Stimulus Money Going to Georgia Arts Programs and Agencies

ATLANTA, Ga. -- At the Center for Puppetry Arts in midtown Atlanta earlier this year, the layoff ax was about to swing through the 60-person staff.

The recession was getting worse. Donations were decreasing to arts organizations, everywhere.

Then -- the center received a federal stimulus grant of $50,000.

"This will make up for a shortfall that we will have in our fundraising, which will allow us to keep staff in place -- through this stimulus package," the center's executive director, Vincent Anthony, told 11Alive News.

IN DEPTH: 11Alive's Stimulus Tracking Page

Stimulus funding -- for the arts?

The National Endowment for the Arts is distributing $50 Million of stimulus cash, nationwide, and $949,000 of that is going to arts organizations in Georgia this year. The money is in addition to the grants that the NEA already awards annually.

The $949,000 is less than 0.01 percent [one one-hundredth of one percent] of the $9.7 Billion in federal stimulus money that Georgia is likely to receive, in all.

Critics like Kelly McCutchen of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation in Atlanta call that a waste, no matter how relatively small the amount is.

"Our concern is where you draw the line. How about movie theater owners and restaurants?" McCutchen said.

But others like Susan Weiner of the Governor's Council for the Arts say the arts permeate life.

"The arts are as much a part of our nation's economic engine as a trucker, a school teacher."

Among the stimulus recipients in Georgia:

The Governor's Council for the Arts $342,000
The Fulton County Arts Council $250,000
[Those two agencies are distributing the money to arts organizations across Georgia that were already in compliance with NEA funding requirements]

Center for Puppetry Arts $50,000
The Atlanta Ballet $50,000
The Woodruff Arts Center $50,000
The National Black Arts Festival $50,000
Phoenix Theater Academy $50,000
The UGA Georgia Museum $50,000
Sautee Nacoochee Center $50,000
Atlanta Contemporary Art Center $25,000

The current debate over stimulus funding for the arts resembles the age-old debate -- should taxpayers have to contribute, through their government, any funding for the arts.

"Nothing against the arts," McCutchen said, "but it is not a core function of government. And with this stimulus, we've got to prioritize. Georgia families, their tax dollars, are very precious. And we need to make sure that government is a good steward of those tax dollars. We could be reducing furloughs for teachers, we could be funding free clinics for people that have lost their insurance, we could be funding roads and bridges to address our traffic congestion problems. These all create jobs, but they're also core government functions, and that's really the test that we need to use."

"Artists are entrepreneurs," Weiner said, "they're small business owners." They have families they need to support, incomes they have to earn, insurance they have to pay, she added. "They pay FICA tax, 100 percent of it. They pay income taxes to the state and the federal governments, they pay sales taxes when they buy things, and if they own their own home, or a business location, they pay property taxes.... To single them out as not worthy is to deny their participation when they deserve our respect as artists, as art companies, for what they give this country intrinsically, as well as the dollars that help pay to keep this country moving."

The federal government is imposing tough, IRS-style auditing to account for every stimulus penny spent on the arts.

"We're a service to the community," said Anthony. The Center for Puppetry Arts works with the public schools in Georgia, designing and performing original, educational plays that are part of the public school curriculum.

"Kids learning about math or science, for example -- our work is always tied into the core curriculum. We have hundreds of thousands of people coming here every year" for the educational programs and for the entertainment programs. "Non-profits serve the community. We're not motivated by profit, by getting profits to our shareholders. We're motivated by serving as many people as possible. And funds like this all go toward serving people."

Weiner expects that with the share of the funding she is responsible for distributing across the state -- $342,000 -- she expects to save up to 40 arts jobs, through June, 2010. Each person whose job was saved from that $342,000 is making an average salary of less than $9,000 from the stimulus money.

"People who work in the arts industry and in non-profits," Anthony said, "generally don't make as much as other folks do in other areas, in other sectors. So, in actuality, we use the [stimulus] money, really, very wisely, and save many more jobs than would normally be saved in some other sector."

Georgia has not yet counted how many jobs, in all, will be saved by the $949,000 in overall, federal stimulus funds for the arts in Georgia.