Uma Ramiah Photo
Yo-Yo Ma headlines at the 2011 Arts & Ideas.
Yay! New Haven arts groups got some new state money.
Boo! New Haven arts groups stand to lose a lot of state money.
That’s the funding picture for the not-for-profits that keep New Haven’s arts engine thriving and make the city a soulful, interesting place to live and work and play.
First the good news: Some 20 of the city’s arts not-for-profits have received grants ranging from $2,500 (Clinton Avenue School’s arts program) to $72,000 (Artspace). The city government also got a $100,000 for arts leadership programming. In all, city groups collected $461,370. The grants came from a new arts “placemaking” program launched by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. (Click here and here to read about that.) New Haven state Sens. Marty Looney and Toni Harp issued a release Wednesday breaking down the city recipients from the broader state program.
“These grants will help bolster our thriving, vibrant local artistic organizations that contribute to the social fabric that helps make New Haven a great place to live,” Looney stated in the release.
Quoth Harp: “New Haven has a well-deserved reputation as a statewide hub for excellent music and fine arts – perhaps best captured by its annual International Festival of Arts and Ideas – and this state funding will help perpetuate that image.”
The holiday season cheer may soon give way to cold reality when the state legislature reconvenes in January. The state is running a budget this fiscal year estimated at as high as $415 million. The governor and legislative leaders are working on dramatic budget cuts that promise to spread lots of pain all around. They also have to grapple with a larger looming deficit for the next fiscal year, which could mean fewer celebratory announcements of grant money.
David Sepulveda Photo
Broken Umbrella performs for a crowd on Blake Street.
But for now, here’s who has some dough to get busy with, according to the senators’ release:
New Haven Symphony Orchestra $5,000
Hugo Kauder Society $4,000
Artspace, Inc. $5,000
Classical Contemporary Ballet Theatre $3,690
Clinton Avenue School $2,500
Elm City Dance Collective, Inc. $3,600
Music Haven $5,000
New Haven Ballet $5,000
New Haven Festivals $5,000
9arts $25,000
Hugo Kauder Society $20,000
New Haven Chorale $25,000
Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven, Inc. $25,000
A Broken Umbrella $43,790
Architecture Resource Center $60,000
Artspace, Inc. $72,000
City of New Haven $100,000
COOP Center for Creativity $25,000
Creative Arts Workshop, Inc. $20,410
Music Haven $6,380 (shown performing with the St. Luke’s Steel Band in the video below)
Good to see my tax money going to something useful. The arts should be privately funded. All public money should go to public works projects, security and safety.