The Cultural Contracts Timeline

"...upon the Dougherty Arts Center for a briefing by Cultural Contracts staff about what to expect in the coming..."

March 26, 1999 Arts Feature

Cultural Arts Program

Tracking the recent history and redevelopment of Austin's Cultural Arts Program

"...April 2001: Cultural Contracts Program staff uses a new program guideline to..."

April 16, 2004 Arts Feature

Arts Consultants: Connect the Cultural Dots

The city's consultants recommend a new, one-stop shop and more funding for Austin's arts programs.

"...particularly Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman -- decided the cultural contracts program, handing out bed-tax money to artists under..."

Dec. 20, 2002 News Feature by Mike Clark-Madison

Cultural Shifts

The basic mechanism for funding artists will look the same, but the city of Austin's cultural contracts program will undergo some significant changes in structure

"...overall mechanism by which the city funds artists and cultural organizations will look much like it has in the..."

April 16, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Faster Than Sound: Blood Goes Big, Free Week Contracts

In the ATX music news: punk poetics by local septet Blood, January’s Free Week dates, and the Live Music Fund’s first feedback

"...On slow-building drudge "Intro," O'Brien layers cultural references in brutal delivery:..."

Dec. 27, 2019 Music Column by Rachel Rascoe

The Language Expands, and the Heart of a Crank Contracts

OMFG: We're nearing the million-word mark

"...The site tracks buzzwords from realms political, pop cultural, and tech, as well as announces any new additions..."

June 10, 2008 Books Post by Kimberley Jones

Bending the Rules

Getting arts funding from the City of Austin is a long, complicated game, and Austin Chronicle writers Robi Polgar, John Walch, and Mary Jane Garza have been following some of the players around the game board this year. In the final part of their four-part series, they critique the city arts funding process.

"...Austin arts funding system -- formally known as the Cultural Contracts Program -- enters its ninth and final month..."

Sept. 3, 1999 Arts Feature by Mary Jane Garza

City Arts Funding: The Resolution

Council approves FY 19 arts funding, ponders its next move

"...FY 19 funding recommendations that the Arts Commission and Cultural Arts Division staff heroically reformulated over an intense seven..."

Oct. 8, 2018 Arts Post by Robert Faires

The Arts Funding Matrix: Reloaded

Arts Commission's FY 19 funding adjustments head to Council

"...After recipients of city cultural support reacted strongly to deep cuts in funding for..."

Oct. 2, 2018 Arts Post by Robert Faires

City Arts Funding Tempest

Unexpected Cultural Contracts cuts cause concern

"...storm clouds continued to hang low over the city's Cultural Arts Division. The release Thursday of funding amounts for..."

Sept. 17, 2018 Arts Post

Who Will Be the Arts Tsar?

The two finalists for the job of cultural arts program manager addressed the public Oct. 23.

"...candidates standing for the position known in cityspeak as cultural arts program manager. What that translates into is presiding..."

Oct. 31, 2003 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

A Better Tomorrow

For years, the city of Austin's arts funding process has been mired in perpetual gloom, but with the city reviewing its Cultural Contracts Program, artists and arts companies talking with each other about collaborations and a shared vision of what the arts mean to Austin, there are glimmers of light on the city's arts funding horizon.

"...and plain ill will have cast shadows over Austin's Cultural Contracts Program, leaving it lost in a midnight world...."

Oct. 11, 2002 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

The Forest for the Trees

The Austin Arts Commission has never been a model of bureaucratic efficiency, but this year it seems to have become a big cliché in action, a body so focused on procedure and minutiae and the concerns of the moment that it can't see the forest for the trees. It's compounding the problems in Austin's profoundly flawed public arts funding system and demonstrating just how poorly that process serves not only the city's artists but all its citizens.

"...+ Bustamante Danceworks to be declared ineligible for a cultural contract. Here was a distinguished arts group that had..."

