After Free Week, Red River Cultural District Requests City Funding

Nicole Klepadlo, Red River Cultural District interim executive director, spoke at the inaugural 2024 meeting of the Austin Music Commission to request financial support from the city.

Klepadlo told commissioners that the RRCD requested $75,000 from the 2023 Elevate Grant Program but was denied. The program uses Hotel Occupancy Tax funds to offer $10,000 to $75,000 grants to arts organizations, individual artists, and creative businesses that “produce culturally vibrant and diverse artistic content,” per the city of Austin. In total, $6 million was awarded to 199 out of 447 applicants.

Noting the success of the cultural district’s just-passed Free Week, Klepadlo argued that “what our organization did this past weekend directly aligns with the purpose of what a HOT tax should go towards.” She said the RRCD should receive funding that is “financially consistent” with what is allocated to other city-designated cultural heritage districts like Six Square (Austin’s Black Cultural District) and the Mexican American Cultural District, and that specific data on the economic impact of the Free Week music festival was not yet available.

Getting back to the basics on the use of HOT taxes, Klepadlo pulled state documents. She specifically read descriptions from coordinating advocacy organizations Texans for the Arts and Texas Hotel & Lodging Association, which “share the goal of growing and advancing tourism and the convention and hotel industry through the collective promotion of the arts and the encouragement of tourists, convention and hotel guests to attend artistic and cultural events.”

“Not only is the Red River Cultural District contributing and generating this HOT tax for this grant program to exist, our program specifically aligns and delivers on the goals of those two statewide organizations,” Klepadlo said.

When asked by Austin Music Commission Vice Chair Anne-Charlotte Patterson what the RRCD would use grant funds for, Klepadlo said the nonprofit was in “desperate need” of an economic impact analysis and hoped to continue district marketing. She also brought special attention to the Creative Space Assistance Program, stressing local venues’ need for interior improvements and, most importantly, rent assistance.

“It’s one of the only funds right now that helps venues with rent assistance, and that is one of the things that I continue to hear is most needed,” Klepadlo said. She named increased rates for liquor liability insurance, which protects alcohol-serving businesses from legal costs due to injury or property damage, as another “horizon issue.”

“As we jump into 2024, our organization and our work remains critical,” Klepadlo said. “We believe that this funding request really enables us to do the work needed as a partner with the city of Austin, and for the greater cultural good of Austin.”