Government Funding Fuels a Healthy and Resilient Arts Ecosystem
By Connie Martinez, SVCREATES’ Chief Executive Officer
SVCREATES is excited to announce the recipients of our National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan (NEA ARP) grant awards. Thank you to our federal government for helping our cultural ecosystem recover from the pandemic and its continuing challenges.
NEA funding is one example of how government support matters to our sector; as are the efforts of the County of Santa Clara and the City of San José to use one-time funds to fill the gaps in arts funding resulting from the dramatic drop in local transient occupancy tax revenues. Add PPP forgivable loans and shuttered venue grants, and the role these resources played in the survival of our arts ecosystem becomes even clearer.
I used to undervalue government’s role in funding the arts and believed that the sector was better off if it depended mostly on private donors and earned income… and corresponding revenue strategies within one’s own control. These sources of income are still very important, but I have changed my mind about government funding based on two major factors.
- The pandemic is the more obvious factor. We experienced how a world event outside of our control can bring us to our knees. We also experienced how government intervention can “make or break” a society.
- Less obvious, perhaps, is the vital role of government funding in ensuring the richness of and equitable access to a broadly diverse and culturally specific arts ecosystem.
As we move from dominant culture arts, funded primarily by donors and ticket buyers from the dominant culture, to a broadly diverse multicultural society, I believe government funding for the arts matters more now than ever. There is no longer a single rallying point for “dominant culture” donors to get behind and our breadth of diversity does not, nor did it ever, have equal access to resources. The ever-widening income gap in our region means that many communities cannot afford access to arts programming, arts education, and the preservation of their own cultural heritage. An uneven continuum of resources across Silicon Valley’s cultural diversity calls for government to prioritize its investment based on racial equity.
Funding our breadth of diversity in the arts is not only an issue of equity, but it is also a way to heal and strengthen our community. Government funding is needed to fight inequity and is also a good investment in social cohesion, placemaking, skill development, economic activity, and cross-cultural understanding. These are the important outcomes of a healthy and resilient arts ecosystem and a healthy and resilient community.
We live in a valley of entrepreneurs who believe they made it on their own when nobody makes it on their own. We sometimes forget that federal government investment in R&D for the defense industry seed funded Silicon Valley. And that Silicon Valley depends on an educated workforce, roads, utilities, and transportation systems mostly funded by government.
Bottom line: I unapologetically believe that government funding can and should fuel the success of our creative sector.
