What does this indicator measure?
This indicator measures the availability of financial support for Dallas’ arts and culture community from federal, state, and local governmental resources.  Local government is defined as including both city and county levels. 

Why is this indicator important?
This indicator is important because data regarding financial support are a good measure of the overall health and continued viability of Dallas’ arts and cultural community—both the organizations and the agencies that fund them.  In turn, a robust and financially viable arts and culture community has a positive impact on the city’s social structure by providing educational opportunities, promoting tourism, creating jobs, and fostering a better quality of life for all citizens.  It is important to examine trends in governmental support of the arts at all levels to determine areas where decreasing budgets will require increases in private funding sources.  

How are we doing?
Governmental funding for cultural arts activities, agencies, and venues is available from federal, state, and local sources.  It is important to note that in addition to grants received directly by Dallas arts and culture organizations, partnership agreements among the federal, state, and local arts agencies provide for funding that funnels down from the federal level to the state level and then to the local level.  To gain a true picture of the impact of various funding sources, it is imperative that available funding dollars are not counted more than once.  In this indicator, we have listed funding sources by the level of government that actually awards the grants to the arts organizations.

Federal Funding

At the federal level, funds are primarily received in the form of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), with some additional funding received from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).  A number of other federal agencies offer funds when they line up with a particular organization's programs.

National Endowment for the Arts

Source: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

The NEA also partners with the Texas Commission on the Arts (see State Funding below), and provided $791,200 in 2004, $771,200 in 2005, and $855,500 in 2006 to support various partnership agreements.

National Endowment for the Humanities

The NEH funds grants that support research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.  Exact dollar amounts for grants awarded to Dallas were not available.

Institute of Museum and Library Services

The IMLS is the main source of funding for the nation's grants to libraries and museums.  Since 2000, the IMLS has awarded $485,515 in grants to Dallas libraries and museums, including The Science Place, the Dallas Museum of Art, the International Museum of Culture, and the Sixth Floor Museum.

State Funding

Texas Commission on the Arts

At the state level, much of the arts and culture funding comes through grants received from the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA), the state arts agency which provides services to artists, arts organizations, and the general public, including grants, technical assistance, and educational programs.  According to TCA’s 2007–2011 Strategic Plan (p. 8), research indicates that each dollar of TCA funding results in $98 of economic activity.  The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) reports that preliminary data indicate state arts agencies will likely see some increase in legislative appropriations in 2007. 

• TCA receives approximately $5.6 million annually in legislative appropriations from the state’s General Fund, as well as funds from the private sector.
• TCA also generates revenue from two programs:
  • The State of the Arts specialty license plate program, instituted in 1996, which brought in $459,272 in 2005.
  • The Texas Music Project, which funds arts education programs with monies received from sales of CDs by Texas artists and is currently awarding grants from $200,000 raised from the “Don’t Mess with Texas Music” CD. 

These funds provide performances for the disabled, arts education programming, funding for the Texas Touring program, which takes cultural arts into rural areas, and many other artistic endeavors.

Source: Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA)

Texas Cultural Endowment Fund

The Sunset Advisory Commission (the state’s oversight body) had recommended TCA be dissolved and converted to a privatized agency, and the Texas Cultural Endowment Fund, established in 1993 as a possible permanent funding resource for TCA, be dissolved.  After much debate among the Commission and various arts organizations in the state, in May 2006 the Commission voted to continue TCA for 2 more years, recommending closer oversight of TCA’s grant process.  The Commission also voted to continue the Texas Cultural Endowment Fund and to allow TCA to use the interest income exclusively to fund grants.  For the full May 2006 report, click here.

Mid-America Arts Alliance

The Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) is one of six multistate arts alliances throughout the United States that were formed to provide support to artists and encourage community arts and cultural programs.  M-AAA partners with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Texas Association of Museums, and many local foundations, corporations, and individual donors.

