraigosa appointees Maria Bell, until this week the board co-chair of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and Charmaine Jefferson, executive director of the California African American Museum in Exposition Park, continue to serve their unexpired terms.
Los Angeles County’s cultural funding far exceeds City Hall’s because of the county’s historic involvement in launching and supporting major public venues that are operated as partnerships between the county and nonprofit organizations it has contracted with to run and raise money for the facilities.
County cultural spending for the current fiscal year totals about $80 million, including $8.6 million for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, which oversees grant-making programs and runs the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, and subsidies to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ($29.37 million), Music Center ($21.83 million) Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County ($14.96 million), Grand Park ($4.45 million) and La Plaza de Cultura y Artes ($1 million).
