Now that the feds have cracked open the piggy bank, the rush is on to grab some loot before the next guy gets it. Americans for the Arts, a leader in the coalition of arts organizations that submitted policy recommendations to the Obama administration last month, recently submitted its own nine-item gimme list for the economic recovery package.
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The grants, Americans for the Arts says, would “speedily disburse” money to “all the arts disciplines” and provide jobs for artists. Local agencies on the receiving end of this bounty would be “units of city or county government.” So if you’re in the arts, you might want to touch base with, say, the Department of Cultural Affairs soon—just to keep the lines of friendly communication open.
According to Americans for the Arts, Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009—which calls for $550 billion more in direct spending plus $275 billion in tax cuts—already incorporates all nine items. A few of the numbers are vastly different, however. For example, the $1 billion in stimulus funding Americans for the Arts wants for the NEA shows up as a mere $50 million. Not to worry: Americans for the Arts expects the numbers to morph as the bill makes its way through Congress.
The Art Institute’s endowment stood at $641 million last June, according to spokesperson Erin Hogan, who declined to put a current value on it but admitted that it’s “down, like every major institution’s.” The institute takes a single annual draw on its endowment, pulling out about 5 percent (figured on a three-year average) when the fiscal year starts, on July 1. In fiscal 2008 the amount drawn for the museum was $19 million—nearly 25 percent of that year’s museum operating budget of $83 million. Since there’s less in the pot now (at the end of June, 38 percent of the Art Institute’s money was invested in equities and 26 percent in hedge funds, according to its annual report), there’ll be less of a draw next time.
