Council set to amend DC budget in response to community worries about arts panel’s loss of dedicated funding, independence

The DC Council’s newly released draft budget plan addresses many of the community concerns raised about Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed changes to the independence and grant-making policies of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

The proposal — part of the budget the full council will vote on today — adheres to the reasoning set out in the budget report issued May 2 by the council’s Committee of the Whole, led by Chairman Phil Mendelson. “The Committee believes the Commission should be an independent body that can make decisions on grants and policies without the undue influence of the Executive or the Council,” the report says. Of the mayor’s apparent attempt to assert more authority, the Committee of the Whole writes: “This would be an ill-advised move as it will diminish community engagement.”

To bolster the independence of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH), the council’s draft Budget Support Act also sets specific new qualifications for the board’s mayoral appointees and authorizes the commission to select the executive director “with the advice and consent” of the DC Council. Additionally, the commission will select its own chair annually. Bowser had previously sought to bring the independent agency under the mayor’s authority, although that wasn’t directly proposed by her budget submission.

The council’s action responds to calls from many local artists, including more than 150 who gathered late last month to discuss the city’s approach to arts funding after Bowser proposed changes in her draft 2020 budget.

Local artists at the forum, held April 29 at the Eaton Hotel and Workshop downtown, offered little praise for Bowser’s plan and highlighted three major priorities: removing the emphasis on loans envisioned in the Cultural Plan, retaining the independence of the commission, and restoring the commission’s dedicated funding to 0.3 percent of the city’s 6 percent sales tax.

If adopted by the council at today’s meeting, Mendelson’s budget would restore the hard-fought dedicated funding for DCCAH that was written into law by the council last year but repealed in the mayor’s budget. That amounts to $34.5 million in fiscal year 2020, according to the draft budget report released by the council Monday night.

Even though the return of a dedicated funding stream didn’t mean any extra funding for the commission in 2020, Mendelson’s restoration of the dedicated funding drew praise from at-large Council member David Grosso at the council’s Committee of the Whole budget markup May 2. Grosso said it would have been “quite an understatement” to say he was disappointed when he saw that the dedicated funding for DCCAH was not included in the mayor’s budget.

Mendelson’s budget would also restructure DCCAH’s grant-making functions by requiring it to allocate 77 percent of its budget to grants. Those grants would go toward directly to artists; fund the purchase or renovation of arts facilities; or pay for the production and presentation of arts and humanities.

Mendelson said he believes these changes will help bring more transparency and stability to the commission’s operations and budget while also improving engagement with the DC arts community.

At-large Council member Anita Bonds agreed and said the mayor’s repeal of the dedicated funding was more “anxiety-inducing and worrisome than beneficial.”

Mendelson called for a public hearing on the implementation of the city’s Cultural Plan, released this April, that details strategies to build the DC arts community’s infrastructure and programming. He also removed the mayor’s proposed allocation of $8.4 million for initiatives in accord with the Cultural Plan, most of which was redirected from DCCAH’s current budget to fund two loan programs — the Cultural Facilities Fund for “large-scale capital support” and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Loan Fund for artists and groups “to launch innovative programming and develop new impactful projects,” according to the mayor’s budget proposal.

The council’s draft budget report calls for those funds to go instead toward the $26.5 million allocation for arts and humanities grants, which would fall into four categories: Facilities and Buildings Grantmaking, the National Capital Arts Cohort, the Arts and Humanities Cohort, and a new Humanities Grant Program (with the latter category to be administered by Humanities DC). Regarding the Cultural Plan, it calls for the Office of Planning to assemble a previously arranged steering committee with an eye toward implementation in fiscal year 2021.

Many artists at the April 29 meeting blasted the Cultural Plan as “tone-deaf” and criticized the decision to include loans. Bowser’s programs were aimed at helping artists and cultural organizations gain access to credit through more favorable means than credit cards or bank loans.

DC artist Adrienne Gaither, a DCCAH grant recipient this year, said she believed the loan funds should instead go toward grants. “Artists are just trying to produce their work; they’re not trying to create more debt for themselves,” she said in an interview.

At the May 2 budget markup, Grosso said he appreciated the chairman’s call for a hearing on the Cultural Plan, saying he was “frustrated” at how it was rolled out even though he sees merit in some of its proposals. “I hope the public makes no mistake, the council is committed to implementation of the Cultural Plan in a thoughtful, deliberative, and meaningful way,” he said.

The community’s questions about funding grants came amid uncertainty about who would be approving them. Currently, DCCAH’s volunteer commissioners, a group of 17 mayoral appointees, administer millions of dollars in grants to DC artists and art organizations each year.

Last year, legislation from the mayor’s office was introduced that would turn the commission into a Department of Arts and Humanities. Under that structure, the mayor’s appointed executive director would have had authority over daily operations, with commissioners serving in an advisory role. The council did not move forward on the legislation, however, and the council’s budget report this year expressed “concern” that the authority and powers of the commission were already being undermined. For instance, the report said the commissioners were not consulted in drafting the mayor’s budget proposal.

Commissioner Josef Palermo, himself an artist, said in an interview that he heard over and over from community members at the April 28 forum that they wanted the commission to retain its independence and power. “We don’t want bureaucrats making these decisions for the arts community,” said Palermo, a Ward 1 resident. “We want the arts community to be able to present what we know is best for us.”

Council members seemed to agree, as Mendelson’s recommendations aim to protect the commission’s independence and grant-making authority. Grosso and Bonds both said they were “excited” about the commission’s independence.

This post has been updated to correct the photo captions.