Local Funding

According to a report by Americans for the Arts, United States Urban Arts Federation Fiscal Year 2004—The Annual Report on the Budgets and Programming of Local Arts Agencies in the 50 Largest U.S. Cities, in 2004 Dallas ranked seventh in local sources of government support for the arts at $10.65 per capita and retained the same ranking in 2005, at $10.87 per capita.  This is an increase of 2% each year from the 2003 per capita amount of $10.44, when Dallas ranked fourth in per capita local support.  According to the same report, in 2005 Dallas had the fourth largest arts budget ($13.5 million) among cities in the study. 

Source: Americans for the Arts, United States Urban Arts Federation Fiscal Year 2004—The Annual Report on the Budgets and Programming of Local Arts Agencies in the 50 Largest U.S. Cities

The United States Urban Arts Federation’s (USUAF) 2004 report also notes that after a number of years of decreasing expenditures, increases were expected in 2005 and in the future.

• The average local arts agency budget decreased 9.4% from 2001 to 2004.
• Local arts agency budgets were expected to increase 2% in 2005.
• After declines annually from 2001 to 2003, average local government support increased moderately in 2004 (0.4%) and was also expected to increase 2.8% in 2005.

While these data are encouraging, and Dallas consistently ranks in the top 10 among the 50 largest U.S. cities in local government support for the arts, it is critical that the Dallas arts community continue to promote better understanding of the value of the arts in order to cultivate increases in public and private funding sources.

Dallas’ arts budget is administered through the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.  The budget has seen several increases and decreases in the past few years.

• After a significant increase of 14% in 1999, the budget decreased each year in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
• Beginning in 2003, the Dallas arts budget has increased each year through the current projected budget figure of $13,551,997.
• This budget growth compares favorably with the average budget growth for USUAF members during the same period (4.7%). 

Source: Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs

The Office of Cultural Affairs’ operating budget includes funding for cultural organization support, cultural centers, neighborhood arts programs, management and oversight of 19 cultural facilities in the city, personnel, and office operational expenses.  According to Maria Munoz-Blanco, the director of the organization, the Dallas OCA allocates nearly $5 million to grants each year, with an average grant size of $100,000.  The OCA grant programs include the Cultural Organization Program, the Cultural Projects Program, the Neighborhood Touring Program, and the Leadership Exchange and Advancement Program.  Other key programs include ARTSPartners, the Cultural Tourism Initiative, and Festival Dallas.  For more information on the Dallas OCA programs and grants, please visit their Web site.  These budget figures do not include the capital budget and that of major maintenance for cultural facilities.  The capital budget is tied to the bond programs referenced below.  Approximately $200,000 annually is included in the general budget and dedicated to cultural facilities owned by the City of Dallas.

Local Funding for Capital Improvements

In May 2003, Dallas voters affirmed their support for cultural arts in Dallas by passing propositions totaling $29 million as part of a $555 million bond package.  Bond proceeds included:

• $11.3 million to revamp utilities in the Arts District and to design a performance space for small arts groups (Proposition 5).
• $17.7 million for Annette Strauss Artist Square, the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, the South Dallas Cultural Center, and an arts incubator in Oak Cliff (Proposition 12). 

In November 2006, Dallas citizens voted to pass a new $1.35 billion Capital Bond Program, which includes a proposed $60.8 million to be allocated to cultural arts facilities.  The proposed improvements included in Proposition 5 are: 

• $38.2 million for construction of the new City Performance Hall
• $3.8 million for improvements to the Latino Cultural Center
• $18.8 million for major maintenance and renovations to various facilities, including:
  •  the Meyerson Symphony Center
  •  the Majestic Theater
  • the South Dallas Cultural Center
  • the African American Art Museum and Museum of Natural History at Fair Park 

According to Laura Estrada with the 2006 Bond Campaign, Proposition 5 “is an investment in the city's creative soul.”  (See full story here)  For additional information, see the full Bond Program Proposition here.

Dallas is a city with a vibrant and diverse arts community, and its continued growth and expansion are vital to the overall desirability of Dallas as a location to live and work.