Dim picture painted for arts funding

California’s state arts agency faces another year of bare subsistence under the 2004-05 budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He plans to spend the same $3.1 million that currently places the Golden State last in the nation in per-capita arts spending by state governments.

California spends about 9 cents per citizen, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. The national average is $1.15 per capita.

The California Arts Council has seen its spending authority plummet from a high of more than $30 million in 2000-01, and has ceased making grants to arts groups, individual artists and arts education programs. The only grants issued this fiscal year have been $10,000 payments to local arts commissions in nine rural counties, said arts council spokesman Adam Gottlieb.

The arts council, he said, is “rethinking how the agency can function,” with an eye to providing coaching in lieu of cash. One idea is a speakers’ bureau of experts who would consult with arts organizations on how best to build audiences and revenue.

Schwarzenegger’s arts budget allocates $1.08 million from the state’s general fund, $893,000 from a voluntary license-plate program in which aficionados pay extra to support the arts, $963,000 in federal grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and $197,000 in reimbursements for services.

Arts partisans in the Legislature will try to persuade the governor to up the ante considerably by the time a final budget is passed, said David Link, an aide to State Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena), who chairs the Joint Legislative Committee on the Arts.