The city of Atlanta's parks, recreation and cultural affairs department faces a $3.1 million budget cut that will force reductions in park maintenance and eliminate grants to rising artists, the department chief said.
The proposed cuts, which were discussed at a budget hearing Thursday, are part of the city's effort to close an overall shortfall $17 million in the 2012 budget.
As part of the cuts, grant funding that usually goes to arts organizations and community cultural development has been trimmed in half, from $470,000 to $235,000.
“Those cuts were not just about the dollars, but about relationships,” department commissioner George Dusenbury said. “Obviously, the arts community feels like the program is important and it was a difficult decision to make those cuts. But we will do our best to work with those partners.”
The department’s $31.5 million budget proposal is $648,000 more than last year’s request. However, departments this year are responsible for overseeing their own water bills, budgeted for $3.7 million.
In the parks division, funding is down 15 percent, which will mean less frequent mowing for parks, closing a greenhouse, eliminating kudzu removal and operating without private security at Piedmont Park and the Oakland Cemetery. Security will remain at swimming pools, but the Atlanta Police Department would assume a larger role.
Only 30 arts grants will be awarded next year and none will go to individual artists and rising artists, under the current budget proposal.
Michael Reese has been one of the lucky artists. He received $3,000 in 2009 for his “When Pigs Fly” exhibit.
“With art it is one of those things that, as a society, gets put on the back burner,” said Reese, an art school-trained photographer. “People think it is an unnecessary thing that we do that doesn’t need funding, but being an artist is a viable way to live.”
On Thursday night, more than 200 artists showed up at City Hall to protest the cuts, which Louis Corrigan, founder of Possible Futures and Flux Projects, called draconian.
Flux recently was given a $3,500 grant to install, among other things, an art project consisting of ladders titled "Rise Up Atlanta" at the intersection of Freedom Parkway and Moreland.
“This money is an investment in the vitality of one of Atlanta’s major industries,” Corrigan said. “So I am puzzled by the city’s direction on this. We say we want it, but we are doing nothing but cutting arts funding in the city.”
Chris Appleton, executive director of WonderRoot, a non-profit, said the city’s is reneging on its arts commitment by abandoning individual artists.
“It is important to recognize the comparative analysis of Atlanta with places like Charlotte and Nashville,” Appleton said. “If we want the city to grow like the politicians and the business community say they want to, we have to be competitive.”
Nearly 8 percent of all jobs in Atlanta are arts-related compared to 5 percent for Charlotte and 7 percent in Nashville, according to a study this year by Americans for the Arts. Yet Charlotte has awarded $3 million in arts grants and Nashville gave out $1.8 million.
“We are proposing $235,000,” said Appleton, a short fiction writer. “The proportions don’t add up.”
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