Art in limbo: The California Arts Council's attempts to change its policies put SLO County arts programs in jeopardy 

More than 30 concerned representatives from various California-based arts, theater, and creative organizations made their voices heard at the Nov. 17 California Arts Council meeting.

"We have participated in [these] coalition meetings, circulated letters to committee members, wrote emails to state legislators, and shared petitions with the communities we serve," Jordan Chesnut said.

Chesnut, who serves as the program director for SLO County Arts, was part of the rally against proposed changes to grant funding that the California Arts Council discussed at its Oct. 25 meeting.

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• Cover Image Courtesy Of SLO County Arts
• MURALS FOR ALL SLO County Arts' Equality Mural Project helped make Brandy Pippin's Nature is for Everyone mural in Atascadero possible. The state funding that initiated the Equality Mural Project and other SLO County Arts programs is in limbo.

The council, which handles art grants and resources for the overall state, proposed funding changes that include the potential end of the State-Local Partner (SLP) and State Regional Network (SRN) programs. Chestnut said both were essential to helping fund SLO County Arts projects in the past year.

SLP Programs are oriented toward collaborative efforts at the state level focusing on funding, information exchange, cooperative activities, and leadership.

"We work in partnership with the California Arts Council to ensure that information about grant programs, initiatives, and other communications are shared within our community," Chesnut said. "We also actively produce and manage arts programming, advocate for the arts, grant and re-grant funds to local artists/arts organizations, provide opportunities for community members to engage with art, and provide technical support to artists."

SLO County Arts for example, currently operates a variety of different programs funded through SLP including Art After Dark, Central Coast Creative Corps, and the Equality Mural Project.

If they were to lose those funds, Chesnut said, they would effectively lose any foundational services that have enabled SLO County Arts to collaborate with organizations like the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art and independent local artists.

"These essential arts infrastructure services are provided by SLP staff," Chesnut said. "The California Arts Council has always recognized that general operating support should be provided to SLPs to ensure this work continues."

The state defines an SRN as a program that is intended to continue the health and vitality of the creative workforce in California by creating a network of artists and aims to provide local communities with specialized and practical services for artists, arts organizations, and cultural communities.

For example, the SLO Arts Council may find common ground with another arts group in a place like Santa Maria or Monterey. Once that connection is established, those groups could in theory use their status as SRN Program participants to gather funds for collaborative projects.

The proposed changes to both programs would negatively impact the statewide arts ecosystem, according to Chesnut, and specifically harm medium-sized regions like San Luis Obispo, which are reliant on a middle-ground form of funding.

"What caused concern ... is these cuts would have reduced the number of SLPs because it would have eliminated large SLPs from the program," Chesnut said. "Which is counter to the California Arts Council's goal to expand SLPs to every county."

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• Photo Courtesy Of SLO County Arts
• IMPORTANT ACTIONS With funding potentially at risk at the state level, SLO County Arts is rallying alongside other smaller state arts organizations to ensure its programs like Open Studio Tours and demos by artists such as Kathleen Yorba, pictured, have the funding to thrive.

While the California Arts Council did change course on some proposals since its Oct. 25 meeting, Chesnut said a larger issue remains prevalent.

"They are encouraging the larger-budget SLPs to request a lower amount of funding to allow for small-budget organizations and counties who have not had access to funding an opportunity to receive more," Chesnut said, adding that it would be counterintuitive to the California Art Council's current mission of establishing more SLPs across the state, especially in smaller counties like Amador County.

That shift in statewide goals, according to California Arts Advocates CEO Julie Baker, would involve changing the way everything is currently set up.

"We know from grant-making experts in the field that what is most needed is multi-peer operating support," Baker told New Times.

California Arts Advocates advocates for both the SLP and SRN programs among other things, so it only made sense, according to Baker, that the group lead the rally against the proposed changes.

"Part of our role at California Arts Advocates ... is to ensure accountability and transparency in the California Art Council's decision making as it affects the entire ecosystem in California," she said.

The group sent a letter to the council before the Nov. 17 meeting. The letter, signed by artists and organizations, many of whom spoke at that same meeting, contained a plea for the California Arts Council to reconsider shuttering the SLP and SRN programs.

The letter also called for the council not to not limit the eligibility of applicants for funds based on budget size and that the council needed to give all organizations adequate time to process any changes.

"Which decision-making tools or sets of data were used to develop [the] recommendations?" Baker said in a statement from California Arts Advocates. "Those attachments are missing in the committee's report, which represents critical information to consider given the significant program changes."

California Arts Advocates wants equitable funding for all regions—a sentiment echoed by the SLO Arts Council—but said that the proposed changes would impact the bigger regions too much to justify making them.

"We applaud the council's efforts to bring support to organizations and individuals who have historically not accessed state funding, including small-budget organizations, rural communities, and BIPOC serving and led organizations and communities," she said in the statement. "But we do not think that means we need to eliminate programs for organizations of larger budget sizes or service organizations entirely."

It's not unexpected that some programs will have to go away, according to Baker and the California Arts Advocates, as some funding will have to support more in-need programs further.

"We understand that ... hard decisions will have to be made and not everyone who has received public funding these last several years will be eligible," Baker said in the statement. "That is why we will be working this year to encourage the governor and Legislature to increase ongoing funding."

Even though the California Arts Council had already begun to reverse course on some of the initial proposed policy changes before the Nov 17 meeting, Baker considers the continued shift in policy to be a victory.

"We appreciate that the members of the California Arts Council took the last several weeks to meet and listen to the concerns of the field that stemmed from the program policy memo from Oct. 25," Baker told New Times. "Close to 1,400 artists and art organizations have signed a petition opposing many of the considerations."

On Dec. 12, the California Arts Council will formally vote on what policy changes—if any—it wishes to enact.

"SLO County Arts relies on state funding from the California Arts Council," Chesnut said. "Our organization is actively channeling funding from the state to our region. It is important to us that there is equal distribution of funding to serve all parts of the state and all communities."

Local arts organizers like herself are hopeful for the future, emboldened and encouraged by the rapid response of SLO County Arts' fellow creative advocates.

"We hope to gain more involvement from our city and county and attract more local public funding to support our programs and operations," Chesnut said.

"We encourage everyone to contact your local electeds and advocate for more funding for the arts," she said. "We all want to live somewhere that invests in its local art infrastructure." Δ

Reach Staff Writer Adrian Vincent Rosas at [email protected].