Stimulus cash saves jobs in arts

By KRISTI E. SWARTZ

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One by one, the jobs were going away: fund-raising director, box-office supervisor. Musician. Artistic director. More than 40 nonprofits told the Fulton County Arts Council they had to curb salaries or cut a position either late last year or in early 2009, said Veronica Williams Njoku, the council’s director. Others warned of cuts to come — some needed $5,000 to make payroll, others needed $50,000.

Njoku learned recently that the arts council has a chance to save some of those jobs with $250,000 in federal stimulus money, funneled through the National Endowment for the Arts. The arts council, in turn, will award the money to some of the 104 nonprofits its helps fund annually.

“These are organizations that have had to downsize staffing and programming and yet are still trying to maintain a high level of service and quality,” Njoku said.

But not everyone thinks that the $787 billion federal stimulus program should be doling out taxpayer dollars to the arts.

“This is shockingly irresponsible government. Somebody needs to tell Washington that we’re in a serious recession,” said Kelly McCutchen, executive vice president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. “The average Georgia family is worried about paying rent and utility bills and not going to the opera on a Saturday night.”

The stimulus package, signed into law six months ago, is about adding jobs and kick-starting the nation’s economic recovery. And jobs in the arts are jobs nonetheless, supporters say.

“They need the money today,” said Flora Maria Garcia, CEO of the Metro Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition. “If you look at [the arts community] as any other business, it’s a business that is fragile and is in great danger right now.”

The Atlanta arts community has suffered from recession-fueled cuts in audiences, donors, endowments and public funding. The Georgia Council of the Arts, part of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office, had its fiscal 2010 budget slashed 37 percent — one of the largest cuts when compared with other agencies, said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley.

“That’s a pretty big bite to absorb; this is what we’re looking at,” said Jan Selman, executive director of the Arts Leadership League of Georgia.

The state’s arts council receives $2.6 million from the state and $659,400 from the federal government. It gets an additional $10,000 from elsewhere.

The office now will receive $342,000 in federal stimulus money, which it will award nonprofits to help pay salaries. Based on applications from nonprofits statewide, the money will help save between 35 and 40 jobs, according to the governor’s Web site.

A requirement of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is that state agencies keep track of how many jobs were created or saved and report that information to the federal government.

Selman, who chaired the council under Gov.’s Zell Miller, Roy Barnes and for one year under Perdue, said the impact on the arts in Georgia without an infusion of federal stimulus money would be severe.

“It doesn’t look like much, but if you’re $5,000 short of making payroll, then it can make a huge difference,” she said.

Others say the one-time grants are not enough. And, it won’t help a nonprofit like Eyedrum, the contemporary art, music and new media outfit that said Wednesday the lack of funding may force it to close after 11 years.