Georgia arts advocates mobilize in response to multiple budget blows
Last month a group of roughly 100 members of arts organizations from across the state boarded a shuttle headed to the Georgia Capitol with a sense of urgency. They were coming from a two-day arts advocacy summit hosted by Georgians for the Arts, the statewide nonprofit arts advocacy organization that operates in partnership with the national advocacy group Americans for the Arts. The summit laid out the stark facts about arts funding.
Jay Dick, senior director of advocacy and partnerships for Americans for the Arts, which lobbies federal lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol, flew in from D.C. to help. Waduda Muhammad, executive director of Georgians for the Arts, and Patrick Kelsey, volunteer president and CEO of Georgians for the Arts, were also on board, coaching the crowd.
The group unloaded amid the line of school buses and fanned out, marching to the offices of Gov. Brian Kemp and state legislators. They were armed with documents containing information about the positive economic impact of the arts on the state, data suggesting Georgia falls below most states in arts funding, a brochure outlining three legislative requests and the knowledge that time is running out.
“The time is urgent,” Muhammad said. In June, federal COVID-19 relief funds for the arts will be exhausted. For the last three years, American Rescue Plan Act funds have accounted for roughly 60% of grant funds available to Georgia nonprofit arts organizations through the Georgia Council for the Arts, inflating its grant pool by about $3 million per year for three years.
Georgia Council for the Arts is the government organization, under the Department of Economic Development, responsible for distributing grants to arts organizations and arts projects across Georgia’s 159 counties. It gets its grant fund pool from three main sources: the federal government via the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the state government as appropriated by the state budget and, for the past three years, COVID-19 relief funds.
In FY2025, for example, the state of Georgia provided $976,356 to the Georgia Council for the Arts for arts grants (plus $610,794 for operating expenses); the NEA provided $1,029,425 and COVID-19 relief funds were $3,016,284. As a result, the council was able to award $4.9 million to Georgia arts organizations and arts projects. Without COVID-19 relief funds, the council’s grant pool will be $3 million less and dependent only on state appropriations and federal funds from the NEA.
Given the current federal political climate, many arts advocates fear the NEA money could also be at risk, or more highly regulated based on President Donald Trump’s agenda. The NEA also requires a state’s one-to-one investment. If a state decreases its funding, the NEA may also adjust its appropriations. Federal money may also face review by the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.
When it comes to per capita state funding for the arts, Georgia ranks low in the nation, according to the FY2025 report by the National Assembly of States Arts Agencies. It states Georgia spends 14 cents per capita on arts funding. This places Georgia drastically lower in per capita spending compared to nearby red states such as Mississippi at $3.38 per capita, South Carolina at $2.24, Tennessee at $2.22, Alabama at $1.58 and Florida at $1.31. When compared to blue states, the difference is even more drastic. Hawaii appropriates $11.10 per capita in state arts funding.
But according to Marie Gordon, executive director of communications for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, comparing states may not be fair because one state may include arts education or a state art museum in their arts funding budget, while other states might group those costs in another department.
“It isn’t apples to apples,” she said.
Regardless, said Rachel Ciprotti, former executive director of the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra who has served on the boards of arts advocacy groups in multiple states, “Georgia’s current state funding for the arts is, quite frankly, embarrassing. The people of Georgia deserve better access to culture.”
How Georgia got here
Before the recession took its toll on the economy and prompted reactive budget cuts, the state gave more to the arts. In FY2008, the state budgeted $4.1 million, and in FY2009, $3.9 million to the arts. In FY2010, the number was reduced to $2.32 million. In FY2011, it decreased again to $759,106. From FY2012 to FY2015, the budget ducked under $600,000.
“Many other states that saw budget cuts following the recession have, over time, restored their arts funding to prerecession levels. Georgia has not,” said Muhammad.
Now, 15 years postrecession, the state funds slated for the Georgia Council for the Arts are still less than half what they were in FY2008. The proposed budget for FY2026 includes $976,356 for grants and $610,794 for the council’s operating budget; a total of just over $1.5 million.
