Filed under: art, Non-Profit, art institutions, American, economics | Tags: 990, arts funding, LMCC, NYC, NYC Arts, NYSCA, QCA, Queens Council on the Arts
Because my play is about Cretan history and the neighborhood I live in is full of Cretans (and other Greeks), I figured I should apply to my local arts council for some hyper local funding. That is, New York State or New York City funding would be too broad, I would need Queens funding. So I went to the Queens Council on the Arts’ website and all that was there was a little box for putting in a password. There was no website there or anywhere. I went to their NYC gov page and it led to several defunct social media pages. Was the Queens Council on the Arts no longer operational? I felt like I should have heard something if this were the case. Isn’t this news?
My friend was similarly intrigued by the mystery and got right into further research. He quickly learned that the Queens Council on the Arts (QCA) was a non-profit and promptly looked up their 990 form. (Most non-profits are required to file a 990 form on their taxes and Pro Publica makes this info available to the public.)
Now – first, I was stunned to learn that QCA was not a city agency. I assumed, because it distributed city centered grants, that it was somehow a part of the government. I was shocked to learn that all of our arts orgs that distribute artist funding are non-profits themselves. I’m talking LMCC, NOMA, Brooklyn Arts Council, Bronx Council on the Arts and so on. This means that there’s an even wider gap between the arts and government support than I thought. The state gives the state agency on the arts a chunk of money to contribute to the arts and then the state distributes funds to local arts councils. Those local arts councils would seem to all be non-profits. Which – ok – big deal. Artists still get some funding, right? Yes – but let’s look at my local arts council, just for an example here.
What we learned from their 990 was that last year, QCA was an approximately 1.5 million dollar operation. They gave away about 400k to artists. This is the sole purpose of this organization by the way, it doesn’t do other things. It only exists to distribute local grants to Queens artists. But they spent about twice what they gave away in 2022. A third of their budget went to artists and two thirds went to maintaining the organization – things like rent and salaries. If the other arts organizations are the same, we, as a society are paying two thirds of our paltry arts budgets to distribute the other third. LMCC has a four million dollar budget and in 2021, it gave away only 300K more than QCA.
It makes it so clear that, as a society, we value gatekeeping more than artists at something like a ratio of 2 to 1, or as much as 4 to 1.
I feel this, of course, walking around in this world. I know how little the culture values what I do but seeing the cold hard numbers really disturbs me. It’s so plain!
So – what happened to QCA? Because it’s a non-profit like any other non-profit, it can fold and disappear. Google maps says it is permanently closed. No word about where Queens residents are meant to seek their Queens specific funding. I found that an arts organization I know and love has absorbed the grant distribution – but I only found that out because I asked in my local subreddit. Artists will not be likely to find it that way. Though this particular arts organization, that has taken on the responsibilities of a former 1.5 million dollar organization, has an unusual amount of integrity – it seems pretty wild that our arts funding is this haphazard. What do we pay our gatekeepers that double rate for, if their organizations are just going to fold without notice, leaving artists wondering where they’re supposed to go.
I find this whole system quite shocking, particularly since the applications for these things are so onerous and no one pays artists to write them but the state pays administrators generous salaries to read them. How about they just take the money they would have paid the QCA to administer and read applications and just have a lottery to give away three times the money they usually do, to artists? But, I can hear people saying, who will decide what is worthy and not worthy, what is good and what is bad art? To be frank, I’d rather we fund a lot of art (good and bad) than keep up this gatekeeping business, especially since the gatekeeping business is so lucrative. (Except for when they go out of business.) But I will have more to say about good and bad art another time. In the meantime, I’m going to be looking for some hyper local funding some new way.
photo via Spectrum news
This post was brought to you by my patrons on Patreon.
They also bring you the podcast version of the blog.
It’s also called Songs for the Struggling Artist
You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Every podcast features a song at the end. Some of those songs are on Spotify, Apple Music, my website, ReverbNation, Deezer, Bandcamp and Amazon Music.
*
Want to help me fund my own art?
Become my patron on Patreon.
Click HERE to Check out my Patreon Page
Or you can subscribe to my Substack
*
If you liked the blog and would like to give a dollar (or more!) put it in the PayPal digital hat. https://www.paypal.me/strugglingartist
To help me pay off my trip to Crete, donate on Kofi – ko-fi.com/emilyrainbowdavis
1 Comment so far
Leave a comment
Songs for the Struggling Artist 
The lottery idea is brilliant! And also – YES! They DON’T pay us to write the application, or the endless reporting but someone else gets paid to read what we write! I never thought of it that way!
Comment by sandicarroll August 28, 2023 @ 5:00 am