Although attendance is coming back, donations have been flat or decreased, expenses have gone up due to inflation…and some venues have closed. Some states have used federal COVID relief money from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) to help shore up their arts nonprofits. Now the Rhode Island Coalition for the Arts has proposed something similar for the Ocean State called the Rhode Island Creative Futures Fund. Artscape producer James Baumgartner talked with David Beauchesne, executive director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Shauna Duffy, co-executive director of AS220.
This transcript was edited for length and clarity.
James Baumgartner: Shauna, David, thanks for joining me.
Shauna Duffy: Thanks for having us, James.
David Beauchesne: Thanks for having us.
Baumgartner: How much is the coalition asking for and how would that money be spent?
Beauchesne: We’re asking for 18 million dollars from the state and it would be spent in very simple ways. It would be spent to keep our staff on payroll be able to pay our staff be able to pay our artists and to pay our vendors all across the community. It’s really just being able to pay the bills we need to keep our educational programming, our performances, and for everyone else, all of the things that we do to program arts and culture for this community, to pay the cost of that while we wait for revenues to catch up with those expenses.
Baumgartner: Speaking more broadly for arts organizations across Rhode Island, will a one time infusion of cash really make a difference or is this going to be an ongoing problem for them?
Beauchesne: Yes, it will make a difference. The numbers that we’ve asked for and that we’ve mapped out, this will get us over the hump so that we can then be self-supporting again.
The Philharmonic, for example, we grew revenues 19% this year. We need two more years of that or better, and we’re on our way. But if we run out of cash before we get there, then that’s when we don’t have good answers. We can’t grow back without this support.
Baumgartner: What organizations would be eligible for this funding?
Duffy: So there are 13 named organizations and they range across the state. So that’s everything from some core organizations in downtown Providence like AS220 and Trinity Repertory Company, Providence Public Library, other organizations around Providence, but also organizations around the state like Riverzedge in Woonsocket, the United Theater down in Westerly. There’s organizations, you know, the Gamm Theatre in Warwick. So it’s across the state, but there’s also a pool of funds that’s part of this bill that is for any organization to apply for. And we’ve seen in the past when we’ve come together as a sector to form a coalition to get funding. Even when there’s a small number of named organizations, there are many more, dozens and dozens of additional organizations covering the entire state, every city and town, are able to benefit from this. And we know that across this state, this is one of the things that makes Rhode Island special is there are more organizations and more communities that are benefiting from arts and culture in their communities, not just in Providence, that they will all benefit from this and be able to keep their communities strong and vibrant and worth living in.
Beauchesne: Well look at what, arts and culture has done for the Main Street in Westerly with, you know, just with the rumor that the United Theater was going to reopen, businesses started opening up and now that it’s there, Westerly is a vibrant hub for arts and culture and it was not before. And you can say the same thing about what happened in downtown Providence with the investments made in PPAC, Trinity Rep, AS220, they changed the culture of downcity. And that’s at risk now, if we see those organizations crippled or worse, going away.
Baumgartner: David, the coalition has patterned this proposal on what some other states have done, Massachusetts and Tennessee. What can you tell me about those programs?
Beauchesne: Correct. Yeah. Massachusetts and Tennessee are great examples. Vermont’s another one. Oregon, many, many states have done this. What they’ve done is, they came together with their arts community and assessed need and created funds that they thought would be enough to meet the need in their states.
Our ask is proportional to what we’ve seen in other states. When you look at what we are as a percentage of this state’s GDP versus those other states. So the arts and culture sector is 3.5 percent of GDP in Rhode Island. We are responsible for roughly 18,000 jobs in the state. We generate over 32 million a year in tax revenue just for the state alone.
The 13 named organizations in this bill alone generate 23 million in state and local tax revenue. So we are a significant part of this economy. What we also know is that if we don’t get this investment on time, all of those jobs are in jeopardy. All of that economic impact is in jeopardy.
Baumgartner: Many industries suffered during the pandemic and have had a hard time coming back. We can think of all the restaurants that have closed, just as an example. Why do you think ARPA money should be used for supporting the arts rather than any other industry?
Duffy: Many other industries have received support, so it’s not either or. But particularly because of the ecosystem that the arts sector is so critical to, arts is not just arts. You know, art is important for art’s sake, but art is jobs, art is education, art is small business. At AS220, there are many restaurants, bars, hotels that also rely on the arts and culture being strong. So these are things, you know, if you invest that maybe directly in, say, hotels, that helps hotels. That’s great, but that doesn’t have the same ripple effect that the arts and culture have where it impacts all these other businesses in the ecosystem around them. For Rhode Island, it is arts and culture that is the thing that multiplies around communities.
Beauchesne: When you look at the choices that the state has made in terms of how it has expended ARPA dollars, right, $1.2 billion. One of the biggest things they’ve done so far was put 100 million into the State Unemployment Trust Fund. I think we can all understand that’s worthwhile, that needs to be funded properly. But as we’ve seen funds be reallocated, the latest request from the governor was to reallocate another 24 million to the State’s Unemployment Trust Fund. I would argue before you top up, part of an important part of state government that has already received significant resources from ARPA, you address a large sector, an important sector of our economy that so far has gotten zero. And again, was the most impacted during the pandemic. So we were disproportionately impacted. We could have argued for more than that. 1.5 percent of what the state received, even though we’re 3.5 percent of GDP. It’s a reasonable ask. They cannot say the money isn’t there. It is there. They are making different choices about how to use it. They are setting different priorities and they are excluding a sector that was the most impacted.
Baumgartner: People who support the arts, people who value the arts, what are you asking them to do?
Duffy: For people who support the arts, there’s two really important things they can do. On Tuesday, May 28th, there’s a rally at the State House, so we will be at the State House. David and I will be there and leaders from across the state, from arts organizations, people from our communities, and we’re going to be there in the State House talking with each other about why this is important, and then trying to talk directly to our legislators to make sure that they understand that this is important to communities.
So, we’re asking people to come out on Tuesday, be there with us, and we’ll have a speaking program and then we’re going to talk to legislators. If you can’t make it on Tuesday, or even if you can, we also need everybody to go to riartsfund.org, fill out the action form to let your legislators know that this is important to you.
And if you can make phone calls, write personal letters and emails to connect with legislators if you, you know, we’re in Rhode Island, so our legislators are our neighbors. We have direct access to our legislators and we need people to let them know that this is important. So again, come on Tuesday, May 28th to the Statehouse and take action. Let your legislators know this is important to you.
Beauchesne: Three o’clock. Three p.m. at the Statehouse. Let everyone know the arts matter to you.
Baumgartner: David Beauchesne from the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Shauna Duffy from AS220. Thank you both so much for joining me.
Duffy: Thanks for having us, James.
Beauchesne: Thank you, James.
