The State of Atlanta Arts
Let’s raise $100,000,000 and lift the arts in our region out of poverty.
Yep, you read that right. We’re going to raise 100 million dollars to stabilize our regional small and midsize arts organizations.
It’s broken, let’s fix it.
Arts funding in Atlanta has been broken for decades, and a group of diverse arts leaders, Arts Capital | Atlanta, have come together to try to fix it and undo some of the damage and inequities that have persisted.
The arts in Atlanta are thriving! There is so much going on all the time it is impossible to experience even half of it. We are lucky to live in the Cultural Capital of the South. However, the cost of this incredibly rich tapestry has been shouldered by artists and arts administrators at small and midsize arts organizations for far too long. The artists have told us loud and clear they are not willing to do it anymore, and they must be paid a living wage.
If Atlanta wants to continue to be a thriving beacon of culture for the south, it is going to have to figure out how to pay for it. To that end, over 20 arts organizations of all sizes and disciplines have been meeting weekly for 2 years to solve some of the systemic issues. We have been meeting with funders in our community with a strong history of arts support and have asked them to give even more, and to encourage their peers to also step up to assist. We are well on our way to success, and now we are asking our community to help lift our message.
If you love and support the diverse arts ecosystem in Atlanta, let’s be loud about it together! Atlanta has some amazing funders in the family foundation space, and we are grateful to each and every one. They have been giving consistently, but it is simply not enough to support all the incredible work in our community. There is an immense gap between the available funding and the work being done every day on stages, in galleries, studios, parks and just about every public space you can think of.
There is also immense wealth in our community, and we need to lift our voices and talk about the arts with friends, neighbors, the business community and the press—anyone who will listen. We have to lift this narrative that the arts in Atlanta are at a crossroads. If enough of us speak up about it, often enough and loud enough, chances are the right people with the right access and control will hear it and support this effort. We’re calling on you, Atlanta, to speak up for the arts.
We know there are incredible challenges in our world these days and perhaps it seems there are other more urgent matters. As we like to say in the improv world, “Yes and…” We need the arts more than ever to make it through the atrocities we’re witnessing every day. Now is the time. Arts and Culture is under attack, along with our other constitutional rights. Lift your voice. Without the arts, it would just be the atrocities. We need the arts to survive.
Over 200 arts orgs have been identified in Metro Atlanta, and after surveying them it became clear we need $100M to just get on stable ground.
Once our goal is met, we will not stop there. That won’t fix the systemic issue. We will continue to be loud and fundraise every year and create a new arts funding stream for long-term health, tapping the growing wealth in our community.
Georgia consistently ranks among the lowest funding per capita in the country. Currently about $0.14 per person. There are 8 states above $5 and 3 above $10! Even Alabama has over $1.50. It’s embarrassing! This year Fulton County, one of our largest funders, reduced the budget appropriations for Arts and Culture by almost 50%.
The American Rescue Plan propped up the arts community through covid and we almost had adequate funding for once. Georgia Council for the Arts had an additional $3,000,000 to award for a few years, and it still paled in comparison to other states. The Federal funding around the Employment Retention Tax Credit and the Shuttered Venue Operating Grant provided stability for arts organizations across the country for a short time. All of that funding has ended, while costs have grown exponentially.
The latest blow came May 2nd when the National Endowment for the Arts cancelled and rescinded hundreds, if not thousands (we’re still counting), of grants previously awarded across the country. AC|A is calculating the local impact but the national total is over $20M so far.
Join us in making some noise on behalf of the arts in our region.
Action Steps
- Visit https://www.artscapitalatlanta.org/ to learn more about the current state of the arts in Atlanta and sign up for the newsletter.
- Talk to your representatives about why the arts are important to you and your community.
- Encourage your community to support arts organizations by attending events, donating, and volunteering.
- Write to your local paper.
- Amplify this message and your arts involvement, repost messages about the cuts and contract cancellations, post about your favorite shows and tell your friends when you make a donation. The arts need advocates!
- Tell everyone who will listen that you will be an arts voter in the next election.
Resources
AC|A in the News: https://www.artscapitalatlanta.org/news
AJC – NEA cancels previously awarded grants to GA organizations:
Saporta Report – $100 Million needed to stabilize regional arts groups:
WABE – We’ve got about a $50 million dollar deficit:
