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.

"...over the game board in utter frustration. As the City of Austin arts funding system -- formally known as..."

Sept. 3, 1999 Arts Feature by Mary Jane Garza

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.

"...For years, the city of Austin's arts funding process has been mired in..."

Oct. 11, 2002 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Paint By Numbers

Racial Divides in Austin's Public Arts Funding

"...The City of Austin hands out money to a broad range..."

June 28, 1996 News Feature by Mike Clark-Madison

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.

"...So it was when the Austin Arts Commission convened on Tuesday, May 30. The purpose of..."

July 6, 2001 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Rancho Alegre Fundraises to Save Their Conjunto Festival During AmplifyATX

Cut from city arts funding, Alegre aims to raise 35k this week

"...feeling the effects of a change in how the city distributes Cultural Arts funding paid for by local hotel..."

Feb. 28, 2023 Music Post by Chad Swiatecki

What We Learned

What is the state of the arts in America and where does Austin fit in the mix?

"...Over six days in early June, arts leaders and arts administrators from across North America made..."

June 24, 2005 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Feedback of a Different Kind

At last week's arts funding forum, artists gave city officials an earful – but not what they expected

"...What was the most common phrase directed at city officials during last week's Cultural Funding Program public forum?..."

March 12, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Cultural Affairs Division

Vincent Kitch off to head the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs in Seattle

"...Kitch winds up seven years of working for the city of Austin on arts and cultural issues and heads..."

March 11, 2011 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

One Extreme to the Other

For every creative triumph in the Austin arts community in 2002 -- and they were plentiful -- there seemed to be a corresponding defeat, usually tied to the economic downturn and its problems for the arts community.

"...existence at extremes pretty well sums up the Austin arts scene in 2002. Austin Lyric Opera proved itself a..."

Jan. 3, 2003 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Austin @ Large: Austin at Large

City Hall's M.O. and the sins of Vision Village

"...have used its $5 million of public and private funding.Looking Backward We should also remember the context in which..."

Oct. 11, 2002 News Column by Mike Clark-Madison

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.

"...calls to mind all the worst stereotypes of the arts and its practitioners as elitists out of touch with..."

Feb. 7, 2003 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Canis Interruptus

The Applicants

"...Chinwe Odeluga photograph by Brett Brookshire Chinwe Odeluga..."

June 18, 1999 Arts Feature

To Expand the Convention Center or Not?

Despite unanimous support from City Council, voters will decide the answer

"...In March, City Council voted unanimously to move forward on a plan..."

July 19, 2019 News Feature by Michael King

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.

"...you're never likely to hear anyone on the Austin Arts Commission warbling "It Was a Very Good Year" --..."

Aug. 24, 2001 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Community Chest and Chance Rolled Into One

The Applicants

"...by Bret Brookshire A handful of artists applying for funding are being monitored as they make their way around..."

May 28, 1999 Arts Feature

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.

"...Arts Funding Turmoil..."

Sept. 13, 2002 Arts Column by Robert Faires

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

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

April 16, 2004 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Hold That Process

The Arts Commission recommends to City Council that the arts funding application process be suspended for the coming year

"...after the tempestuous close to last year's newly reformed city arts funding process, a cadre of intrepid artists and..."

April 1, 2005 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Culture Flash!

City arts funding revisions get a thumbs-up from council, theatre artists sing for cancer charities, and local playwrights meet and greet

"...big win for the Guidelines Committee and the Austin Arts Commission in the column for reforming the city's Cultural..."

Aug. 26, 2005 Arts Column by Robert Faires

Articulations

Last week for comments on the revamp of the city's cultural funding process, and chroegrapher Ann Carlson returns to UT.

"...City Arts Funding Input Deadline..."

Oct. 17, 2003 Arts Column by Robert Faires

Would You Like to Swap a Vowel?

City Council gets into its A-E-I-O-Us

"...the Texas Revolution and later served on San Antonio's City Council. That history bubbled up on our own dais..."

Oct. 5, 2018 News Feature by Nina Hernandez

Never Say Die!

Austin's arts scene plays 'the comeback kid' in 2004

"...act one. And that's pretty much where the Austin arts scene was at the end of 2003. Beaten down..."

Jan. 7, 2005 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Articulations

The consultants hired by the city to evaluate its arts funding process have submitted a report to the City Council, legendary comedy club the Velveeta Room has been replaced by Funnies, and Rob Nash brings season's greetings to Austin before an Off-Broadway run.

"...Report on City Arts Funding..."

Dec. 20, 2002 Arts Column by Robert Faires

To Expand or Not to Expand

That is the question

"...it does seem worth noting that on Monday the city's Tourism Commission finally completed the gut-busting work of electing..."

Oct. 12, 2018 News Feature by Nina Hernandez

Unkindest Cuts of All

A snapshot of the impact that this year's 31% cut in Cultural Contract funding had on 10 Austin arts companies that were on a strong growth track and had that growth in city funding abruptly reversed.

"...the impact that this year's drop in Cultural Contract funding had on Austin arts companies. In every instance below,..."

Feb. 7, 2003 Arts Feature by Robert Faires

Palmer Redo Rebuffed

"...The renovation of Palmer Auditorium into a city performing arts center -- the dream of choice of..."

Dec. 8, 1995 Arts Column

Council: Back in the Groove

Budget done, Council trudges on

"...City Council heard the first briefing on UT's long-awaited gentrification..."

Sept. 21, 2018 News Feature by Nina Hernandez

Playback: Sizing Up Music's Bite of the Hotel Tax

Two new municipal funding schemes look to finally impact Austin music

"...then give some of that money back to the city, and finally the city flows that revenue into the..."

Sept. 15, 2017 Music Column by Kevin Curtin

The Power to Change

A quick sound check with the Austin mayoral candidates

"...polled the mayoral candidates – Mayor Pro Tem Brewster McCracken,City Council member Lee Leffingwell, David Buttross, and Josiah Ingalls..."

April 30, 2009 Music Post by Austin Powell

Battle Lines Drawn Over Convention Center Expansion

CM Jimmy Flannigan and AIBA ED Rebecca Melançon don't see eye to eye

"...No sooner had City Council resolved to move forward with expanding the Austin..."

June 5, 2019 News Post by Sarah Marloff

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