Get Art Funding Out of Cellar

With its $20-million annual budget, the California Arts Council supports artists and nonprofit arts programs throughout the state, but when measured per capita that support is a shame. If California were a country, it would be the seventh-richest in the world. But on average the California government spends less than 50 cents per person annually to support the arts, and this in a state replete with artistic talent. New York, in comparison, spends $2.50.

Gov. Gray Davis now has an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to arts education by backing more funding for the California Arts Council, which is asking for an additional $14 million to raise its budget to $34 million for the 2000-01 fiscal year.

For more than 20 years, the California Arts Council has supported artistic organizations and artists who perform at schools and festivals throughout the state, broadening students’ exposure to the arts. Working with its woefully limited budget, the council manages to supplement and enrich programs serving hundreds of thousands of students statewide.

Not too long ago, California’s teacher- education curriculum included music and visual arts right along with math, language and sciences. By the 1970s, arts teaching in schools had fallen into general decline. Music and the visual arts became elective subjects, and the number of teachers capable of teaching them diminished dramatically. A noted casualty was the school orchestra, now on its way to extinction.

The California Arts Council cannot by itself reverse the decline in arts education, but its members continue to sponsor performances and workshops on campuses. The artist-in-residence programs send an artist to selected school campuses once a week, and there are several programs designed to train regular classroom teachers in the arts.

Increasing the state contribution to the California Arts Council budget is a sound investment. To receive a council grant, an organization must match it with private funds. With a projected 2000 surplus of $3 billion, California surely can afford to invest $14 million to increase the funding for arts programs that benefit us all.