DXTROSE

If you're an artist in Ohio, or the Midwest, you'll want to read this:
In Central Ohio, CBUS city leadership just recommended gutting the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

The "Funding Review Advisory Committee", a new committee by the Columbus City Council just dropped a 579-page report recommending the city cut GCAC's share of the hotel/motel tax from 29% to zero.
That's $8.68 million in local arts funding GONE, 39% of GCAC's entire budget.

Where does that money go? To "Experience Columbus". A tourism marketing org.

So they can run more ads to get more conventions to come here.
GCAC is the organization that funds artists in this city. Individual artist grants, organizational grants, the Columbus Arts Festival, public art, all of it. That's what's on the chopping block.

And their proposed "replacement" for GCAC's funding? A cigarette tax that would require a public ballot measure and wouldn't generate a dollar until 2030 at the earliest.

They're taking the money NOW.
The replacement fund is a MAYBE. That funding doesn't exist until years from now.

If you're an artist, or you support artists in Ohio, you should be paying attention to this.

Let me be clear about what we're talking about here:
Experience CBUS is a convention + visitors bureau. Their job is to market the city to tourists and get corporations to hold conferences here. They've run a budget deficit for 3 years and want $15 million more annually, most of which goes to sales + marketing campaigns.

GCAC is the Greater Columbus Arts Council. They fund working artists. Individual artist grants. Organizational support. Public art. The Columbus Arts Festival.
They're the infrastructure that makes it possible for people to actually make art in this city.

The city's argument is that Experience Columbus drives hotel tax revenue, so they should get more of the hotel tax. Which would make sense if you're a corporate di*******ry who forgets that the arts are literally a REASON people come here.

The Short North, the galleries, the festivals, the Franklinton Arts District. The creative scene that makes CBUS feel like somewhere worth visiting.
You don't get tourism by gutting the thing that makes a city worth experiencing.

But they've decided they can skip that step now and just run marketing campaigns instead. And now local artists, already struggling and underfunded arts orgs, and the creative lifeforce of this city has to pay for it.
This SHOULD p**s you off.

I have received GCAC Funds for Artists grants for the last several years.
That money has gone directly into my practice: materials, time, the ability to keep making work without having to choose between the art and the bills.
I know artists personally who I've helped navigate the GCAC grant process, who got funded, who made work they couldn't have made otherwise.
This isn't abstract to me, at all.
This is a tangible loss that our arts community is already hit by, that they want to make worse.

GCAC already took a major hit last year when Franklin County pulled an expected $4 million, which forced them to cancel two artist grant programs outright. Corporate contributions are down 37% since the pandemic. The organization is already contracting.
And now the city wants to take the one stable revenue source they have left and hand it to a tourism bureau.

For what? So CBUS can compete harder for corporate conventions? So Experience Columbus can run more ads people don't want to engage with?

The art is what makes this city. The artists are what makes the art. And we are the last thing this committee thought about when they wrote this report.

Worth knowing who put this report together:
The FRAC committee that recommended this is chaired by Sandy Doyle-Ahern, president of a civil engineering firm and a member of the Columbus Partnership.

Which is the city's CEO coalition focused on economic development and growth. Several other committee members are also connected to the Columbus Partnership and to downtown development organizations.

Brian Ross, the president and CEO of Experience Columbus, the organization that directly benefits from this reallocation, participated in the FRAC process as a stakeholder.

There are no working artists on this committee. No GCAC grantees, no one who has applied for a Funds for Artists grant, navigated the process, or built a practice in this city on that support.

These soulless suits are the ones recommending where the funding for this city's art is now going to. And the answer they came up with was: not to the arts.
So what can we do about this?

First: make NOISE.
Talk about this publicly. Post about it. That's why I made this post! The more people who know this is happening, the harder it is to just let it slide through quietly. And if this passes in CBUS? It sets a precedent for your city to defund the arts too. This goes beyond borders.

Second: contact CBUS City Council. This recommendation is advisory only, which means it is not final. Council members and the mayor still have to decide whether to act on it. That's a pressure point.

Third: if you've been funded by GCAC, say so.
If you know someone who has, amplify them. The people making this decision need to see real faces and real work attached to what they're proposing to cut.

Fourth: show up. GCAC and the arts community will be organizing around this. Watch for public comment opportunities, hearings, actions. Be there.

CBUS' corporate "leaders" have made its priorities clear in this report. Artists can make ours just as clear.

GCAC's website is gcac.org - CBUS City Council contact info is on the columbus.gov website. Make your voice heard!

Homepage - Greater Columbus Arts Council Spring is a season of transition—of thawing ground, longer light and the quiet emergence of new possibilities. It asks us to notice what is shifting, even before the full bloom arrives. As the new president & CEO of the Greater Columbus Arts Council, I find myself in a similar season. Read More

Just wanted to share some of the love I’ve been getting over on Threads lately. If you’re in this carousel post, you’re a real one, and I APPRECIATE YOU. 🫶🏽

I am having so much fun over there actually since I started posting in December, and have gotten so much more out of it in terms of connections, clients, and very sweet conversations in my TWO MONTHS I’ve spent posting over there compared to the 10+ YEARS I’ve been on Instagram! It’s wild.

Finally a space where social media feels fun and…social again. Which is a breath of fresh air compared to the struggle it’s been to be a creative just on Instagram. I haven’t been happier to have put time into a new platform like this in years. Are you on Threads? 👀

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