City Arts Funding Input Deadline
This is the last week to make your voice heard on the city’s proposed revamp of its arts funding process. Yes, that overhaul of the contentious Cultural Contracts program, which has been months in development by arts consultants Dabney & Associates, working with the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office (the program’s new home since being shifted out of Parks and Recreation) has finally borne some fruit in the form of a draft proposal online, for which the city is soliciting public comment. As Mike Clark-Madison noted in last week’s “Naked City” (“New Rules for Arts Funding,” Oct. 10), the revised process would sort applicants by type rather than discipline, so organizations would be evaluated against other organizations and individual artists against individual artists. Other factors — e.g., size of the organization, years of experience by the artist — will be used to further group applicants more fairly. In addition to funding for specific projects, larger organizations would be able to apply for operational support, while smaller and emerging groups could apply for “capacity building” grants. Evaluation of applicants would still fall heavily on the shoulders of peer review panels, and even though the plan calls for the involvement of out-of-town artists for peer reviews, it leaves open the thorny issue of just where Austin is supposed to find all these local panelists who are qualified, civic-minded, diverse, and lacking in conflicts of interest (or personal agendas). That might be something you’d like to comment on, or you might want to comment on any of a dozen other parts of the proposal. It’s there for your feedback, at www.ci.austin.tx.us/redevelopment/culturalfunding.htm. You’ll find a summary and complete text of the proposal, with numerous links for your suggestions and comments; just know that input will only be accepted until Oct. 22.
Carlson Returns
If you were warmed by the Blanket in the Fresh Terrain Festival this past January, you might want to note that Ann Carlson, the solo performance artist and choreographer who created that work, will be in residence in the UT Department of Theatre and Dance, Oct. 20-29. She’ll be creating a new work for students in the department and otherwise be sharing her experience with the public via an Artist Talk on Monday, Oct. 20, 3-5pm, in Winship 2.112, San Jacinto and 23rd streets on the UT campus. Carlson’s residency, which will continue in February, came through a grant from the National College Choreography Initiative, a Leadership Initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support by the Dana Foundation. For more information about the residency, contact Holly Williams at 232-5330.
This article appears in October 17 • 2003.