Transforming Lives: An Overview Of Arts And Humanities Programs
The Teen Project of the Center for Contemporary Arts of Santa Fe resides in a converted warehouse near the railroad for which a dollar a year is paid to the City of Santa Fe. Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center in San Francisco rents a two-room space packed with student work. The Artists Collective, Inc., in Hartford, Connecticut, occupies a former Catholic school while it finishes raising the funds needed
to break ground on a
new building.
While the annual budgets of the community programs surveyed here range from $4,355 to $3,000,000, the average annual budget is $158,537, and the median budget is $84,000. Most piece together their budgets each year from a variety of sources. Ninety-five percent of the programs report more than one source of funding. Acquiring funding and seed money has proved much easier than attracting long-term support. The majority of donors-individuals, foundations, corporations, government-are local. City governments provide funds to 58 percent of the programs; local
foundations, to 55 percent;
local corporations, to 50 percent; and individuals,
to 40 percent.
State and federal governments are a significant source of financial support for these programs. Almost half receive some support from their state government. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and/or the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) support or have supported 43 percent of organizations surveyed.
In all, 43 percent of the programs receive funds from federal agencies, including, in addition to NEA, NEH and IMLS: U.S. Department of Agriculture (Extension Service); Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps); Corporation for Public Broadcasting; U.S. Department of Education (Title 1, Compensatory Education); U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Head Start; Center for Substance Abuse Prevention); U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (Title 1, Community Development Block Grant; Public Housing Drug Elimination); U.S. Department of Justice (Office of Juvenile Justice Prevention); U.S. Department of Labor (Job Training Partnership Act; Summer Youth Employment and Training).
Public funds account for the largest source of support for 40 percent of the programs participating in this study. Seventeen percent of these organizations identified municipal government as their largest donor, while state and federal governments were listed as the largest supporters of 11 percent and 12 percent of these programs, respectively.
Two-thirds of the programs examined in this report were created by arts education and arts organizations such as theaters, dance companies and symphonies. Some are housed in major mainstream cultural and educational institutions such as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the District of Columbia and The Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston. But many others exist in neighborhoods and inhabit modest accommodations.