City Council and staff continue to face the daunting challenge of balancing community needs, services - and the budget. After a brief hiatus to observe the national holiday, much work will need to be done during July to move the budget process forward.

In mid-August, the City Manager is expected to present a budget for Council study and review.

One month later, in mid-September, Council is scheduled to vote on a proposed budget.

The Arts Council and its grant recipients are non-profit organizations but that does not negate the fact that the agency and its constituents are businesses. And like any business, we generate goods and services in response to public demand and, in so doing, we fuel our economy. The competitive advantage the arts enjoy - and which should raise the significance of their economic contribution - is the creative energy they add to the community

The creative arts are where Fort Worth can find its competitive advantage.

The Arts Council manages multiple programs reaching numerous constituencies:

• Under contract with the City, the Arts Council manages the Fort Worth Public Art Program. The social and economic impact of projects like the Lancaster Avenue of Lights is clearly evident .
• Under contract with the City, the Arts Council manages the Community Arts Center, a CFW property. In April 2009, the CAC saw more than 10,000 visitors through its doors, drawn either by events at the theaters, exhibits in the galleries or lunch at our partner cafe.
• The Arts Council administers an annual grant program, funding more than 35 applications from eligible 501(c)3 arts organizations whose programs will reach a combined 1.4 million people in 2009.
• At the request of the City, the Arts Council administers a Neighborhood Arts Program, funding another 25 arts outreach programs estimated to reach 233,000 youth in 2009.

By contracting with the Arts Council to provide management services that would otherwise have to be done by city staff, the City realizes cost savings that it would lose if it were to stop funding these outsourcing agreements.

According to a local economic impact study by Deloitte & Touche, the estimated economic impact of the arts in the city of Fort Worth was $241 million in 2006, including is $21.35 in ancillary spending by each arts event attendee. Eliminating funding for the Arts Council’s grant program would reduce the number of events produced.

Financial support of the Arts Council is a fair and impartial way for the City to support the wide diversity of programming local arts groups provide, from symphonies and operas to in-school theatre productions aimed at reducing peer pressure and increasing self esteem.

The City helped initiate the Arts Council’s Neighborhood Arts grant program because there was a perceived inaccessibility to the arts in lower-income communities. Without continued city support of NAP, it is likely that several NAP programs will not be available to schools and community centers in 2010.

Targeted toward lower-income and underserved communities, in 2008 nineteen grant-funded programs reached an audience of 274,000 individuals (including 187,000 youth), of which: 42% were Hispanic, 24% Black, 23% White, 6% Multi-racial, 3% Asian and 1% American Indian.

The Arts Council’s grant program provides financial support for arts organizations of all sizes and all disciplines. In 2009, volunteer grant panels deliberated (staff facilitates the meeting only) and awarded operating support to 33 eligible organizations and 28 received project support.

Current, comprehensive guidelines for the 2010 Grant Program Year are online for review at artsfortworth.org/?grants/grantapply/.

Grant funding is not de facto; the Arts Council is a good steward of public monies:

• tasking a diverse panel of qualified volunteers with application review and adjudication;
• including a member of City Budget Office staff on each grant review panel for thorough financial statement review;
• requiring quarterly as well as year-end reports from grant recipients;
• operating with a G&A ratio of only 20%. (By contract, the Arts Council is obligated to incur no more than 25% G&A costs.)

In FY 2009, the Arts Council dedicated $489,000 toward funding activities within the guidelines of the Neighborhood Arts Program. The Neighborhood Arts Program was created in 1992 with initial funding from the NEA and the City of Fort Worth. Targeted toward lower-income and underserved communities, in 2008 nineteen grant-funded programs reached an audience of 274,000 individuals (including 187,000 youth), of which: 42% were Hispanic, 24% Black, 23% White, 6% Multi-racial, 3% Asian and 1% American Indian.

During Oct-Dec 2008, NAP programs were presented in schools (qualified based on a minimum percentage of students participating in the free lunch program):

• 11 Northside, 6 Southside, 12 Eastside and 9 Westside.

During the busy academic time of Jan-Mar 2009, NAP reached:

• 4 Northside, 7 Southside, 9 Eastside and 6 Westside.

In 2008, almost a million people were touched by Arts Council grant recipient programs. In 2009, our audience is growing: Arts Council grant recipients are projected to reach 1.4 million individuals total - including 297,000 (233,000 of them youth) through NAP funded programming. In just the first quarter of 2009, these programs reached 268,000 young people already - through after-school programs, many of which follow TAKS and TEKS guidelines.

As a service provider for the City of Fort Worth (managing its public art program and operations of the Community Arts Center) and as a funding organization for established nonprofits, the Arts Council is positioned as the "expert" on the advancement of the arts in our community.

The Arts Council is actively engaged in developing partnerships and collaborations, between arts organizations as well as with other, non-arts specific agencies in order to capitalize on the strength of Fort Worth’s strong cultural base.

In 2009, the Arts Council partnered with the CVB on the creation of a museum pass for (hotel-staying) visitors, with Historic Fort Worth and the United Way to identify a potential, new charitable recipient of a neglected historic property, with the FWISD to program and implement professional development workshops for teachers, with the Star-Telegram to provide content for its specialty publication, and with other "residents" of the Cultural District to market and present the fourth, free Day in the District... and, coming in late 2009/2010, with Texas Wesleyan University to produce free workshops on art law for individual artists.

Thank you for your support of the arts in Fort Worth – past, present and future. Fort Worth is a city built upon cowboys and culture.

About the Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
The Arts Council was established in 1963 to provide funding and leadership to stimulate and assure the advancement of the arts throughout our community. Today’s Arts Council is a dynamic, multi-faceted, arts agency serving artists, arts organizations and the community with programs that help shape the arts. Under contract by the City of Fort Worth to manage both Fort Worth Public Art and the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, and grantmaker to more than 40 eligible nonprofits reaching more than one million patrons annually, Arts Council programs have a significant impact on the quality of life in Fort Worth. At the Arts Council, “We make art happen!”

For more information, please contact the Arts Council directly or visit www.artsfortworth.org.

We Make Art Happen