July 6, 2001 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Paint By Numbers

Racial Divides in Austin's Public Arts Funding

"...dollars here, five thousand dollars there -- through its Cultural Contracts program. Normally, this is chump change in the..."

June 28, 1996 News Feature by Mike Clark-Madison

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect ...

Part One: The Artists' Application Process

"...final 30 minutes before the annual City of Austin Cultural Contracts applications are due. The artists gathered at Kinko's..."

March 26, 1999 Arts Feature

A Bad Year Gets Worse

The Austin Arts Commission has found itself stewing in a bubbling gumbo of controversies this year, and lately that gumbo has been getting hotter and hotter, with resignations from the Commission, an investigation by the Texas Commission on the Arts, and a call for reforms by a City Council member.

"...Trees," July 6, 2001), the nine-member body that oversees cultural affairs for the city, including the annual process by..."

Aug. 24, 2001 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Culture Cash

Austin's artists and arts groups are working hard to survive the economic downturn, and now more than ever it's essential for the city that they do.

"...Before you dismiss that pronouncement as mere cultural egotism, consider that there's an ecosystem at work in..."

Feb. 7, 2003 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Naked City

The city takes feedback on its proposed improved cultural contracts system.

"...the city's proposed new-and-improved model for the always controversial cultural contracts program. With about $3 million in hotel bed..."

Oct. 10, 2003 News Feature by Mike Clark-Madison

The Giving Tree

Making movies takes money. Lots of it. From grants to bakes sales, credit card max-outs to benevolent rich uncles, local filmmakers struggle to come up with the cash.

"...Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund and the city of Austin's Cultural Contracts program to more guerrilla techniques such as benefits,..."

May 24, 2002 Screens Feature by Marc Savlov

Canis Interruptus

The Applicants

"...I asked for." After steadily receiving increases in his Cultural Contracts funding for several years, Coronado saw his funding..."

June 18, 1999 Arts Feature

Community Chest and Chance Rolled Into One

The Applicants

"...his disposal in his bid to get $32,500 from Cultural Contracts this year...."

May 28, 1999 Arts Feature

A Day at The Races.... One Hour at the Mixed Arts Panel Review Session

"...year, the Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees the Cultural Contracts Program, picks a different venue for the review..."

May 28, 1999 Arts Feature

It's a Dirty Job ...

New arts tsar Vincent Kitch rolls up his sleeves to give Austin arts funding a clean start

"...mortal, Kitch has undertaken the cleaning up of the Cultural Contracts Program, spending the past five months – his..."

April 16, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

The Big Picture

"...various problems with this year's arts funding procedures, the Cultural Contracts Program in general, and the Arts Commission's role..."

July 6, 2001 Arts Feature

A Night at The Opera: Artists Sing Out at Arts Commision

"...this salient part of our pitch for a lucrative Cultural Contract...."

June 18, 1999 Arts Feature

City Arts Funding: The Resolution

Council approves 2019 funding, ponders next move

"...FY 19 funding recommendations that the Arts Commission and Cultural Arts Division staff heroically reformulated over an intense seven..."

Oct. 12, 2018 News Feature by Robert Faires

The Tail Wags the Dog

"...One measure of how well the Cultural Contracts Program has been managed in a given year..."

July 6, 2001 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Change in the Weather

A different kind of summer for the city arts funding process

"...similarly protracted string of blistering attacks on the city's Cultural Contracts program. In years past, the panels evaluating applicants..."

Sept. 3, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Articulations

Public arts funding doesn't get much messier than the City of Austin's Cultural Contracts Program, but this year's process may go down in history as the messiest yet.

"...Public arts funding doesn't get much messier than the Cultural Contracts Program here in Austin, but this year's process..."

Sept. 13, 2002 Arts Column by Robert Faires

Shape of Things to Come

What will the arts in Austin look like in 10 years? CreateAustin has a good idea – in fact, it has 10.

"...corners of the community gathering to chat about Austin's cultural landscape as they'd like to see it 10 years..."

March 7, 2008 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

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