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Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 budget would slash State Arts Board funding by 73 percent, drastically reducing spending in a state that ranks among the lowest in arts grants.  The grants, which are spread throughout the state, went to 60 different Milwaukee organizations and projects in fiscal year 2011. Former Lieutenant Gov. Barbara Lawton, who still serves a chair of the board, says the cuts will severely hurt a program important to attracting new businesses to the state.

Currently, the Arts Board exists as a separate state entity, governed by a 15-member board composed of representatives from around the state, appointed by the governor for three-year terms. Under Walker’s budget, the Arts Board would be disbanded and reformed as a program within the state Department of Tourism. Lawton describes this as a precarious arrangement, saying that the arts funding left intanct by the budget – which would be classified as “marketing” funding under the Tourism Department – could be used for non-arts purposes.

“Woman Spinning Wool” by Wisconsin Artist John Stevenson

The Arts Board, which currently enjoys statutory protections as a separate state agency, would lose them and become “greatly at risk for a change of focus,” she says.

In an email, Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said the funds transferred to the Tourism Department “will still be available for promotion of the arts.”

He added, “At a time when the state is facing a multibillion dollar budget deficit, we felt it was reasonable to move some of the taxpayer resources that are currently available exclusively for promotion of the arts,” suggesting that using the money for non-arts purposes would be possible.

Lawton says the Arts Board and the Tourism Department are already collaborating, but she opposes consolidating them. “They provide very different services, but they’re complementary.”

Walker’s budget would preserve $500,900 a year in state funds for arts grants, according to the Arts Board, and the state is still expected to receive $524,500 a year in federal arts funding. In fiscal year 2011, the board has awarded about $2 million in grants, including $655,440 to projects and organizations in Milwaukee County, such as the African American Children’s Theatre, the Bel Canto Chorus, Danceworks, Latino Arts Inc., the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Public Television Friends Inc. and the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts.

In moving the board’s functions to the Tourism Department, Walker’s budget would also cut six of the department’s ten positions. In total, the Arts Board, which voted earlier this month to oppose Walker’s proposed changes, would lose 73 percent of its state funding, it estimates.

Meanwhile, the budget pumps up the money available to the department for marketing the state as a travel destination from $9.9 million in fiscal year 2011 to $12.5 million in fiscal year 2012 and $15 million by fiscal year 2013. Included in these increases is the Arts Board funding.

barbara lawton

Lawton argues that state arts funding is “a catalytic force in communities and regions” that makes them more attractive to prospective businesses. While promoting the arts sector of Wisconsin’s economy, it also makes the state more attractive to prospective employers.

“This also is essential infrastructure,” she says. “To lose such an important agency whose roles is not duplicated anywhere else in state government will have a tremendous impact on the economic development outlook of the state.”

Wisconsin’s arts funding has been historically low. According to a recent Arts Board report, it ranks 38th in the country when calculated on a per capita basis. “It hardly even qualifies as dust on the budget,” the former lieutenant governor says.

A likely casualty of the proposed Arts Board downsizing would be the state’s poet laureate. As reported in NewsBuzz, the position, funded by a $2,000 yearly stipend from the Arts Board, appears to be marked for elimination. It’s maintained by a gubernatorial executive order begun originally by Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1995. The order must be renewed – but Walker has said he plans not to renew it.

The current laureate, Bruce Dethlefsen, has said he plans to carry on “until someone stops me.”

The situation prompted a tongue-in-cheek story from The Onion’s A.V. Club: “In the past, this nefarious, beret-clad program bilked Wisconsin taxpayers to the tune of a cool $2,000 a year and put them in dangerous proximity of folks who were thinking about releasing a chapbook sometime in the spring. No longer, proud Wisconsinites. No longer.”

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