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- Rekha Basu
Fairy Queen Tatania (ballerina Karina Barone) with King Theseus (Lorenzo Sandoval).
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Any entrepreneur will tell you that to make money, you have to spend some. Many Republican leaders have been telling us this, citing the need to offer incentives to create jobs to bring in more tax revenues to reduce welfare and unemployment costs.
With that in mind, it's hard to fathom why the Republican-controlled Iowa House of Representatives wants to end funding to a 21-year-old jobs-creation program for the arts. The program is administered by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and is credited with creating thousands of jobs and leveraging many times its costs in matching funds.
The Iowa Community Cultural Grants program was created in 1990 during Gov. Terry Branstad's earlier tenure. Its objective is to provide matching grants to non-profit arts organizations, tribal councils, local governments and other entities for projects. These projects enhance Iowa's artistic, cultural and historical resources while also creating jobs which Iowans fill. Awards range from $1,000 to $25,000, and every dollar received must be matched either financially by the receiving agency or its sponsor or in goods and services by other organizations.
Loss goes beyond just the jobs
By leveraging a minimum of one dollar for each one received or the equivalent, these grants also lead to the creation of other jobs, according to the Department of Cultural Affairs. For example, in 2010, the state's $264,500 allocation resulted in 144 part-time and 13 full-time jobs. That was matched by cash awards of $803,625 and in-kind matches worth $212,466. The previous year, the state spent $327,420, resulting in cash matches of $803,101 and in-kind matches worth $94,928.
The program was originally funded at $1 million, but it has typically been below $300,000 in recent years. Branstad had allocated $257,000 for it this year.
Given its success and value, it's absolutely self-defeating - and somewhat baffling - for lawmakers to want to scrap it. The loss would go well beyond job development. It would mean a loss of cultural vitality around the state as these projects allow communities to showcase their cultural heritage.
These organizations are too small to qualify for National Endowment for the Arts funding. They include zoos, county historical societies and a jazz festival. Recipients have included a project to document the Women's Army Corps at Fort Des Moines, a storytelling festival in Cerro Gordo County, an arts and cultural affairs coordinator in Dubuque, and a Bosnian Cultural Foundation in Waterloo.
Program has Branstad's support
Mary Tiffany Cownie, Branstad's appointee to head the cultural affairs department, credited him for including the grant program in his budget recommendation. She said in a statement, "Given the governor's priority to create more jobs, the ICCG program would help him achieve that goal."
Robin Heinemann is executive director of the Iowa Shakespeare Experience, which produces free Shakespeare plays and has received grants of up to $21,250 from the program. Ending it would easily cost her non-profit 25 current part-time positions and another 30 hoped for this season for actors, visual artists and others, she says. Instead of full-length plays, they'd probably have to do monologues and songs.
More broadly, Heinemann says the program has served as a link between the arts and economic development, noting, "We see this as a significant disconnect from the numerous economic development goals which the Legislature touts."
Any funding cuts to the arts in Iowa are a blow because arts have historically been budgeted low here compared to other states.
This isn't a Democratic or Republican issue. Everyone benefits from the arts and jobs. If you agree, contact your legislators and urge them not to vote for the amended bill, Senate File 517, and to fund the Iowa Community Cultural Grants program at the level Branstad has proposed.
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